• Professor Michele Gee has been appointed as Interim Dean for the College of Business, Economics, and Computing. She also has a long list of achievements at UW-Parkside for more than 20 years with several successful administrative and faculty appointments such as Director of the Online MBA Program. Dr. Gee was most recently promoted from Senior Associate Dean to Interim Dean, CBEC.

• The Online MBA continues to increase as the fastest growing program at UW-Parkside since it launched in Fall Semester 2018. There are approximately 700 students from 21 states and four countries abroad who are enrolled as Online MBA students, and more are being admitted. The MBA Program has seven (7) Concentrations: Finance, Data Analytics, Global Management, Supply Chain Management, Marketing, General Management, and Human Resources (HR). Approximately 80 MBA students are expected to graduate between the end of August and December 2021.

• The HR Concentration was just added to the expanding Online MBA Program after official approval in May 2021. This concentration addresses the increasing demand for HR managers and highly educated professionals. New MBA/HR courses will be offered beginning in Fall Semester 2021.  

• Assistant Professor Dayo Akinlade worked very hard with MBA program director Michele Gee to make the HR Concentration a reality. Professor Akinlade is a highly respected HR expert who joined UW-Parkside in 2019, and was quickly appointed to the regional board of directors for the Society for Human Resource Management. Professor Akinlade also has two recent articles published: one is in the Management Teaching Review, and the other in the Journal of Business Diversity. 

• The MBA Program is also welcoming 18 new international students in the Fall Semester to begin graduate business study in the traditional onsite, face-to-face delivery format. Thirteen (13) of these MBA students are from the award winning NL Dalmia Institute in Mumbai, India, and five are arriving from the respected Chitkara University in northern India.

• Professor Susan Lincke received a contract for the second edition of her book that has the new title Information Security Planning: A Practical Approach. Important, too, is the great success Professor Lincke is achieving with the Master of Science in Computer and Information Systems (MSCIS) program. There are 16 new MSCIS students scheduled to arrive in Fall 2021 and Professor Lincke advises all of them. Nine of the incoming students are from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology in India. Professor Lincke worked excellently on finalizing an extensive agreement with MIT that will go through official campus review in the Fall. (UW-Parkside signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding with MIT, India in May 2021.)

• Professor Sahar Bahmani has added another article to her portfolio of dozens of publications. Her most recent article was accepted in the Renewable Energy journal, and discusses economic growth, institutional quality and lower carbon print in developing countries. Professor Bahmani earned certificates as a certified educator in higher education, and in advanced effective college instruction. She began serving on July 1 as Director of the undergraduate Flex program that is competency based. Flex is another fast growing CBEC/Department of Business program.

• Professor Parag Dhumal published two more articles: an article exploring the correlation between diversity and financial performance; and a second article that provides insights into criteria impacting firm competitiveness. These articles were published in the International Journal of Business Performance Management, and the Journal of Competitiveness Studies respectively.

• Professor Peter Knight added another publication to his portfolio concerning sales programs in the journal Higher Education, Skills, and Work-Based Learning. He also made a presentation at the virtual international Asia Pacific conference. In addition, Professor Knight is the ongoing Director of the Sales Center, and continues to mentor and coach award winning sales students. Indeed, Professor Knight was recently appointed as the Director of the undergraduate online business Bachelor’s degree completion program in the Department of Business. (This is typically referred to as the BUSO program.)

• Chandler Speiwak, a General Business senior, won the role play competition versus 88 elite sales students at the National Shore Sales Competition held virtually at Salisbury University. Professor Knight’s CBEC Department of Business team finished 4th amongst 44 schools competing in April 2021.

• Associate Professor Zaid Altahat, Director of CBEC’s APP Factory in our Innovation Corridor, reported a key project that students are currently working on is building an application for the Kenosha Fire Department to be used by their paramedics.

• Associate Professor Viji Ramasamy has an impressive array of academic activities in recent months including two book chapters, five conference proceedings, and two certifications (online learning, and also applied deep learning and computer vision with Python). In addition, Professor Ramasamy received Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP) funding, and worked with an undergraduate scholar on an initiative to create a web-based mobile application encouraging women to pursue STEM/Computing.

• Professor Roby Rajan published an article in The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Global Studies concerning disaster management, sustainability, and globalization. He has also been effectively serving as Acting Chair of the Department of Business since May 2021.

• Four new tenure-track Department of Business faculty were hired this year, primarily due to continuous growth in the Online MBA Program. Three of the new faculty will begin this Fall 2021: Zagdbazar Davaadorj (Finance), Xue Ning (MIS) and Ifeyimika Ogunyomi (Management/HR). The fourth new hire, Miaochan Li (Accounting) will join the business department in Spring 2022. Professor Parag Dhumal, Chair of the Department of Business, coordinated five simultaneous Search and Screen Committees with business faculty working very hard during the Winterim and early Spring to get needed faculty hired.

• For more events visit the Events Calendar.