Points of Pride
CEO Magazine ranked the Carson College of Business online MBA and executive MBA programs as No. 38 out of 78 and No. 22 out of 57 in its 2024 rankings of global recognition. The executive MBA moved up in the rankings from No. 26 in 2023.
Carson College students Felicia Adesope (’24 Accounting, Mgmt. Info. Sys.), Charlisse Leger-Walker (’24 Busi. Admin.), and Thomas Wieland (’24 Music, Finance, Intl. Busi.) were recognized in the top 10 seniors at WSU for 2024. The WSU Alumni Association selects those students who represent the highest standards in specific aspects of the college experience in terms of academics, athletics, campus involvement, community service, and visual and performing arts.
Clarkston High School graduate Murray Broemeling is the 2024 recipient of the Delbert J. Hayes Accounting Scholarship. The full-ride scholarship is awarded each year to a CHS graduate majoring in accounting at the Carson College and is renewable for up to three years.
WSU Vancouver students and Beta Alpha Psi officers Zoie Rodman and Kiersten Brightbill, who are studying accounting and finance, were recognized at the OSCPA Circle of Excellence event in May. Rodman received a scholarship from the OSCPA Education Foundation, and Brightbill was awarded Top Accounting Student.
Heather Fitzgerald, who majored in accounting and finance at WSU Vancouver, earned the 2024 Student Excellence Award. “Reflecting on my time at WSU Vancouver fills me with immense gratitude. As a nontraditional student, returning to college was intimidating. However, support from students, professors, and the Carson College of Business helped me appreciate that my perspective is unique and valuable,” she says.
Congratulations to Lilia Gahard (’24), the first student to graduate in the aging business management (formerly senior living management) major at the Carson College.
The School of Hospitality Business Management recognized the following students at the fall and spring graduation celebrations: Elizabeth Jackson, December 2023 Outstanding Senior; Tu Le, May 2024 Outstanding Senior; Madeline Mickas, May 2024 Outstanding Academic Award.
Katie Kogler, a WSU Vancouver student studying accounting, was awarded a scholarship from Financial Executives International (FEI) Portland. FEI is an association that advances the success of financial leaders, their organizations, and the profession.
Congratulations to the top PhD student competitors of the Carson College of Business Three Minute Thesis Competition. Xianmei Wu took the $1,000 first-place prize. Shirin Shahsavand was runner up and received $500. Amirhossein Moadab won the People’s Choice Award and $500.
Pingping Tang, a PhD student in management operations, was recognized as one of WSU’s 2024 Women of Distinction for the graduate student category.
Karin Yoshida is the first Granger Cobb Institute for Senior Living student to receive the 2024 LCS Foundation University Scholarship for students pursuing careers in senior living. She is a junior pursuing a major in hospitality business management with a minor in senior living management.
Girish Chummun (’17 Finance) started a new position as branch manager II at Enterprise. Chumman has worked for Enterprise since 2021 in a variety of positions. Previously, he worked as a travel consultant at Avanti Destinations.
Dan Gaulke (’90 Busi. Admin.) has been named president of Yakima Federal Savings and Loan Association. Gaulke joined the bank as a management trainee in 1990 and has worked as an auditor, compliance officer, and chief financial officer. He sits on the Yakima Federal Board of Directors.
Emily Hubbard (’10 Hosp. Busi. Mgmt.) was included in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s “40 under 40” list recognizing professional accomplishments and deep ties to community. Hubbard cofounded Sage Investment Group in 2020 and has since helped grow the company’s portfolio to more than $200 million while building projects that address neighborhood safety and housing access.
Alumna Muzi Liu (’23 PhD), assistant professor of marketing at Marist College, won the Best Paper Award at the 2024 National Conference in Sales Management for her paper “Whether Salespeople Should Be Held Responsible for Late-Paying Accounts: An Investigation Into Controlling Customer-Directed Deviance.” Coauthors included Carson College marketing professors Uchila Umesh, Jeff Joireman, and Bryan Hochstein, associate professor of marketing at the University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Business.
Ismail Karabas (’18 PhD), assistant professor of marketing at Murray State University, received the Murray State University Board of Regents Teaching Excellence Award. The award honors faculty who, in the judgment of peers, are exemplary teachers. Recipients receive a bound certificate signed by the board chair and university president, and $1,000.
Lisa Kelley (’03 Busi. Admin.) has started a new position as president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana. Kelley has worked in the organization’s legal department since 2010, most recently as general counsel. Previously, she clerked for Justice Jim Rice on the Montana Supreme Court and was an attorney at Hughes, Keller, Sullivan, and Alke of Helena, Montana. Kelley is an adjunct professor of health law at the University of Montana’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law.
Aaron Wheeler (’20 EMBA) has been appointed director of the Washington State Broadband Office. Wheeler is tasked with developing and implementing a five-year plan to create universal and reliable high-speed internet across the state.
Michelle Chapman and the Carson Career Amplifier program were awarded honorable mention for the National Association of Colleges and Employers 2024 Career Readiness Excellence Award. Chapman is assistant director for student engagement and career development at the Carson Center for Student Success. In July, Chapman and Student Engagement Coordinator Corey Cook-Garrison presented a session at the Suitable Career Pathways conference on how they are leveraging Suitable data to improve student outcomes and boost student engagement. Emiliano De La Rosa (’24 Finance, Entrep.) also spoke at the event about how he transformed his involvement on and off campus with the help of the Career Amplifier program.
Dipra Jha, associate dean for equity and inclusion—inclusive pedagogy and hospitality faculty member, completed a Fulbright Specialist program in Vietnam. The program was established in 2001 by the US Department of State and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It pairs highly qualified US academics and professionals selected through a competitive process, with host institutions abroad to share their expertise. Jha spent time at the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Hue University in Hue City, Vietnam, working with faculty members and industry stakeholders in building capacity for teaching, learning, and industry engagement.
Amrita Lahiri, assistant professor in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship, was awarded the 2024 Library Excellence Award for her enthusiastic support of library instruction in her business students’ coursework. The award recognizes a non-library WSU faculty or staff member who has shown consistent support for the WSU Libraries.
Cheryl Oliver, associate dean for professional programs, is the new chair elect of the WSU commission on the status of women.
Jason Porter, an associate professor of accounting who passed away unexpectedly in August 2023, was the former advisor of the Pullman campus’s Beta Alpha Psi chapter. WSU selected him posthumously to receive the 2024 outstanding faculty adviser award from the national Beta Alpha Psi organization.
Jennifer Sandstrom, an associate professor in the School of Hospitality Business Management, has been selected as the new academic director for WSU Vancouver, succeeding finance professor Donna Paul.