Chuck Munson, professor of operations management, will receive the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Instruction, the highest teaching award for WSU. He has received consistently high student teaching evaluation scores over his career and has created new courses including a business modeling elective that has grown to exceed 100 students per year. He revamped the masters of business administration (MBA) program in Pullman, updated the Carson College of Business PhD program, and helped create and revise the University’s learning goals for the baccalaureate. Munson is coauthor of the market’s top-selling operations management textbook. He is a founding advisory board member of the WSU Teaching Academy and a recipient of the Carson College of Business Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award (twice) and MBA Professor of the Year Award (twice).

Dogan Gursoy, professor of hospitality, is a co-editor of Collaboration in Tourism Businesses and Destinations, a handbook that provides insights into the benefits of partnering with key tourism, travel, and leisure stakeholder groups.

Robert Harrington, professor of hospitality and wine business management at WSU Tri-Cities, contributed research expertise to a new book on beer pairing: Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros by Julia Herz and Gwen Conley (2015) Voyageur Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Harrington was also ranked 30th among the top researchers in the world in a recently published study, “Assessing Faculty Productivity by Research Impact: Introducing Dp2 Index.” Assessment was based on the number of scholarly citations, published works, and time between research being published.

Jeff Joireman, associate professor of marketing and international business, was appointed associate editor for the Journal of Environmental Psychology and had three papers accepted for publication: Joireman, J., Liu, R., & Kareklas, I. (in press). Images paired with concrete claims improve skeptical consumers’ responses to advertising promoting a firm’s good deeds. Journal of Marketing Communications; Mulder, M. R., & Joireman, J. (in press). Encouraging the gifting of charity via charity gift cards: A self-determination theoretical account. Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing; and Joireman, J., Grégoire, & Tripp, T. (in press). Customer forgiveness in response to service failures. Current Opinion in Psychology: Consumer Behavior.

Darrel Muehling, chair and professor of marketing and international business and coauthor Ioannis Kareklas wrote a research article “Addressing the Texting and Driving Epidemic: Mortality Salience Priming Effects on Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions,” that was recently named “Best Article” in the Journal of Consumer Affairs for 2014.

Iis Tussyadiah, associate clinical professor of hospitality business management at WSU Vancouver, received the Best Paper Award for her research paper “Strategic Self‐Presentation in the Sharing Economy: Implications for Host Branding” at the ENTER2016 eTourism Conference held recently in Spain. Organized by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel & Tourism (IFITT), the conference offers a worldwide and unique forum for attendees from academia, industry, government, and other organizations to actively exchange, share, and challenge state‐of‐the‐art research and industrial case studies on the application of information and communication technologies to travel and tourism.

WSU student entrepreneurs Emily Willard of Everett, Wash., and Katherine Brandenstein of Woodinville, Wash., won first place and $10,000 in the inaugural, regional Health Innovation Challenge at the University of Washington on March 3. Willard and Brandenstein are in a Carson College of Business joint senior capstone class and cofounded “Engage,” a biotech startup. They presented prototypes of SafeShot, a lid that attaches to a multi-use medicine injection vial to sterilize the needle each time it enters the vial.
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Ismail Karabas, doctoral candidate in the Department of Marketing and International Business, received the Graduate and Professional Student Association Excellence Award in Teaching Assistance, fall 2015. The award recognizes teaching assistants who have a strong commitment to students and go out of their way to ensure that students achieve academic success.

Hospitality students in the WSU National Society of Minorities in Hospitality chapter (NSMH) recently attended the national conference in Washington, D.C. NSMH is the premier professional organization for hospitality students and addresses diversity, multiculturalism, and career development. Alli Pullin, hospitality senior, received the $1,500 Starwood scholarship. Darby Mackenzie, hospitality senior, was elected as national communication director and will serve on the 2016-2017 NSMH national board. The WSU chapter earned the Most Traveled Chapter Award recognizing those that made their mark on the industry by attending various industry events.

Hospitality business management doctoral student Jennifer Sandstrom, along with Thomas Maier, associate professor of hospitality, University of San Francisco, and Dennis Reynolds, dean and Barron Hilton Distinguished Chair, University of Houston, Conrad N. Hilton College, received second place for their research paper “Multi-Unit Efficiency Assessment and Multidimensional Polygon Analysis in a Small, Full-Service Restaurant Chain” at the 2015 ICHRIE Penn State Research Reports Competition.

Michael Dreyer (’85 Psychology, ’86 MBA) was named chief operations officer of Silicon Valley Bank in November 2015. Dreyer leads global technology and infrastructure teams and oversees SVB’s core operations, enterprise project management, client service, and information technology teams. He also joined the Board of Directors of Finisar in December 2015. Read more at http://bit.ly/1PClFsg.

Tom Drumheller (’75 Hotel & Restaurant Administration), owner and Escape Lodging CEO, is constructing The Lodge at Columbia Point on the edge of the marina in Richland, Washington. The first-of-its-kind boutique hotel will have 82 rooms, each named after a local winery or region, such as Walla Walla. Wineries will be asked to do a social hour in the evenings. The lodge will feature a tasting room, fire pit, fireplace, and more places to mingle and is slated to open in November 2016. Read more at http://bit.ly/1PJI7MF

Karina Barajas de Garibay (’07 Management & Operations, ’10 MED) is the principal assistant to the chief of staff and operations at WSU Tri-Cities’s Office of the Chancellor. She credits WSU immensely for her career development and opportunity to earn her master’s in higher education while working full-time. The experience and knowledge she gained during her first role in the HRS office prepared her to take and pass the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) exam and earn her national credentials.

Anthony Ha (’85 Hotel & Restaurant Administration) was appointed general manager of Hyatt Regency Suzhou and area vice president. Ha began his career with Hyatt in 1986 at Hyatt Regency San Francisco, followed by an assignment at Hyatt Regency Macau. After that, he worked with various hotels in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Micronesia before rejoining the Hyatt family in February 2011. He became the opening general manager for Hyatt Regency Qingdao in August 2011 and became area vice president in April 2015. Read more at http://bit.ly/1MvAxJ5

Jim Hansen (’84 Hotel & Restaurant Administration) has been appointed senior vice president of sales and local marketing at Hyatt Vacation Ownership (HVO). He is based in HVO’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida. An industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, he is responsible for all sales activities, as well as local marketing at Hyatt Residence Club’s six current sales centers in the continental United States. In addition, he oversees all sales and local marketing activities associated with new projects as they come online. Read more at http://bit.ly/1SCimE4.

Jessica Murray (’15 Hospitality Business Management), used the crunch of quinoa, a popular new superfood, to put an international award-winning twist on a Brazilian snack. She won first place in the American Association of Cereal Chemists International’s 2015 Student Product Development Contest. Jessica is a first-year graduate student in the WSU/University of Idaho School of Food Science. See more at http://bit.ly/1NfWzLa.