By: Em Acuña
The Honors College honored Dr. Annette Lytle Ranft ’86 as the 2025 Honors College exceptional alumna during Appalachian State’s 2025 Alumni Awards Gala, held in the Grandview Ballroom on July 12, 2025. Each year, the Appalachian State Alumni Association acknowledges individuals whose exceptional professional, philanthropic, or volunteer achievements have impacted society and Appalachian State University, and the Honors College recognizes an exceptional alumnus or alumna who has given back to the Honors community. Dr. Ranft is an exceptional alumna for her involvement with the Honors community, and her journey from Honors at App State to where she is now reflects the values of Honors interdisciplinary education.
Photo features Dr. Annette Ranft being recognized at the 2025 Alumni Awards Gala. Photo by Kyla Willoughby.
Dr. Ranft graduated from Appalachian State University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Management (M.S.M) from Georgia Tech and a Doctor of Business Administration degree from UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Ranft has served as the Wake Forest Sisel Distinguished Dean of Business and Professor of Strategic Management since July 2022. Dr. Ranft reflected on her time at Appalachian and its impact, and she summed it up with one word: “transformative.”
Appalachian has had a generational impact on Dr. Ranft and her family. While in the Honors Program at App State, Dr. Ranft lived in Coffey Hall, the Honors living-learning community (LLC) at the time, which has now been replaced by Summit Hall. As a first-generation college student, Dr. Ranft found that the close cohort of the Honors community was extremely helpful. She reflected that, “There’s nothing quite like those people you met early on.” While living in Coffey Hall, she met her husband Victor Ranft, and years later, one of their two daughters also attended and graduated from App State.
Dr. Ranft found her Honors education eye-opening due to opportunities like the faculty-led trip she took to Washington, D.C with one of her Honors seminars. Her trip took place around the time the Vietnam Memorial was being unveiled, and she was able to converse with other visitors and broaden her worldview. She shared that her Honors seminars were her first introduction to the Socratic method, and her professors taught her to challenge and question everything. She and her classmates immersed themselves in deep conversations that lasted beyond the classroom.
After she graduated from App State, Dr. Ranft’s path led her to Georgia, where she worked as a math teacher and was able to apply her interest in psychology to math. Wanting something different, Dr. Ranft pursued an M.S.M. at Georgia Tech, which served as a stepping stone for her to enter the workforce with companies such as AT&T and EDS. Dr. Ranft reflected that the program she did was very “transitional” for individuals going from STEM to business fields and allowed her to delve deeper into her interdisciplinary interests within math and psychology.
Strategic management, Dr. Ranft’s area of research, blends disciplines as she looks at how high-tech acquisitions of smaller companies can be improved. In her research, she has found that there needs to be a “period of learning” matched with a slower acquisition pace to integrate both the people and systems successfully. Reflecting on her interdisciplinary work in strategy, she stated,
It is at the intersections of things that we find the answers.
In her current position as the Wake Forest Sisel Distinguished Dean of Business, Dr. Ranft has come full circle with her Honors interdisciplinary education, now teaching PhD students spanning various disciplines. She is also now at an institution that offers a similar M.S.M. degree to the one that she did in Georgia, which impacted her greatly.
For current Honors students, Dr. Ranft shared, “I have had a very meandering path; it’s okay to give yourself some space.” Because of this, she has a deep respect for a path of growth and discovery and encourages students to take their time. She shared the following advice with Honors students seeking to get connected.
Just be aware when a door opens a little bit. When you put yourself out there, there is so much more that comes back to you.
Top photo features Dr. Annette Lyte Ranft ’86 (left), the 2025 Honors College exceptional alumna honoree, with Dr. Vicky Klima (right), Associate Vice Provost to the Honors College, at the 2025 Alumni Awards Gala. Photo by Chase Reynolds.
Click here to read the story 4 Mountaineers honors with App State Alumni Awards 9 alumni awardees from App State’s colleges also recognized, written by J, Todd Coates and Courtney Robert in Appalachian Today.
