Keith L.Whittingham, Ph.D.

Crummer affords me an opportunity to teach at an institution that truly values the faculty-student interaction and is flexible enough to meet the changing demands of the complex business world. Our faculty strives to readily connect the latest research in our various areas to current teaching in the classroom, leading to a highly practical MBA.

Keith Whittingham is an Associate Professor of Management Science and Corporate Sustainability at Rollins College, where he teaches elective courses and leads consulting projects in the area of  Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility. He also teaches the core MBA course in Data Analysis. His research interests include sustainable enterprise development and societal progress (with a focus in the developing world) and related studies in management and international business. 

Keith’s academic research focuses on the role of corporations in achieving global societal impact, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and includes studies of collaborative efforts to address the challenges facing small producers in the developing world, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has published research articles in Business & Society, Business Research Quarterly, the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, and the Journal of Education for Business, among other journals. He has earned a Best Paper award from DSI and multiple research awards for conference presentations, including one from the Academy of International business. 

Raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Whittingham acquired an early interest in global sustainable development. His studies in engineering (BSEE Howard University, Ph.D. Cornell University) led to interests in renewable energy and developed skills in innovation and problem solving. Prior to joining the Crummer Faculty, Dr. Whittingham held management positions in manufacturing, research and development and strategic business development at Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies. However, it is during the last two decades of working with MBA students that he has become a strong proponent of enterprise and entrepreneurship as powerful vehicles in addressing global social concerns. 

Over the past twenty years, Dr. Whittingham has traveled internationally with several groups of MBA students to work with small enterprises through Rollins Global Consulting Projects and to study sustainability as part of his course, Global Sustainability: Strategies for the Americas. With a teaching philosophy that can be summarized as “Inspire, Engage, Unleash”, he coached 5 consecutive teams of Crummer students to unmatched success in the Nespresso Global MBA Sustainability Challenge, and has advised numerous impactful student team consulting projects. 

In addition to his teaching role, Dr. Whittingham is founder of two ventures, in the areas of direct-trade coffee and sustainable travel. He is active in several local organizations and has been elected to serve as Chair-Elect of the governing board of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce in 2025.