April 2025 Desk of the Dean

This past month marked significant achievements in faculty research, student success, and professional leadership. I hope this newsletter gives you a glimpse of our Atkinson community's impressive accomplishments.

Our speaker for the Executive Forum last month, Mike Ciabbatoni, gave a great presentation about economic development and city planning. The Executive Forum will resume in the fall with guest speakers Kristina Turner, Georgia's Deputy State Auditor, and Lou Childs, Entrepreneur.

Georgia College & State University is now an official IBM WatsonX Academic Partner based on the work that Dr. Ward Risvold has been doing with the AI Lab and the Center of Technology & Empowerment! GCSU is the first non-R1 university that IBM has partnered with. Faculty are excited about how the IBM WatsonX platform can be integrated into the ISCS curriculum to prepare students better for their future careers.

In other news, GCSU recently completed a restructuring of the graduate programs and now the CoBT Graduate recruiter, Ms. Cassie Napier, is housed in the Graduate School with recruiters for other colleges. Additionally, Haleigh Purser has joined our team as the new Development Officer, as Chris Hultquist left GCSU.

Consider joining us in our Alumni Giving Challenge, which begins tomorrow, April 2nd, and continues through April 4th. Your gift to the J. Whitney Bunting College of Business & Technology will directly impact our students' lives. From inspiring service learning projects to high-stakes global competitions, our High-Impact Practices provide hands-on, real-world experiences that transform today's students into tomorrow's leaders.

Your generosity will:

• Fund student participation in life-changing international business tours.
• Support impactful service learning projects that benefit our community.
• Provide our students with additional opportunities outside the classroom.

By making a tax-deductible gift today, you'll help shape the careers and change the lives of our students. Join us in empowering the next generation of business and technology leaders and donate today.

Sincerely,

Dr. Tanya Goette

Interim Dean

Professor of Management Information Systems

This month, we are highlighting the accomplishments of our Department of Management, Marketing & Logistics. The Department of Management, Marketing & Logistics offers a range of programs designed to prepare students for exciting careers in very high-demand fields.

We offer two majors: a B.B.A. in Marketing and a B.B.A. in Management. We also provide minors in management, marketing, and logistics. At the graduate level, we offer the Master of Logistics and Supply Chain Management (MLSCM) degree. We recently added a new spring cohort for Double Bobcats in the MLSCM and those without experience in the field.

Dr. Lowery presents throughout the United States and internationally and serves as a reviewer for various journals including: Journal of Managerial Issues, Journal of Business and Psychology, Human Performance, Public Personnel Management, European Journal of Management, Psychological Reports, Journal of Management Studies, and Communications of the IIMA.

Can you share your career path since graduating?

One month before graduating from GCSU in 2019, I accepted a Strategic Communications and Marketing Internship with Georgia Tech Alumni Association, working in web design, social media, and email communications. After the summer, I joined full-time as a Digital Strategy Coordinator, managing web projects and deadlines.

After three years, I realized I wanted a more forward-facing role rather than behind-the-scenes creative marketing. In March 2022, inspired by my college friend Sarah Zuern (GC 2020) who worked at Soliant, I pursued an opening in Talent Acquisition there.

I joined Soliant in June 2022 and have been promoted twice. In March 2024, I launched our University Relations initiative, building brand awareness across college campuses. This role perfectly combines my passion for higher education with Soliant, allowing me to help new graduates navigate their job search. Meeting students face-to-face and guiding them through the interview process has become my dream job—one I didn't even know existed three years ago. While not always easy, it's incredibly rewarding to truly love what you do.

What inspired your career pathway, and what accomplishment are you most proud of?

I was most inspired by Sarah Zuern to enter the staffing field. Seeing her growth, success, and genuine love for her job motivated me, and I'm incredibly grateful for her referral that launched my career in staffing and talent acquisition.

There's so much to be proud of in this role, but I think my biggest accomplishment is launching the University Relations initiative. Over the past year, I've developed relationships with several schools and professors, connecting with outstanding students across the southeast who are looking to start careers in sales. The most rewarding part has been reconnecting with GCSU and having the honor of being featured in these relationships. Talent Acquisition is fundamentally about relationship building, something that comes naturally to me.

