Faculty at NIU's College of Business are highly regarded thought-leaders, who are often quoted in the media or whose expertise is sought by major organizations. Many of our faculty have received teaching awards at the departmental, college, and university levels, including the prestigious NIU Presidential Teaching Award. Unlike faculty at other schools around the country, the majority of NIU's business faculty worked as business professionals before earning their PhDs. NIU business students learn from faculty who have been in the trenches, who understand business fundamentals, and who also explore best business practices...both existing and emerging. Such enduring commitment to meld theory and action -- and to provide opportunities for learners to put business concepts into practice -- has caused the college to be known as a place Where the Classroom Meets the Business World .
Read about some of our featured faculty who put meaning behind the phrase Where the Classroom Meets the Business World.
Gerald Jensen may be a scholar-teacher in a nationally-ranked college, but even within the ivory towers of academia, Jensen's work makes a genuine impact … both in his students, on Wall Street, and in the board rooms of industry-leading firms.
It comes as no surprise that “investment” is an important concept to Jensen, who is an expert in the world of finance. What may come as a surprise is Jensen's commitment to utilize the concept of “investments” by making it the cornerstone of the faculty-student relationship. For Jensen, investing in students is serious business. As to the return he strives to realize, Jensen would say, “To see students develop a skill set that helps them to achieve more than they previously thought possible — in school and in their professional careers.”
If achieving more than previously imagined is the measure, consider the experience of former student Nick Calamos (M.S. Finance 1989), Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Investments/CIO of Calamos Investments. Calamos originally pursued a master degree at a private institution, but characterized the experience as average and grew disenchanted … so much so, he withdrew from the private school. Calamos enrolled instead in NIU's graduate business program. There, he experienced rigorous coursework of real substance and a professor in Gerry Jensen who challenged students to think both like an accomplished investor and a seasoned business professional. “Professor Jensen never tailored the material to the average or to the mediocre. Instead, he pushed each student to achieve their personal best … and sometimes beyond.” Go beyond a personal best Calamos did. He credits his NIU business education and finance professor Gerry Jensen, in particular, with helping him to create a successful business model, which he instituted — and employees still use — at Calamos Investments.
A prolific researcher, Gerry Jensen is widely regarded as an industry expert in both business and academic circles. Over the past five years, Jensen's research findings have received national and international media attention, with his work and NIU affiliation cited in major media outlets, including: CNBC — Squawk Box, CBS News, ABC World News, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Financial Week, Investment News, USA Today, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Morningstar, Dow Jones Capital Markets Report, Yahoo! Singapore Finance, and the Nikkei Kinyu Shimbun (Japan). Jensen remains closely affiliated with the finance community, engaging in endeavors with the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. He carries professional credentials as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), having passed all three levels of the comprehensive CFA Exam. In 2005, Jensen was awarded the CFA Charter, representing the highest possible level of certification in the field. On the academic front, the body of Jensen's intellectual contributions is exhaustive. Jensen's research studies have been published in a wide range of top-tier journals, including: Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Futures Markets, Journal of Investing, Financial Management, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Financial Review, and Journal of Alternative Investments, among others. Most notably, Jensen has the distinction of being published in the premiere academic journal The Journal of Business, which is produced by the University of Chicago Press and publishes only the highest quality papers in all business disciplines. To date, Jensen's scholarly study represents the first and only NIU paper ever accepted for publication in this esteemed periodical.
Click to check out Gerald's personnel page.
Kathleen McFadden, a nationally-regarded expert in transportation and healthcare quality, reaches new heights as a scholar-teacher in NIU's nationally-ranked College of Business. McFadden does so by taking a strategic view — sometimes from 35,000 feet — of the relationship between operations management and competitive advantage, focusing closely on the aviation industry and the healthcare industry.
McFadden's research on quality management and service operations management generates substantial interest. Since 1998, McFadden's research on aviation safety has been spotlighted in television, radio, and print media, ranging from ABC News, FOX News, the Chicago Sun-Times, WMAQ Radio (NBC/CNN affiliate) to Aviation Safety magazine. Beyond media interest, McFadden's expertise is also highly regarded within some of the most powerful circles in the United States government. She has served as an expert witness and contract researcher for the Federal Aviation Administration, and previously won two research grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
McFadden is no stranger to collaborating with business executives who endeavor to meld academic theory with emerging business realities. Moreover, McFadden brings those collaborations into the classroom for the benefit of her students. Previously, McFadden was an early participant in shaping the Motorola-NIU College of Business strategic alliance. Currently, she is one of a small handful of key players at NIU developing a multi-college program in Healthcare Policy and Management, which is designed to help leaders in healthcare to think and act more strategically. McFadden also plays an integral role in the IBM-NIU College of Business alliance, through which the college has been named a SSME Partner School. SSME — Services Science, Management, and Engineering — is a new initiative for IBM. Through the SSME initiative, IBM invites only the best institutions that meet specific criteria to partner in the program, such as NIU, Arizona State, Carnegie Mellon, Ohio State, North Carolina State, Maryland, California-Berkeley, and Wharton. The firm's interest in the NIU College of Business was prompted by the college's unique combination of operations and information systems, an area in which McFadden has consistently made inroads over the years.
McFadden, an award-winning scholar, received the “best doctoral dissertation award” from the Aerospace Human Factors Association and the University of Illinois, as well as the prestigious “best application paper” award at the 2000 National Meeting of Decision Sciences Institute. She has had her intellectual contributions published in a wide range of top-tier journals, including Journal of Operations Management, Human Factors, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Healthcare Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Quality Management Journal, Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, Journal of Air Transport Management, Journal of the Operational Research Society, and OMEGA, among others.
Quality is McFadden's trademark in terms of the standard of performance she places not only within her scholarly endeavors and industry consultations, but also on her faculty-student relationships and the learning experience. A recipient of several departmental teaching awards, McFadden succinctly defines success in the classroom: “My goal is to instill in students a deep appreciation for quality as it relates to all aspects of what it means to be a business professional. This runs the gamut from successfully applying business concepts to modeling the behavior of a stand-out business leader. This is how NIU students develop the strongest possible competitive advantage for themselves…which reflects back on their alma mater.
Click to check out Kathleen's personnel page.
Click to check out a recent article Health Execs Surveyed on Education Needs...NIU Initiative to Address Changing Needs in Health Care Industry.
Click to check out Rick's personnel page.
Marketing professor provides students with value-added experience.