Deborah Cours joined the Board in 2006 and was appointed chair of the development committee. Her association with the CHIME Institute began in 1999 when the first of her two daughters enrolled at the California State University, Northridge Child and Family Studies Center Lab School, a CHIME partner. Both daughters currently attend the CHIME Institute’s Arnold Schwarzenegger Community School. Dr. Cours is a professor of marketing in the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and serves as the director of Graduate and Evening Programs. She has demonstrated leadership in her field in many ways. As interim director of the Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center (SBDC) from 2003-2004, she was the principal investigator on a $1.7 million grant that founded the SBCD at CSUN and managed a budget of $2.4 million. Dr. Cours was the founding director of the Wells Fargo Center for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. She created the Center and successfully sought a $1 million endowment from Wells Fargo, increasing its curriculum for community service learning partnerships through client-based projects. She mentors business students in experiential and community service learning. She has been recognized by the City and County of Los Angeles and as a member of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s “Top 40 Under 40” for her contributions to small business assistance.

Her service to the community includes active involvement with several local chambers of commerce and other small business and entrepreneurship interest groups. She is an active volunteer at her church.

Dr. Cours received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in management (marketing) from the University of California, Los Angeles.