Three Women Business Leaders Establish Scholarships and Endowed Funds for UCR Business Students

March 29, 2021

Recognizing women in leadership, we celebrate three women who are making history with the UCR School of Business.

Animal Advocate and High-tech Industry Veteran Looks to the Future

Having served on the UCR Foundation’s board of trustees since 2014, Susan Atherton ’77 established the Susan Atherton Endowed Graduate Award Fund, and she has a deep interest in the students whose lives are changed with a business education. A veteran of the high-tech industry, Atherton is also a long-time advocate for animals and serves on the directors’ boards of the Humane Society both nationally and internationally.

Riverside Entrepreneur Helps Students Understand Business

The co-founder and executive vice president of SolarMax Technology Inc., Ching Liu, supports students through the SolarMax Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council. As a UCR Business School executive fellow, she illuminates the real world of business for students and hosts lectures at her company’s Riverside manufacturing plant, a historic building that once housed a World War II tank factory.

Learn more about Liu’s impressive entrepreneurial success

The Importance of Investing in Causes that Matter

Investment expert and alumna Patricia Watters ’95, co-founder of Catalina Consulting Partners, established the Patricia A. Watters and Richard K. Lashbrook Endowed Student Award. She is also an executive fellow at UCR’s Business School and contributed to the Amnon Rapport Endowed Research Award Fund. Having earned both a master’s in economics and a doctoral degree in financial economics at UCR, she is deeply committed to the success of students and fellow alumni.