Assistant Professor Of Management
Pella, Ia
As an Assistant Professor of Management, I believed that learning was done best by 'doing'. I incorporated this experiential learning philosophy by building unique leadership opportunities into every class I taught. In my operations class I coordinated learning experiences with area manufacturers. My advanced marketing research classes performed research for area for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, resulting in actionable information that they could implement. Over the span of eight years, my classes have created and communicated over 80 marketing plans for organizations across the state of Iowa. Realizing that learning occurs outside the classroom more so than in, I conceptualized and built the Interview Blitz at Central that has now been running twice a year since 2012. This event brings HR professionals to students in order to place the students in a high-intensity, yet low-risk interview learning situation. The results have been significant, leading to over 1,000 unique connections and experiences being created. Being a connector and builder, I also took the initiative to build internships with organizations where no such opportunity previously existed. I believed leadership character-based skills were essential to develop during the internships, so I built in leadership learning experiences in the students' process. This holistic, employeer/student/educator, approach has proved beneficial for bringing industry experiences into the classroom as well as helping to place students into new pipelines. Specializing in leadership training, strategic SMB and entrepreneurial marketing, operations management and organizational development. My areas of research interest reside in culture development and vitality. Courses taught include Organizational Behavior, Marketing Management, Marketing Research, Principles of Marketing, Operations Management and Strategic Management.