Greg Braxton-Brown, dean of Southeast Indiana Programs and a professor of management, will endow a $25,000 gift to Indiana University East to establish a scholarship in the name of Tim Scales, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, director for the Center for Economic Education and senior lecturer of business administration for the School of Business and Economics.

Greg Braxton-Brown

The gift will be used to support scholarships for undergraduate and/or graduate students interested in entrepreneurship. Students must also have a minimum GPA of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale.

Braxton-Brown works out of IU East’s Lawrenceburg location. He first met Scales when he interviewed at IU East in 2002. At the time, Scales was a member of the Board of Advisors, and an adjunct instructor for the School of Business and Economics. Scales, an IU East alumnus, was vice president and director of marketing at First Bank Richmond.

Braxton-Brown said he remembers that during the interview, he saw a need to encourage IU East students to generate employment opportunities.

“The idea of ‘go to school and get a job’ was not going to work out evenly in an area in transition,” Braxton-Brown said. “IU East students were going to need to create jobs. IU East’s business program had to be infused with entrepreneurial skills helping students become proficient at ideation, economic creation and a very different understanding of work that was dynamic.”

Tim Scales

When Braxton-Brown was hired at IU East, he set out to work directly with students, specifically those for whom college success was not apparent. Having previously served as a college president and the head of Minnesota’s Community College System, he said he wanted to work directly with students. He is best known at IU East as the originator of the Lawrenceburg Center, an instructional site co-located with Ivy Tech that has brought bachelor degrees to an underserved area of Indiana. Prior to being assigned full-time to Lawrenceburg, Braxton-Brown was the chair of the Business and Economics Division for four years.

Scales joined the IU East faculty as an adjunct lecturer in 1998; in 2006 he joined the faculty full-time.

Since then, Scales has found his niche working with students to develop entrepreneurial ideas into real business plans. He has been an advisor for ENACTUS (formerly SIFE), a community of students, academics and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.

Braxton-Brown said when Scales joined the faculty at IU East, he expressed his passion for community connection to education.

“When I brought SIFE, the forerunner of ENACTUS, to IU East, Tim found his vehicle. Since that time Tim has fundamentally changed the understanding of work in our region,” Braxton-Brown said. “His passion, dedication and skill must be recognized and is the reason I’m making this gift to establish the Tim Scales Scholarship. I’m hoping others will join me in recognizing Tim’s amazing work through scholarship commitment.”

Scales said it is an honor to have a scholarship established in his name as the result of Braxton-Brown’s continued support and recognition of his work.

“The gift of an endowed scholarship is the perfect means of his kindness as it will lead the pathway for sustained student support in entrepreneurship,” Scales said. “Greg offered me the foundation to build and grow the centers and at the same time mentored me through the transition from a successful career in banking to becoming a world recognized leader in entrepreneurial education. Over the past several years, Greg has challenged my progress, recognized my success and continued to keep me humble.”

David Frantz is the former dean of the School of Business and Economics; he worked with both as they began and developed as faculty at IU East.

“Dr. Braxton-Brown has long been committed to supporting high impact practices and experiential learning opportunities for students,” Frantz said. “Through his generosity, students at the IU East School of Business and Economics will have additional opportunities to gain practical skills and knowledge in innovation and entrepreneurship. It is significant that these scholarships are being made in the name of Tim Scales. Tim has been a lifelong Richmond native who has committed himself to the development of meaningful student experiences. His pioneering work with his video series, In Your Business, his tireless work with the SIFE and ENACTUS programs, and his numerous business plan competitions through the BOSS program, have all yielded significant life changing experiences for IU East student experiences.”

Paula Kay King, director of Gift Development at IU East, said the gift is inspiring. King is a 2005 alumna of IU East and recalls the lasting impacts Scales had as a lecturer in her business courses. The classes were hands-on including developing a marketing plan for First Bank Richmond as part of a class project. They also started the Community Benefits Live TV auction held annually on WCTV.

“Tim had a way of taking the classroom to the community, including taking us to tour locally owned businesses to learn about them,” King said. “It is inspiring to see Greg honor Tim for his dedication to teaching, to the students and to IU East.”

Braxton-Brown is dually trained holding doctoral degrees in business administration and adult education. In addition, he holds four master’s degrees including the M.S. in Instructional Systems Technology earned from IU in 2008. He and his wife Ruth Ann live in Florence, Ky. They have five adult children and nine grandchildren.

Scales, of Richmond, Ind., received his associate and bachelor’s in business degrees from IU East. He went on to receive a M.S. in Banking from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and an M.B.A. from Anderson University. He has published a number of articles and books, has led presentations and keynote speeches at national and international academic conferences and he is the advisor for Delta Mu Delta, ENACTUS and the Stock and Investment Group at IU East.

This gift will count toward the $2.5 billion campaign, For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign. IU East’s campaign goal is $7 million, which will help fund a variety of campus initiatives, student scholarships and strategic projects. Find out more about IU East and ways to assist the campus at iue.edu/development.

For All: The Indiana University Bicentennial Campaign is taking place on all IU-administered campuses including IU Bloomington, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Northwest, IU South Bend, and IU Southeast. The campaign will conclude in December 2019 to coincide with IU’s bicentennial year celebration in 2020. To learn more about the campaign, its impact, and how to participate, please visit forall.iu.edu.

Founded in 1936, the Indiana University Foundation maximizes private support for Indiana University by fostering lifelong relationships with key stakeholders and providing advancement leadership and fundraising services for campuses and units across the university. Today, the IU Foundation oversees one of the largest public university endowments in the country, with a market value in excess of $1.9 billion. In fiscal year 2016, IU received $360.9 million in support from the private sector. IU is consistently ranked among the top four of Big Ten universities in annual voluntary support.