Shown below are individuals who have joined the College of Business this fall.
Meghann Abell Cefaratti joined the NIU faculty in 2009. She is a former auditor for the Air Force Audit Agency (AFAA) where her audit coverage included Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, the Pentagon, and various Air National Guard installations. Prior to working with the AFAA, she worked as a Tax Associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Baltimore, Maryland.
Meghann teaches Financial Accounting and Assurance Services. Her primary research interest involves the study of the effect of corroborating evidence on auditors' fraud risk assessment judgments. She is also interested in research in auditors' assessment of client truthfulness. Meghann is a member of the American Accounting Association, and her research has received awards from the Accounting and Information Systems Educators Association.
Ann DzuraninAnn Dzuranin joined the faculty at NIU in August 2009 following the completion of her Ph.D. at the University of South Florida. Ann earned her B.S. in Accounting from Fairleigh Dickinson University and her M.B.A. from New York University.
Ann is a CPA and has 15 years of experience in both public and corporate accounting. Her public accounting experience was as an auditor for KPMG and as a sole practitioner. She was the Director of Management Accounting and International Reporting for a Fortune 100 financial service company prior to returning to academia to pursue her doctoral degree.
Ann is interested in behavior research in managerial decision-making, incentive compensation, and accounting information systems. Specifically, she is interested in biases in capital project investment decisions and the ways in which accounting information systems interact with those decisions. She has had the opportunity to present her work at the American Accounting Association national meetings and several universities. Ann teaches Accounting Information Systems and Intermediate Cost Management Systems.
Emily Gamble is an Academic Counselor with Undergraduate Studies in Business. She advises business students at the 100-200 level and will soon oversee the UBUS 310 transcript review process. Prior to coming to the College of Business, Emily worked as the First-Year Connections graduate assistant in Orientation & First-Year Experience during the 2006-2007 academic year.
While working on her M.A. in College Student Personnel at Bowling Green State University, Emily served as an Academic Advisor with the College of Health & Human Services and as Greek House Director for Kappa Delta Sorority. She also taught the equivalent of UNIV 101, advised several student organizations, and completed a study abroad program that examined the higher education system of the United Kingdom. Additionally, Emily spent two full summers as the Residential Experience Coordinator for the Bucknell Community College Scholars Program at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Emily has volunteered to mentor two first-year students through the Student-Faculty Links program. Emily is engaged to an NIU alumnus and will be married in October 2010.
Vijaykumar Krishnan PalghatVijaykumar Krishnan Palghat earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati. He has a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a P.G.D.M. (M.B.A.) from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Vijay joined the Tata Steel group in 1990 in the marketing department, progressed successfully through several functions over the years in senior roles in marketing and business, and brings in a rich real world experience into the classroom. Some of his prior roles include: Deputy General Manager of Marketing, Shaw Wallace, India; Account Director, J. Walter Thompson, India; and General Manager Marketing, Usha Martin Telekom Ltd, India. Most recently, he was a Business Head with Bennett & Coleman Company, publishers of the leading daily, The Times of India.
Vijay teaches the capstone course on marketing strategy. He has also taught courses on retail strategy and marketing research in the past at the University of Cincinnati.
Vijay won the Outstanding Graduate Research Award at the University of Cincinnati. His primary research interest is in sonic branding and multi-sensory information processing. He is also interested in thin slice judgments and unconscious processes. Vijay has presented at the leading national conferences, notably, at the American Marketing Association, the Haring Conference, and the Society for Consumer Psychology. His paper on thin slice judgments won the best overall conference paper award at the Summer AMA 2007. He has published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
Vijay is a professional level Indian classical violinist, and he has performed in over two hundred concerts in India and the United States. Vijay is married to Prasanna, and has two daughters, Aditi and Anaga.
Mark Misic is responsible for leading and leveraging technology to advance and support the College of Business' objectives. This ranges from the day-to-day operations associated with our seven computer labs and approximately 500 networked computers to identifying new technologies or new uses for old technologies to distinguish our college, curriculum, programs, and people. Mark is also involved with renovations and remodels of the building, especially those that seek to integrate and advance technology.
Mark has a long and varied history with NIU and the College of Business. He first came to work for the College of Business in February of 1982 as a student worker in the Business Systems and Analysis Department (now OM&IS). Mark later returned to graduate school, first earning a master's degree in Information Systems and then a Ed.D. in Business. While pursuing his graduate degrees, Mark worked for Don Scriven in the Office of Business Planning Research and later as an instructor in OM&IS where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in introduction to computers and information systems, systems analysis and design, and database management. Upon receiving his doctorate, Mark was hired in a temporary position to “help faculty use computers” at a time when PCs and the network were first being introduced in the College of Business. After ten years in that position, Mark left NIU to pursue a second doctorate in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois. After two years in Champaign, Mark was first hired as a visiting professor in the KNPE Department at NIU while finishing his dissertation. The following two years he was a tenure-track faculty member in KNPE before rejoining the College of Business this past summer.
Robert PetersonRobert Peterson joins NIU after serving as the Chair of the Department of Sales in the Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales at William Paterson University. Rob earned the American Marketing Association 2002 Innovative Teacher Award and the Innovative Sales Educator Award from the University Sales Center Alliance 2006. Additionally, he won the Academy of Educational Leadership's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2001 for entrepreneurial education. He holds degrees from Indiana University, George Washington University and the University of Memphis. He is a board member of the University Sales Education Foundation.
