Astrid Sheil, PhD, CRM

Biography

Dr. Astrid Sheil is an award-winning academic, author, and Dean of the School of Management at Simmons University. Sheil established the first master’s program in the country focused on the business of women’s sports. The new Women’s Sports Business and Leadership MSM launched in Fall 2026 with more than double the number of anticipated students. Just before joining Simmons, Dr. Sheil spent five months as a Fulbright Scholar at the Bled School of Management in Slovenia where she lectured on leadership, organizational relevance and reinvention, and worked on research related to sustainability. From 2019 to 2024, Dr. Sheil was dean and professor in the School of Business at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. Some of her accomplishments include: • Creating the Legacy Golf Tournament, which raised $250,000 in four years for scholarships • Leading the school to full AACSB re-accreditation • Launching the first E-Sports Academic program in the country • Negotiating a degree completion program with Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest federal credit union in the country Before beginning her career in Academia, Sheil was a corporate executive for two Fortune 500 paper manufacturing companies (Georgia-Pacific and Bowater) and one multinational chemical company based in Helsinki, Finland (Kemira Oy). She oversaw Human Resources, Global Communications, Labor Negotiations, Emergency Planning, Safety and Training, and was Chief Communication Officer and Spokesperson during crisis situations. Sheil holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and an M.S. and PhD in Organizational Theory and Communication from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Married to Anne Scott-Putney, the president and CEO of Heritage Museums and Gardens on Cape Cod, the couple have 4 grown children and 1 grandchild.