What are some of your favorite Bobcat memories?

My time at Georgia College was filled with incredible experiences: joining Alpha Delta Pi freshman year created lasting friendships with Lindsey Pitts, Sarah Zuern, and Lily Payne (who became my roommates).

• The Bridge Scholars Program helped ease my transition from a small private school to college life. There I met Drew Donis, who later married Sarah—I always remind her I knew him first!
• Dr. Rickard, Dr. Duesing, and Dr. Ginder were my most memorable professors. I maintain connections with Duesing and Rickard today. In Dr. Rickard's class, I sold products and participated in the Elevator Pitch competition, making it to the top 20 my senior year despite my nerves.
• Dr. Ginder and Dr. Rickard's classes taught me valuable public speaking skills. I never imagined I'd actually enjoy returning to present to Dr. Rickard's classes someday, or even serve as an Elevator Pitch judge!
  
  

How did your time at GCSU prepare you for your career?

My GCSU education went beyond textbooks, focusing on essential life skills like time management, prioritization, and meeting deadlines. The Elevator Pitch experience taught me how to leverage my skills effectively during interviews.

I'm grateful for the opportunities our professors created to engage with the Milledgeville community. Dr. Ginder's Atlanta Apparel Mart field trip sparked my ongoing passion for fashion, brands, and home décor—knowledge I'm excited to apply when decorating my new home soon. I really loved Dr. Ginder’s Fashion Merchandising class and the opportunity to go to the Mart. I feel like Dr. Ginder always pushed us to pursue things we were passionate about and was always so encouraging. Even learning about her professional journey was inspiring and helped me pursue my first role at Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

For me, GCSU's greatest value was in these practical life lessons rather than just academic content.

What career advice would you offer based on your professional journey?

Build relationships everywhere—it's often who you know that opens doors, like when a dinner conversation led to my Georgia Tech position. When I transitioned to Talent Acquisition at Soliant, I initially lacked confidence but discovered that consistency and curiosity were key to mastering the role. "Trust the process" became my mantra, even when starting at entry level with a wealth of experience.

What skills do you think are most valuable for aspiring students in your field to develop?

In our line of business, we look more for soft skills and train the actual skills of the job. Some competencies that are important to Soliant are the following;

• GRIT- no matter what career you choose, there will be good days and bad days. How you choose to show up each day is the only thing you can control. Positivity will allow you to persevere through the tough times.
• Coachability- there is always something to learn, especially just starting out in a career. We always want to be better tomorrow than we were today and implementing feedback is key. Having a leader who cares enough to share the positive and the areas you can improv in, is gold.
• Passion: You must have a why that fuels your fire. What gets you up each day? A leader/colleague can do their best to motivate you but if you aren’t motivating yourself, it will be tough.
• Relationship building is a huge part of Talent Acquisition. You must be able to hold conversations with all kinds of people in all walks of life. You also have to learn to not take anything personally in this job. At the end of the day, yes, you are selling yourself, but you’re really selling a company, and it's not personal when someone declines an offer. You should always want the best for that individual and if they don’t think your company is for them, it's probably for the better.

• Dr. Ania Rynarzewska's paper, "Developing Transactive Memory to the Supply Chain based on buyer-supplier digital communities" was accepted to Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review which is an ABDC A* ranked journal. She also published a paper: Online dating adoption and use: Differences between lesbian/gay, bisexual, and heterosexual adults was published in First Monday, ABDC ranked B.

• This spring our Department of Information Systems & Computer Science held the annual IT Advisory Board Etiquette Dinner, hosting more than 130 students and professionals. This experience is a transformational opportunity for student professional development.

• Dr. Ania Rynarzewska presented the paper, The Role of Online Communities and Perceived Environment Based CSR in Driving Sustainable Consumption, Buycott, and Brand Loyalty, at the 2025 AMA Winter Academic Conference.

• Drs. Ward Risvold and Brad Fowler, alongside marketing student, Jackson Kiser, spoke with The Agile Network on a podcast about the human element of AI.

• Dr. Sandria Stephenson presented a research paper at the Georgia Association of Accounting Educators Annual Conference on Fostering Inclusion in Accounting Education: Collaborative Strategies for Student Success!

