February 24, 2014

11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

The Colloquium, 6th Floor, Ross Building, Stephen M. Ross School of Business


Brandon Busteed leads the development of Gallup’s education work. His career spans a wide range of important work in education as an educational entrepreneur, speaker, writer, and university trustee. Busteed’s work involves integrating Gallup’s research and science on selection, strengths, engagement, and wellbeing to improve student success, teacher effectiveness, and educational outcomes. His mission is to create a national movement to measure the educational outcomes that matter most, connect education to jobs and job creation, and promote a paradigm shift from knowledge mastery to emotional engagement in education.

Busteed has founded two companies and one nonprofit organization as a social entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of Outside The Classroom , a company that pioneered adaptive online education in alcohol abuse prevention. A three-year, 30-school, national study funded by the National Institutes of Health showed that AlcoholEdu – the organization’s flagship alcohol-abuse prevention program – was effective in reducing binge drinking, drunk driving, and sexual assaults. More than 4 million students have taken this program, which is the only course of its kind proven to change behavior. The company was acquired by EverFi in 2011.

Busteed is a nationally known speaker and author on education policy and public health. He has written frequently for The Chronicle of Higher EducationTrusteeship MagazineThe Huffington Post, and other publications. Busteed’s work has been featured in The New York TimesThe Wall Street JournalThe Washington Post, and USA Today and on NPR and the NBC News “TODAY” show, among others.

Busteed received his bachelor’s degree in public policy from Duke University. He is a trustee emeritus of Duke and has served on the Board of Visitors of the Sanford School of Public Policy. He is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization and serves on the National Board of Directors for Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. A former two-sport NCAA Division 1 athlete at Duke, Busteed continues to hone his competitive drive as an avid CrossFitter. He lives in McLean, Virginia, with his wife, Deanna, and two children, Anabelle and Harrison.

Theme for Winter 2014: Positive Organizational Scholarship in Other Disciplines

Video footage of all Positive Links Speakers Series sessions can be found here.