Mona Anita Olsen

Mona Anita K. Olsen is a visiting assistant professor and the assistant academic director of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship.

Olsen teaches courses in entrepreneurship. She is the recipient of a Small Private Online Class (SPOC) Grant from the Office of the Vice Provost for her course Technology for Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship, and of the Zalaznick Teaching Assistantship Award. Olsen also serves as the project director for the Coleman Faculty Fellows Entrepreneurship Program at Cornell, and as the Cornell representative for the International Academic Partnership Program Norway.

Prior to joining the SHA faculty, Olsen was a U.S. Fulbright Grantee to Norway. She was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship in education by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. While in Norway, Olsen continued to build the growing structure for the educational nonprofit, iMADdu, which she founded in 2010. iMADdu stands for "I Make A Difference, Do you?" and empowers young entrepreneurs through mentoring and participation in its Student Apprenticeship Program.

Previously, Olsen was the assistant director of the Mason Small Business Development Center in the Mason Enterprise Center at the Office of Research & Economic Development at George Mason University. She also worked as a worldwide sales analyst for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Olsen received her PhD from the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University. She holds a master's in management of information technology from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce, and a Bachelor of Science with distinction from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.