Points of Pride
WSU’s School of Hospitality Business Management continues to rank among the best in the nation and world, according to Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects for hospitality and tourism management. For 2023, the school ranks third in the US and eleventh in the world.
Accounting students Elijah Shawen and Amber Hillegas each received a $10,000 academic scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. The scholars program’s overarching goals are to benefit outstanding students who are likely to become auditors and make a difference for eligible students who might otherwise pursue a different career path. Students are identified and nominated by their institutions.
Felicia Adesope, a senior majoring in accounting and management information systems, received a WSU Auvil Scholars Fellowship from the WSU Office of Undergraduate Research. Awards supporting mentored research, scholarship, and creative activity were given to 41 students in 31 majors across four campuses for the 2023–24 academic year. Adesope is mentored by Robert Crossler, chair of the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Entrepreneurship.
Maya Busby, a marketing major, won first place and $500 in the Carson College’s annual Speed Selling Competition sponsored by E. & J. Gallo Winery. Ashley Buhner, a sport management major, and Sylvia Johns, a finance major, placed second and third. Participants were asked to deliver a 90-second elevator pitch before a panel of esteemed judges. Extracurricular activities like this event are offered by the college’s Center for Professional Sales to extend learning beyond the classroom.
WSU students and staff Jalen Barker, Preston Collins, Logan Johnson, Scott Kindelberger, Johannah Ludwig, Mike Petlovany, Kelly Stewart, Allison Taylor, Sara Thompson, Dillon Tiedeman-Mueller, and Nathan Tims received special recognition in September at the 2023 WSU Safety and Wellness Expo president’s award ceremony for their life-saving efforts related to Professor Joe Compeau’s medical emergency on April 3. Their quick thinking and actions were also recognized with the Pullman Police Department’s Life Saving Award during a ceremony including members of the WSU Police Department on the Pullman campus in May.
Eva Rickard, an Honors College student majoring in wine and beverage business management and business administration, and Madison Shaw, a junior majoring in wine and beverage business management and viticulture/enology, were among eight students recognized with scholarships by the Washington Wine Industry Foundation. Scholarships ranged from $2,000 to $10,000 and are awarded annually to exceptional undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in viticulture, enology, and wine business studies.
Boeing hosted a kickoff event at its Renton, Washington, location. Each fall, Boeing gathers students participating in the WSU Boeing Scholars and Boeing Mentoring Programs to meet their mentors and network with Boeing employees. The event included a keynote address by Robert Martin (’04 Busi. Admin., Accounting), vice president and chief financial officer for Boeing Commercial Airplanes; plus, the group toured Boeing’s 737 plane factory at the Renton site.
Jarid Adams (’16 Busi. Admin., Mktg.) started a new position as the senior brand marketer at Prompt Therapy Solutions Inc., a software solutions company for the physical therapy industry. Previously, he worked at Ventrk and cofounded home exercise programs TheraCentric and TrainCentric.
Brian Bickel (’17 Mgmt. Ops., Finance) recently began a new position as KPMG’s digital solutions management consultant. Bickel also collaboratively organized a nonprofit running event in memory of his friend Ian Cox (’15 Finance), who tragically passed away in 2022 while on a solo mountaineering trek through the Cascades. Dick’s-A-Thon is a running challenge where participants circumnavigate Seattle, stopping to eat at five Dick’s Drive-ins along the 26.3-mile route. The challenge benefits the Mountaineers Access Fund and the Search and Rescue organizations who dedicated themselves to the search for Cox. As of November 27, 2023, $54,000 was raised.
Conner Brennan (’23 Accounting) started a new position as an audit associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP, a company delivering integrated wealth advisory, outsourcing, audit, tax, and consulting services.
Jeff Carl (’04 Hosp. Busi. Mgmt.), president at The Wide Format Company, received the Partner of the Year Award from RMX Network. The award recognizes the excellence of Wide Format, a Seattle provider of wide-format printing equipment, supplies, and services.
Megan Fisher (’21 Finance, Mktg.) began a new role as an operations manager at Amazon. Prior to that she worked as an area manager II training and developing other area managers and indirect reports.
Zachary Green (’22 Busi. Admin., Intl. Busi.) began a new position as a heavy civil account manager at Hilti North America. He’s covering Downtown San Francisco and the North Bay territory. Prior to that, he worked in sales, finance, and business development in different capacities.
Allison Reeves-Helfen (’89 Hotel & Rest. Admin.) is the chief marketing officer for 26 North Yachts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Previously, she worked for OneWater Yacht Group. She has been in the marine industry for five years and has worked in the hospitality industry for more than 20 years.
Neil Maunu (EMBA ’21) was recently named executive director of Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. He provides leadership to this nonprofit, nonpartisan collaboration of private and public agencies in their advocacy of navigation, energy, trade, and environmental restoration and stewardship throughout the region.
Mackenzie Mosca (’23 Accounting) started a new role as an audit associate at PwC, a network of firms in 152 countries with more than 327,000 people committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory, and tax services.
