Faculty
Bringing Practical Experience into Classrooms
In this section,
we will illustrate how some of our full-time faculty members bring real world examples into the classroom.
Prof. Karen Markel is currently working to develop a case study with Chelsey Pallas
(HRM grad in May 08) about change management in compensation within an organization.
Prof. Austin Murphy makes students in his investment analysis class do credit analysis on real companies with only
public information (e.g., financial statements and footnotes, as well as recent news indicating the outlook), and
they value stocks using their own necessary subjective forecasting of relevant variables.
They also evaluate debt prepayment risks and decisions using state-of-the-art software.
Prof. Anandi Sahu is incorporating reading of Wall Street Journal and watching the Nightly Business Report on PBS as a part of his teaching ECONOMICS 200. In addition, students are shown videos
of major historical events that have shaped public policy. Through these sources students are
able to better appreciate the relevance of this required class.
In the following section, we will present how
some of our lecturers and part-time faculty are bringing their expertise into the classroom.
Mr. Kim Serota is currently a
Special Lecturer in Marketing in the School of Business Administration at Oakland University. He is also President of KBSA,
a national marketing research and consulting firm, as well as a doctoral candidate
in Communication at Michigan State University. Mr. Serota draws on his unique blend of theoretical training and more than 30 years of
business experience to illustrate the “yin and yang” of successful business and marketing strategy.
Mr. Brandon Bernier brings his extensive technology experience
to enhance classroom learning through group interaction,
real-world case analysis and study, video and web interaction.
Ms. Sara Buscaino teaches MIS 100 and brings
specific real-work examples to the classroom
to reinforce each topic covered. For example, with MS Excel, she brings spreadsheets from current work projects and
demonstrates how to use the available tools to solve real business problems.
Mr. Jim Suhay brings his extensive practical experience in all areas of corporate financial management, but likes
to stress controller’s functions, capital budgeting,
and mergers and acquisitions, having participated in several at Ford.
Mr. Brian Palmer teaches MKT 405, Marketing Research and brings to the classroom a wealth of experience
which helps make the text materials come to life. Each session he brings in “marketing problem” topics from the day’s
news and shows videos on subjects of “absolutely current” interest,
such as the topics covered daily in Advertising Age’s 3-minute videos.
Mr. Michael J. Sugameli teaches legal environment in business and uses real life experiences and guest speakers to
make the subject matter being discussed interesting and relevant.
Mr. Steven Wagg teaches Marketing 302 and says that many firms confuse
marketing with sales, and if marketing is done well, selling is easy. He brings much experience to
the class from his 33 years at GM.
Mr. Larry Schramm brings his extensive GM experience to students
that take classes in management, not to mention his passion to drive
old cars.
New Faculty
We welcome three new faculty members to SBA: Dr. Boyce Cobb, Mr. Wayne Blizman and Ms. Amy Rutledge.
Dr. Mike Grieves: We welcome Dr. Mike Grieves to the School of Business Administration,
as its first Research Professor. Dr. Michael Grieves, will be a part of the Decision and Information Science Department
in the SBA and develop our research in the product life cycle management area, an intersection of engineering, management
and information technology. He is establishing the Product Life Cycle Management Institute outside OU,
but it will be affiliated with the forthcoming Center within SBA.
Faculty Research Recognitions
Congratulations to Prof. Balaji Rajagopalan for his work on "Competition Among Virtual Communities and User Valuation:
The Case of Investing-Related Communities," with Professors Bin Gu and Prabhudev Konana of University of Texas-Austin. The
paper was selected as the Best Published paper by one of the top-tier IS Journals and
will be recognized at an ISS/ISR reception at the INFORMS conference.
Congratulations to Prof. Karl Majeske, Prof. Vijayan Sugumaran and Prof. Janell Townsend for their recognition
as the most productive research
faculty during the year 2008-09 by the Oakland University Provost.
Faculty Service Recognition
Congratulations to Dr. Mark Simon for receiving outstanding service award for the year 2007-08. Congratulations also go to
Dr. Janell Townsend and Dr. Nivedita Mukherji for receiving honorary mention for
their work in international business and international grant related work.
Congratulations to Prof. Sandra Pelfrey for her leadership in the recognition the Eta Phi Chapter as
one that far exceeded the minimum requirements of Beta Alpha Psi in the areas of academics,
professionalism and leadership, said the president of Beta Phi Chapter.
Staff Recognitions
Employee of the Month - Peggy Chiu
Congratulations to Peggy Chiu for being selected Employee of the Month by Oakland University. An honor - well deserved!