Teaching Profile: Nina Neusa Hirota

Planning student projects around current global business trends

Adjunct Assistant Professor 

Division of Programs in Business

NYU SPS Teaching Excellence Award Recipient, 2020 

Nexus:  What do you teach?

Nina: This semester (Spring 2025), I am teaching Intercultural Business Communication. I have also taught a Technology Team Leadership course in the Division of Programs and Business (DPB) at NYU SPS, where I have been teaching since 2013.

Nexus: What teaching practice, activity, or technology do your students benefit from the most? 

Nina: Technology can improve how we support and engage students. For example, I use generative AI (NYU login required) to refine course assignment instructions and improve rubric clarity, making expectations and grading transparent for students. I also integrate AI-generated video summaries into each unit of my course to support learner engagement and accessibility, especially in virtual learning environments. 

Nexus: What best practices in teaching might you recommend to faculty?

Nina: My recommendation to faculty is to encourage active student engagement with multimodal and real-world content, and team projects:

• Multimodal Content: Use varied instructional modalities such as video, podcasts, and written case studies to help students apply critical thinking and increase student engagement. 

  
  

• Real-World Applicability: Plan discussions using real-world scenarios reflective of the current global business market. This way, student learning is relevant to their professional pathways. You can ask Google Gemini to help you design practical scenarios for students to discuss. 

  
  

• Team Projects: Engage students in active learning with group projects, such as problem scenarios and presentations, that are tied to current global trends. This practical, hands-on approach deepens their learning and builds collaboration skills and community (NYU login required). 

Nexus: Do you have any testimonials or feedback from your students about their experience that you can share with us? 

Nina: I enjoy receiving feedback from my students in course surveys. Recently, two students shared:

“Professor Hirota is caring, passionate, and knowledgeable about leadership and serves as an inspiration to help others. It is through building communities and connections that we can advance as a society. Professor Hirota embodies this belief. Whether it is in-person or online, Professor Hirota creates an environment that is conducive to learning not only from her extensive knowledge, but from fellow classmates…”

“Nina was my leadership professor at NYU which was my favorite and most useful class. She is organized, engaging, thorough, and understanding. Her work experience drove insightful discussions between my peers and she was constantly inspiring us to challenge ourselves and broaden our mindset…”

Nexus: What’s next in your field?

Nina: AI is reshaping leadership and the future of work. The human dimension, in particular intercultural understanding and collaboration, has never been more important. Effective leaders must continue to cultivate empathy and cultural awareness on their teams and in their classrooms as AI continues to evolve and inform how we collaborate.

Nexus: What's a surprising fact about you that your students might not know?

Nina: My career spans several countries across the globe. 

I’ve had the honor of meeting two presidents: Jamil Mahuad, former president of Ecuador and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and Lech Wałęsa, former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. These encounters were powerful reminders of how leadership, diplomacy, and intercultural understanding intersect on the world stage.

While working in Kenya for a few months, I adopted an orphaned elephant named Naipoki and supported her for three years until she was released into a local wildlife reserve.

Left: Professor Hirota with Naipoki, an orphaned elephant he adopted in Kenya.

Upper Right: Professor Hirota with Jamil Mahuad, former president of Ecuador and Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

Lower Right: Professor Hirota with  Lech Wałęsa, former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Bio:

Professor Nina Hirota is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Project Management & Information Technology in the Division of Programs in Business at NYU SPS, where she has been teaching since 2013. She holds an MBA from Fundação Getulio Vargas, Sao Paulo. She consults for global institutions including the World Bank and Fortune 500 companies, specializing in intercultural leadership, talent development, and AI.

In 2020, Professor Hirota was honored with the NYU SPS Teaching Excellence Award. 

Learn more and connect with Professor Hirota via the NYU SPS Faculty Directory.