UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Smeal College of Business has announced the appointment of Travis Lesser as the new director of the Center for the Business of Sustainability, effective July 1, 2025.
As director, Lesser will oversee outreach initiatives, research collaborations and curriculum integration.
“I love working with young people,” Lesser said. “I want to try to do that for as long as I possibly can. I hope to be in a spot in several years where this center is still a high-performing center and is still creating value for students, connecting them to alumni and careers where they can feel fulfilled.”
The Center for the Business of Sustainability began in 2008 from informal conversations led by then Senior Associate Dean of Research Dr. Gerald Susman. Today, it serves as a hub for research, curriculum development and corporate partnerships focused on responsible leadership.
“We’re trying to create resilient, sustainable businesses,” Lesser said. “We do that through research with our talented faculty by embedding sustainability into our curriculum and by working with corporate partners who prove you can be a successful Fortune 500 company and still follow these practices.”
Lesser brings a decade of experience at Penn State and a deep commitment to sustainable business practices. Originally from St. Marys, Pennsylvania, Lesser’s career began in golf. After earning a degree in business administration with a concentration in professional golf management from Methodist University in North Carolina, he worked with a junior golf tour and later the U.S. Golf Association. He shifted focus and earned his MBA from Smeal in 2014.
Since then, Lesser has taught entrepreneurship courses at Penn State and launched several ventures, including a golf course consulting firm, a garden bed company and Appalachian Food Works, a nonprofit food hub founded in 2018 to connect local growers with restaurants in Centre County.
In 2022, he joined Penn State as a full-time instructor, teaching courses on socially responsible business, entrepreneurial mindset and social entrepreneurship.
“Smeal students are special,” he said. “Not only do they get a great education, they’re already intelligent and can thrive in an environment that’s truly unique.”
Sustainability is a strategic priority for Smeal and a topic that increasingly permeates the educational experiences, research activities, outreach and operations of the college. The Center for the Business of Sustainability aligns with Smeal’s vision to be one of the very best business schools in the world. It produces leading-edge business research brought to life in active learning environments by an outstanding faculty and prepares graduates for productive careers in business.
“We’ve gone from saying sustainability is about cost savings and doing the right thing to realizing you can actually make a profit by changing these practices,” Lesser said.