May 2025 Desk of the Dean

The end of the academic year has arrived and the excitement around campus is contagious as we prepare for commencement and summer.

This month, I hope the newsletter gives you a glimpse of what our students, faculty, and staff have been accomplishing. We've held exciting events, including the University's Undergraduate Research Day, Atkinson Honors Annual Award Ceremony, our Venture Capital Competition, and many others.

Awards & Celebration Season

You can view our Atkinson Honors Photos in our Facebook Album, where you'll see our faculty and students celebrated, including our Overall Outstanding Undergraduate Student, Liam Baldwin.

Several of our faculty members received tenure and promotion:

Dr. Mehrnaz Khalaj-Hedayati, Tenure and promotion to Associate Professor

Dr. Aric Wilhau - Tenure and promotion to Associate Professor

Dr. Cullen Wallace - Tenure and promotion to Associate Professor

University-Wide Graduate Student Awards:

Michael Hernandez and Emily Johnston, College of Business & Technology graduate students, both received Outstanding Graduate Student awards from the Office of Graduate Studies.

I also want to especially thank you for participating in our Alumni Giving Challenge, as we raised the most of all the colleges at GCSU with nearly $20,000 raised!

Please know that you can always make a tax-deductible gift to help shape the careers and change the lives of our students, or become involved with our students through a variety of activities and sponsorships.

Sincerely,

Dr. Tanya Goette

Interim Dean

Professor of Management Information Systems

Bobcat Partner Award: Thiele Kaolin

We were excited to recognize the leadership of Thiele Kaolin at the University Celebration of Excellence Awards, with the Bobcat Partner Award. This university-wide award recognizes a business or organization that, although not a part of Georgia College & State University, helps the campus community achieve its mission and goals as if it were a member of the team. This year, Thiele Kaolin was recognized.

Thiele Kaolin has proven itself an exemplary corporate partner, truly deserving of the GCSU Bobcat Partner Award. Each year, Thiele generously sponsors key student success events including the IT Career Fair, GC WIT Day, and the ISCS Student Networking Event. Beyond funding, their leadership participates actively, with executives serving on boards for the College of Business & Technology.

What makes Thiele stand out is their hands-on engagement with our students. This investment doesn't stop there—Thiele consistently recruits students for their internship program, where they experience tremendous professional growth. Thiele Kaolin's partnership enhances student career preparedness while strengthening the university's ability to deliver relevant, cutting-edge education. Their consistent commitment to Georgia College makes them an invaluable Bobcat Partner. We are so thankful for their President, Eric Tillirson, and Chief Technology Officer, Mark Bailey.

This month, we are highlighting the accomplishments of our Department of Management, Marketing & Logistics. 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.

An exciting event that happens each year is our Elevator Pitch Competition. This competition involves tireless efforts from Ms. Kendra Evans and Ms. Leigh MacLeod and provides hundreds of students with the opportunity to practice speaking about themselves in under a minute.

This Spring Semester, the Elevator Pitch Competition Finalists were:

• 1st Place – Alysa Paisley
• 2nd Place – Hyatt Thorp
• 3rd Place – Andrew Oliver
• 4th Place – Brynlee Melear
• 5th Place – Julia Jensen

We especially thank our sponsors, TTi and Central Garden & Pet.

Dr. Serafin joined Georgia College this year with six years of experience teaching undergraduate business and marketing courses. He earned his Doctor of Business Administration in Marketing from Northcentral University in 2018, where his dissertation examined how sole proprietorships use social media to enhance business outcomes.

Before joining GCSU, Dr. Serafin taught at Andrew College in Southwest Georgia. During his time there, he helped launch a marketing concentration for their BSBA program, developed seven new marketing courses, and played a key role in starting a grassroots farmer’s market in the local community. He also completed a master’s degree in classical history during this time.

He is currently working toward his third master’s degree, this time, studying general law from Regent University, with plans to complete it by July 2025. His teaching areas focus on business and marketing, with additional interests in education, social media, history, and curriculum development. He considers online instruction and course development to be particular strengths and continues to mentor entrepreneurs, sole proprietors, and business owners.

Dr. Serafin has also contributed several articles to the World History Encyclopedia, covering topics such as the Norman invasion of Italy, the Battle of Civitate, and ancient military strategies. He hopes to expand this work into a book based on his master’s thesis.

A unique experience in his academic journey was a 2015 trip to Havana, Cuba, where he joined a group of six scholars exploring the startup business environment. The experience earned him academic credit in Organizational Psychology from the University of Havana.