• Finance faculty member, Dr. Brent Evans, had fun playing a little bit of March Madness and putting together brackets for students.

• Ms. Jehan El-Jourbagy served as an expert reviewer for the Pearson Publication, Cheeseman Business Law.

• Dr. Creel wrote an article featured in The Hill titled, Should AI be treated the same way as people are when it comes to copyright law?

• Economics & Finance double major, Joe Dubsky, was accepted into the Economics Ph.D. program at the University of Mississippi. The offer includes an assistantship of $30,000 per year for 5 years, a 100 percent tuition waiver, and a health insurance subsidy.

• Dr. John Swinton presented “Shrimply Irresistible: Sneaking economic content into a required general education course” at the annual meeting of the Society of Economic Educators.

• A current Economics major won a prestigious and highly competitive Emergent Ventures grant for $15,000. This award comes from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

• Recent economics graduate, Cam Watts was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania's MPA program at the Fels Institute of Government with funding.

• The Beta Alpha Psi Annual Kickball Challenge will be on April 22. Our sponsoring firms, Aprio, Nichols Cauley, Symphona, and Draffin Tucker, will each send reps to anchor their teams.

• Dr. Pridmore spoke at Salesforce during their AI Summit.

• Drs. Joy Godin and Jeannie Pridmore accompanied 15 MIS students to the March 7th ASUG Student Connect event in Atlanta at Microsoft.

• Drs. Daniel Wu & John Huang are working with GCSU athletics to create a baseball analytics system.

• We held the first AI Promptathon, and senior Aaliyah Turman was the first-place winner.

• Dr. Ward Risvold attended the Generative AI event with the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Toronto Metropolitan University and presented on structured prompting, generative AI, and digital literacy.

• Dr. Daniel Wu presented the paper, "Review of Machine Learning in Baseball Analytics for Performance Improvement and Future Directions," at the IEEE SoutheastCon 2025. Dr. Wu will also present the paper AI Governance and Auditing: Transformations, Challenges, and Adaptations, at the CCSC-South Central 36th Annual Conference in April.

• Alice James, from TTI, spoke to the Marketing Club.
• Dr. Joy Godin hosted Kerry Brown, Transformational Evangelist for Celonis, to speak to our Enterprise classes and MIS students. GCSU is a Celonis Academic Center of Excellence. Dr. Godin is working with Celonis’ Early Talent Recruiter to create a feeder program for internships and full-time positions.
• Mark Bailey, Director of Information Technology at Thiele Kaolin, spoke to a standing-room-only classroom for the Column Society speaker series.
• Dr. Erica Lyon Oduaran, from Emory University, spoke to our students about the role of rare earth and critical minerals in developing advanced semiconductor chips for artificial intelligence.

• Joan Berland, Associate Partner of Aon Rewards Asset Management with 25+ years of experience, came to speak to management HR courses. Berland is an HR consultant specializing in finance companies and asset management businesses, providing valuable insight to students.

• Dr. Joy Godin hosted Savannah Cole from SAP as a guest speaker in our SAP Next-Gen Lab.

Several of our faculty members were featured in the Atlanta Business Chronicle this month to commemorate Women's History Month.

• Dr. Joy Godin, Professor of Management Information Systems
• Dr. Mehrnaz Khalajhedayati, Assistant Professor of Management
• Dr. Xiaomeng Lu, Assistant Professor of Finance
• Dr. Mary Rickard, Associate Professor of Marketing
• Dr. Sandria Stephenson, Assistant Professor of Accounting

Interested in what we're up to or who has been on campus lately visiting with College of Business & Technology students? Check out the GCSU Bizcast Podcast!

Some of the most recent releases include:

GCSU President Cathy Cox: Leadership & Innovation

Mark Bailey: Leading IT Innovation and Career Insights

Barry Wolfe: First Business Executive in Residence

The Master of Logistics and Supply Chain Management degree can be earned as part of a Double Bobcat program or as a traditional graduate program. This degree positions graduates for career advancement and leadership opportunities within the logistics and supply chain industry. Whether you want to move up in your existing company, obtain a position in a new company, become a better manager, or attain executive leadership, pursuing a master’s degree in logistics and supply chain management can help you accomplish your goals. Apply today.