Dawn R. DeTienne is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Colorado State University. Her teaching, service, and previous work experience are centered around entrepreneurship. Her research, which has been cited over 7500 times, focuses on entrepreneurial exit, family business, and gender and has appeared in Academy of Management Learning & Education (AMLE), Journal of Business Venturing (JBV), Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice (ET&P), Group & Organization Management, IEEE Transactions in Management, and Small Business Economics. DeTienne is an 11-year Dean’s Scholar and has won numerous honors and awards, including the Colorado State University College of Business Researcher of the Year in 2009, the Colorado State University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011, the Outstanding Faculty Service Award in 2020 and the Department of Management Reputation Award in 2017. DeTienne is a J. William Fulbright Scholarship awardee and has been an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Business at Dublin City University and  a visiting professor at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and the Jönköping Business School in Sweden.

DeTienne has served in the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management (AOM) in several leadership roles, including the 5-year leadership role, as representative-at-large, chair of the Communications Committee, and co-chair of the Doctoral Consortium. DeTienne served as associate editor of AMLE and is a member of the editorial boards of JBV and ET&P. She also served as the faculty director for the College of Business’s Institute for Entrepreneurship for five years and actively promotes entrepreneurship throughout the Colorado State University campus. DeTienne volunteers with entrepreneurial organizations world-wide and more locally with Defy Colorado.  

She received her MBA from Colorado State University in 1999 and her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2002. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., DeTienne co-founded several ventures, one of which she helped to successfully guide through an acquisition exit.