When he's not teaching or studying, Dr. Serafin enjoys running, working out, and spending time with his cat, Cali.

What have you been up to since graduating from Georgia College?

After earning a Management degree with a Marketing minor in 2011, Zach Mullins launched his career in radio sales at Cox Media Group in Atlanta. He quickly gravitated toward digital advertising just as the field was taking off. Over time, he transitioned into digital strategy roles, helped build new departments, and eventually led a team of 30–40 people as part of Locality's streaming and digital video division.

Today, Zach is Chief Strategy Officer at Locality, where he’s helped grow the company, lead tech and sales innovation, and navigate multiple private equity transitions. “I started with a job description on a piece of paper,” he says. “Now my team contributes about a third of the company’s revenue.”

How did you land your first opportunity?

Zach credits a sales competition in Dr. Amit Poddar's Professional Selling class for launching his career. After winning the class competition, he advanced to a regional event at Kennesaw State, where he impressed recruiters and made lasting connections. “That event introduced me to Cox Enterprises and ultimately led to my first job offer.”

Were you involved in campus life?

Very. Zach served two terms as SGA President, helping launch the Student Wellness and Recreation Center and organizing the university’s first homecoming concert series. He was also a member of a business fraternity and hosted a student-run radio show. “It was such a formative time—working on real projects, collaborating with university leaders, and just being involved in building campus life.”

How did Georgia College prepare you for success?

“The liberal arts education gave me a strong foundation in thinking critically and asking the right questions,” Zach says. But more than that, he highlights experiential learning—like student government and real-world class projects—as crucial. “Those experiences gave me the confidence to walk into any room and bring value.”

What’s one favorite memory from your time at Georgia College?

Meeting his wife in a finance class tops the list. The couple now have two children. Outside of that, Zach fondly recalls helping launch the Den (the student activity center) and seeing students come together to improve campus life.

How did you know you wanted to pursue business?

Zach Mullins always knew he wanted to be in business. As a young entrepreneur, he ran a small stand selling snacks after swim practice and also operated a profitable Christmas light hanging business. These early experiences confirmed his passion for business, though he wasn’t sure at first if he wanted to pursue marketing or management. He eventually found that his strengths aligned better with management, especially in implementation and strategy.

What role did your liberal arts education play in that journey?

While Zach knew he wanted to study business, he didn’t initially realize how valuable a liberal arts education would be. He appreciated that Georgia College’s curriculum taught him to think critically, ask deeper questions, and approach management in innovative ways. “The liberal arts side really helped me fine-tune and discover how to challenge the regular way of doing things,” he said. He credits his liberal arts background for equipping him with the communication and collaboration skills needed to work effectively with legal, operations, marketing, and other teams.

What trends should students and faculty watch for in business fields like sales, marketing, or advertising?

Zach sees several key trends:

• Streaming growth: Viewership is shifting away from cable toward streaming, with ad-supported platforms becoming more common.

• Digital ad spending: Digital advertising continues to grow, taking budget from traditional media.

• AI integration: The biggest trend is AI—especially generative AI for creative content. The focus, he says, should be on how companies can use AI to work smarter, not just on building AI tools.

“AI is like a gold rush,” he says. “It’s about figuring out how to use it to make your team more effective, and supplying the tools and strategy around it that will far outlast the gold rush itself.”

What advice or lessons have guided your professional journey?

Zach offered three standout insights:

1. “Every decision has ripple effects.” A mentor taught him to look beyond short-term gains and consider long-term impacts.

2. “Leadership means making others better through your presence—and ensuring that impact lasts in your absence.” attributed to Sheryl Sandberg. He encourages empowerment and ownership across teams.

3. A decision-making framework:

   • Unaffected by emotion

   • Unhindered by haste or delay

   • Capable of reasonable explanation

   • Followed through by faith
     He’s shared this often with colleagues facing tough choices.

He also recommends the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink: “It’s required reading on my team and a great way to build a foundation for personal accountability.”

How do you stay connected to Georgia College?

Zach serves on the Alumni Board and even held the role of president. He remains close with a core group of GC grads through a long-running “Accountability Gems” group text that supports both professional goals and personal growth. “We helped build the Den, Wellness Center, Homecoming… and we still stay in touch holding each other accountable in both our personal and professional lives."

