Several donors have started an endowed scholarship fund to honor Dr. Jane Wayland, Stephen Harrow Smith dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business, and her husband, Dr. Robert Wayland, a visiting professor of management. 

Michelle and John Towne started the scholarship fund in gratitude for a College of Business internship that helped their son Michael land a job after graduation.

The Jane and Bob Wayland Endowed Scholarship will be awarded annually to an undergraduate or graduate student from the College of Business. Financial need will be strongly considered.

“We were overwhelmed and so grateful and very surprised,” Jane Wayland said. “You never know what impact will happen from a small thing.”

In addition to the Towne family, additional founding donors for the scholarship fund include: Arkamedia LLC – “Inviting Arkansas,” Deborah Baldwin and Jim Metzger, Dora Jane and Greg Flesher, John Fowler, Cindy Kilgore, Sheena Howell and Brad Elam, Karen and Terry Masching, Tara and Larry Stebbins, Shelia and Larry Vaught, and Jane and John Yocum.

For more information or to donate to the scholarship fund, contact Sheena Howell, director of development and external relations for the UA Little Rock College of Business, at smhowell1@ualr.edu or 501.569.3208.

More about the Waylands:

During her tenure as dean of the UA Little Rock College of Business, Jane Wayland has overseen many student success projects. They include the establishment of the College of Business Advising Center and the State Farm Business Skills Lab as well as the initiation of the student ambassador program to showcase top students. She also helped start Career Catalyst, an extracurricular program to prepare students for professional careers through career workshops, education in business ethics, service leadership, and applied experiential learning.

She serves on the board for Economic Arkansas and is the treasurer and past president of the Arkansas Women’s Leadership Forum. She also volunteered on the Women Administrator in Management Board associated with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation organization, Rotary 99 Board, and the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas.

Since retiring from Eastern Illinois University in 2007, Robert Wayland taught graduate courses in the UA Little Rock College of Business until 2015, when he became a visiting professor of management. He also works as a labor arbitrator for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

At Eastern Illinois University, he was a professor of management for 16 years. He also served in numerous leadership roles, including director of human resources, assistant to the president for Labor Relations, and director of Employee and Labor Relations.

The Waylands reside in Little Rock and have four sons, 10 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

In the upper right photo, founding donors and UA Little Rock officials celebrate the launch of the Jane and Bob Wayland Endowed Scholarship Fund at UA Little Rock. Pictured, from left to right, back row: Tara Stebbins, Larry Stebbins, Karen Masching, Michelle Towne, Larry Vaught, Janessa Rogerson, Shelia Vaught, John Towne, Michael Towne, Terry Masching, Cindy Kilgore, and John Fowler. Front row: John Yocum, Jane Yocum, Andrew Rogerson, Jane Wayland, Robert Wayland, and Deborah Baldwin.