Current situation
I am an associate professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. I have been a part of the faculty since Fall 1993.
Teaching background
I have taught people for most of my life. I tutored my friends beginning in middle school. In my high school calculus class, when the teacher was out for pregnancy leave, I taught the class. During college I worked as a math tutor. When I was getting my MBA, I taught both the Accounting for non-business majors class and the Spreadsheet class for MBAs. While here at RSB, I have received some recognition for my teaching:
- The only two-time winner of the BBA Teacher of the Year award (voted on by the students)
- Awarded a Thurnau Professorship, which is given in order to “recognize and reward faculty for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.” It is the University of Michigan’s highest award related to teaching.
- In May 2009 I was asked by UM’s renowned Center for Research on Learning & Teaching to create a video titled “Using Technology and Collaboration to Engage Students”.
- In May 2012 for the Gallery of UM Teaching Innovations at the UM CRLT 50th Anniversary Celebration, I was invited to present a poster describing the introduction to business class I was teaching.
Professional history
In 1989 I began my PhD studies at Wharton in the Operations & Information Management department (with an emphasis in information systems). I got my degree in 1993, received tenure in 2000, and have been at the University of Michigan ever since.
From 2004-11 I was the BBA Program Faculty Director. In the summer of 2011 I was assigned the role of BIT Area Chair. This has changed my life quite considerably, allowing me to have time during the day to think about (and actually do!) my research. Well, during parts of the year, anyway. This Winter semester I will be teaching 2.5 classes so that time will basically be allocated to teaching for a few months; however, for the rest of the year I should be relatively good to go.
My interests have led me to teach classes in programming, Excel, Web development, and Google search. (I currently teach more general project-based and business-focused classes.) My tech/geek interests have also led me to use simulation and complex systems to research a variety of areas. In the past I also developed both a tool to support Coast Guard personnel in the process of deploying cutters, and a communication language to support businesses in their routine message-passing activities (sort of an advanced EDI). For the past few years I have been running simulations (approximately 4.5 billion of them) of a company who sells its goods via posted price and auctions at the same time.