• Some of our MIS students visited the High Achievers Program, a local high school program, to talk about cybersecurity.
• Dr. Joanna Schwartz was featured in FrontPage for collaborative sports marketing partnerships.
• The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program completed the 2025 tax season with a total of 66 participants and nearly $35,000 in tax savings for participants.
• Dr. Sandria Stephenson had two research papers accepted for presentation at the annual International AAA Conference in Chicago for this fall. The topics include: "Investigating the Relationship Between Students’ Major and Visual Analysis Skills: An Odds Ratio Experiment" and "Using Learning Inventories to Promote Success in Accounting Courses."

• Dr. Ania Rynarzewska was accepted for publication in the ABDC A-Ranked Journal, The Public Relations Review. Her work is entitled, "Reviews in the Dark: A Netnographic Exploration of Reviewer Networks and the Dynamics of Online Review Manipulation" and is co-authored with Market Pelletier from UNCW.

• Beta Alpha Psi held their annual kickball championship with Dr. Eddie Thomas and Mr. Scott Burns officiating.

• The IS & CS department hosted the IT Advisory Broad Meeting and ITAB Student Networking Event. This ITAB sponsored event included 106 students and 15 professionals and provided our students the opportunity to gain real life networking experience.

• Dr. Jeannie Pridmore completed the USG Executive Leadership Institute program.

• The ISCS Department's two study abroad programs are getting ready to travel to Dublin Ireland to work with Mr. Kevin Neary and Orcawise in one week!

• Dr. Joy Godin and Ms. Caroline Collier planned and hosted a Pickleball Clinic for Information Systems and Computer Science majors.

• Robert Griggers, Aaliyah Turman, Gracie Taylor, and Christian Davies competed in the ERPsim Sustainable Manufacturing National Competition. The team, coached by Dr. Joy Godin, placed 9th in the nation with a company valuation of over $95 million.

• Dr. Ward Risvold presented on AI and Higher education at the University of Georgia.

• Mr. Frank Richardson hosted the Software Engineering celebration dinner to celebrate the completion of the Fouts capstone project.

• Economics student Liam Baldwin is a finalist for a pre-doctoral program at Yale University and interviewing for a predoctoral position at MIT.

• Joe Dubsky has accepted an offer to join Florida State University's Economics PhD program. He has received more than $26,000 is funding and a tuition waiver. He also had substantial offers from Ole Miss and West Virginia University.

• Dr. Brent Evans was featured in a WABE piece about the possibility of sports gambling legalization in Georgia.

• Ms. Jessie Folk received an Erasmus+ KA171 Mobility Staff Exchange Grant to attend International Week (April 7-11) in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Valladolid in Valladolid, Spain. The week included teaching activities, workshops, seminars, visits and lots of discussion. Of particular note, she participated in the Doing Business Worldwide seminar—a panel discussion with about 70 students in the audience.

• Dr. Donghun Kim's paper, "Information Asymmetry and Debt Structure: Evidence from Bond IPO" has been accepted for the 2025 Annual Global Finance Conference.

• Economics alumna, Hanna Glenn (Emory University, Ph.D.) is accepting a tenure-track position at The University of Queensland, one of Australia’s premier universities.

• Economics alumnus, Cam Watts has accepted a funded offer for the Master of Public Administration program at the University of Pennsylvania.

• Mr. Dale Alexander, from The Talk About Money, visited the Column Society.
• Lou Childs, entrepreneur and Co-Founder of SlumberPods, spoke with the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity.

• Quavious Hazzard, an SAP consultant at Deloitte, spoke to Dr. Joy Godin's Introduction to ERP courses and spoke with senior MIS students giving advice on how to get started working as an SAP consultant.

• Joshua McLaughlin, alum and founder of Tomorrow Digital Marketing, spoke to the Entrepreneurship Club.
• Mr. Ryan Nall, VP of eCommerce Sales & Capabilities for National Tree Company, spoke about eCommerce and give practical job and life advice to marketing and advertising students.

• Dr. Brad Fowler facilitated the MIS Explorers who took a trip to Lockheed in Marietta, GA.

• Julie Bartholic, Brandi Starks, and Rebecca Reagan-Thieme with SAP provided Design Thinking training to our MIS study abroad students. The students learned Design Thinking principles and strategies by exploring the question "How might we identify meaningful use cases for AI applications at work?" The students will incorporate these skills in the project they will participate in this May in Germany.

• MIS students in Dr. Joy Godin's Enterprise Performance Management class were introduced and trained in the Celonis Platform for Process Intelligence by Sarah Polech. The students are on their way to receiving Celonis Rising Star certifications.

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.