Rob also taught at the University of Portland where he earned the Outstanding Award for Entrepreneurial Education and three additional teaching awards from the students. He served on the board of the National Conference in Sales Management for seven consecutive years and won three Best Session awards at the U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference (2005, 2004, and 2001). He was a salesperson for many years selling printing and financial data prior to earning his doctorate.
Rob has published several manuscripts, including articles appearing in Industrial Marketing Management, Business Horizons, Journal of World Business, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Entrepreneurial Executive, and the Journal of Marketing Education.
When not teaching the Principles of Selling classes, Rob enjoys hiking, wine tasting, traveling and spending time with his wife and twins.
Keith Robinson has recently joined Northern Illinois University's Accountancy Department as the Director of Leadership Development. In his new role, Keith will be responsible for helping students prepare for leadership roles by working with them on gaining a deeper understanding of leadership concepts and personal leadership skill development.
Keith is a Human Resources executive with over 23 years of global and domestic business experience. Throughout his career he has helped leaders drive results in their business by providing human capital solutions and coaching to a variety of C-Suite executives. Keith has provided them with valuable counsel in the areas of business and human capital strategies, leadership and personal development. One of his primary areas of strength has been his ability to translate complex business strategies and organizational objectives into pragmatic tactical solutions that get results. Some of the firms where he has held leadership positions were: Marsh, Inc. UBS, and Allstate Insurance.
Keith's areas of expertise and experience have included: Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Management and Leadership Development, Compensation, Education and Training, Employee Relations and Mergers and Acquisitions. One of Keith's passions is life long learning and the impact it can have on an individual and organization's ability to produce change and drive results. As a leader, coach and mentor in the business community, he has always stressed learning and communication combined with practical tools and hard work, as the keys to business success. His belief is that honest and thoughtful feedback at all levels in an organization will make it stronger.
Keith holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resources from Western Connecticut State University and a Masters of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He enjoys spending time with his family and serving in the community. He volunteers as a coach for youth baseball, football and soccer. In addition to his family, physical and mental fitness are two priorities he strives to achieve.
Mahesh SubramonyMahesh Subramony joined the Management Department of Northern Illinois University after serving as an Assistant Professor of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychology at the University of Wisconsin--Oshkosh. He received his Ph.D. in I/O Psychology from Central Michigan University and an M.A. degree in Applied Psychology from the University of Delhi, India. Prior to joining academics, he worked for two Fortune 500 companies in their human resources (HR) functions and brings this experience to bear in his human resource management (HRM) courses and applied research. Mahesh's research interests are in the emerging field of strategic HRM. Specifically, he is interested in examining the reasons why organizations make various types of human resource (HR) investments, and the processes though which these investments affect employee, customer, and financial outcomes. Mahesh has published several articles in top tier scholarly journals including Human Resource Management and the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Beth Towell is the new Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs. She will provide oversight for COB curriculum, accreditation, scheduling, and all-college programs such as the BSBA and the BELIEF initiative. Dr. Towell holds a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is a recent graduate of the Harvard Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. She worked for the Semiconductor Division of Texas Instruments in the 80's, was a faculty member in the OM&IS department at NIU in the 90's and has spent recent years as a senior administrator at Carroll University in Wisconsin.
Dr. Towell's dissertation involved issues relating to database inter-operability. She has published articles in the areas of data modeling, Internet standards, quality, safety and professional ethics. She has taught a wide variety of classes ranging from a graduate level software engineering course to a freshman-level seminar. She has co-authored numerous successful federal grant proposals including a Department of Education proposal aimed at internationalizing the Business curriculum at Carroll. She helped to developed commercially available software used for student retention initiatives. She is a consultant-evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission and has reviewed projects and portfolios and made numerous campus visits on their behalf.
Jennica WebsterJennica Webster received a Ph.D. from Central Michigan University in 2009, a M.S. from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 2006, and a B.S. from Bowling Green State University in 2004. Jennica currently teaches Training and Development and Human Resource Management. Prior to coming to NIU, she taught courses in the areas of human resources, organizational behavior and occupational stress, as well as statistics and psychometrics. Her research interests include occupational stress, job performance, and career issues. Jennica has presented her research at national level conferences such as the Academy of Management and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She has published in peer reviewed journals such as the Journal of Vocational Behavior and the Journal of Business and Psychology. In addition to her teaching and research, Jennica has consulted to companies such as Dow Corning Corporation, Parkway Corporation, and ThinkWise Inc.
Adam Yore teaches the core corporate finance course. His research focuses primarily on corporate governance, and he is currently working in the areas of corporate deals, executive compensation, corporate philanthropy, and managerial integrity. His research has been presented at the American Finance Association's and the Financial Management Association's annual meetings as well as at several regional finance conferences.
Adam earned his Ph.D. from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While at Drexel, his dissertation was chosen as the winner of the Excellence in Ethics Dissertation Proposal Competition hosted by the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide. Adam also earned an M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Leadership at the University of South Florida and a B.S.B.A. in Decision and Information Science from the University of Florida.