Nam Nguyen (’20 Intl. Busi.) was named the winner of the 2023 International Alumni of the Year by The PIE. PIEoneer Awards are the only international award that honors innovation and achievement across the entire international education sector on a global scale.
Jean Jones (’00 Mktg., Mgmt. Ops.), global senior product manager and harvester at Oregon Tool Inc., traveled to Brazil to attend the ExpoForest show, working alongside a group of Oregon Tool LATAM team members. “It was a great week meeting with customers, learning about eucalyptus production and harvesting, and understanding what we need to do in the South America market to meet customer needs,” she says.
Cole Seaman (’22 Finance) has joined the WSU Foundation as a fiscal analyst II. He has worked for the Foundation’s budget and operations unit since 2022. He will take on accounting-focused tasks and help with reporting cash, fixed assets, and notes receivable on audited financials.
Katie Stordahl (’17 Hosp. Busi. Mgmt.), general manager for InnVentures, received the Burtenshaw Rising Star Award from the Washington Hospitality Association. The award honors significant accomplishments to support the hospitality industry. Stordahl started her career as a house aide at the Holiday Inn. She worked as a housekeeper, inspector, and eventually supervisor. Later, she worked in food and beverage for Marriott International to learn all line-level positions. She opened the Delta Hotels by Marriott Everett, serving as the guest service manager and director of rooms. She’s grown her career while ensuring the guests and her employees stay at the forefront. InnVentures named her Rookie General Manager of the Year for her stellar financial performance, service scores, and ability to lead and recognize her team.
Christian Wilgis (’23 Finance, Intl. Busi.) will be participating in the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program, a public diplomacy program through the Education Office of the Embassy of Spain. “I’m looking forward to continuing my pursuit of fluency in Spanish and working as a cultural ambassador,” he says.
Ryan Yousefian (’17 Entrep.) was recently recognized as a Forbes local 30 under 30/Seattle. “Yousefian founded ApnoMed after overcoming sleep apnea-related challenges in high school, creating an FDA-approved dental device, ApnoDent. The device gently repositions the lower jaw to open the airway and prevent tongue obstruction, addressing sleep disorders caused by blocked airways,” according to the Forbes article.
Christina Chi, professor of hospitality business management, is included in Stanford University and Elsevier’s top 2 percent of most cited scientists in the category of single year 2022 and the category of whole career, in the field of sport leisure and tourism.
Joseph Scott Gladstone, scholarly associate professor of management, information systems, and entrepreneurship at WSU Everett, was a featured speaker in “Bridging Cultures and Wisdom,” a Top 5 DEI podcast with Jason Lambert. Lambert interviewed Gladstone to gain insights on the intersection of diverse cultural perspectives and modern management practices. Gladstone’s expertise, dedication, and pioneering work offer a wealth of knowledge for DEI professionals, educators, and anyone interested in the dynamic integration of Indigenous wisdom into management education.
Dogan Gursoy, professor of hospitality business management, is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management which was recently recognized by the Journal Citation Reports as the top three journal in the category of hospitality, leisure, sports, and tourism, and placed ninth in the management and business categories. Gursoy also hosted the tenth Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Management conference in Rome in July. Gursoy is also recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics, which defines the category as “true pioneers in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science.” According to research.com, Gursoy is ranked as the number 82 researcher in the US in business and management category and the number 141 researcher worldwide in the same field.
Dipra Jha, associate dean for equity and inclusion – inclusive pedagogy, has been approved by US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as a Fulbright Specialist and will be spending two weeks at Hue University in Vietnam over winter break in that capacity. Jha was recently recognized as the International Hospitality Institute’s list of 100 most influential people in US hospitality and travel. He also received an honorary doctorate by Sumy State University in Ukraine.
Julie Nelson, director of the WSU Center for Professional Sales, presented research on employee and customer references in retailers’ codes of ethics/codes of conduct at the August Society for Business Ethics conference in Boston, with coauthors Mary Henderson and Chrissann Ruehle. Their research investigates the US’s top 20 retailers code of ethics/codes of conduct to see how they call out employee/customer behavior and relationships.
The AACSB International 2023 Innovations that Inspire campaign featured Nancy Swanger, director and founder of the WSU Granger Cobb Institute for Senior Living, in an online forum. Swanger spoke about how business schools can leverage industry feedback to repackage traditional programs into new opportunities for higher education.
Soobin Seo, associate professor of hospitality business management at WSU Everett, and her colleagues in mechanical engineering, psychology, agriculture, and nuclear power systems, received a five-year, $3,000,000 National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant. Seo is part of the executive committee of the grant team. She will also be teaching a business-oriented course for NRT trainees. The principal investigator on the project is Prashanta Dutta, a professor with the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and director of the NSF NRT-LEAD program.
Lily Zhu, assistant professor of management, information systems, and entrepreneurship, presented her research on creativity to the City of Pullman’s Leadership Development group at City Hall, as part of their leadership series. She also discussed a recent publication on the Northeast Public Radio show, the Academic Minute.