Academics

Penn State Smeal announces promotions in academic rank

Eight members of the Penn State Smeal College of Business faculty, which ranks among the best in the world for research productivity, have received promotions for the 2017-18 academic year that will take effect on July 1.

Tenure-track faculty promotions

Karen Winterich will be promoted to the rank of professor in the Department of Marketing. Winterich conducts research in the area of consumer behavior, with much of her work examining how consumers’ social identities influence charitable giving as well as (im)moral and sustainable behavior.

Winterich has a doctorate in marketing from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s in information management and analysis from Shippensburg. She joined the Smeal faculty in 2010.

Suresh Muthulingam will receive early tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems. Muthulingam’s expertise is in environmental issues in operations management, supply chain management, quality management, and learning and forgetting. He joined the Smeal faculty in 2014.

Muthulingam holds a doctorate in business (operations management) from UCLA, a master of business administration from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India, and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India.

Saurabh Bansal will receive tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems. Bansal’s research interests lie in three dimensions of supply chain and operations management: model and data-driven understanding of how business managers perceive and estimate uncertainties; descriptive models for how they react to these uncertainties; and, prescriptive optimization-based models for how they react to the uncertainties.

Bansal earned a doctorate in risk analysis and decision making from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s in industrial engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He joined the Smeal faculty in 2010.

Alexey Zhdanov will receive tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor in the Department of Finance. Zhdanov’s expertise is in real options, corporate finance, and empirical asset pricing. He has been a member of the Smeal faculty since 2015

Zhdanov holds a doctorate in finance (strategy) and a master’s in business administration, both from the University of Rochester. He earned a master of business administration in management from Vlerick Business School in Brussels, Belgium, as well as a bachelor’s in systems engineering from Saint Petersburg State Technical University in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Clinical faculty promotions

Scott Collins will be promoted to clinical associate professor in the Department of Accounting. Collins is the director of Smeal’s one-year Master of Accounting Program. He teaches courses in financial and managerial accounting, accounting information systems, and advanced topics in financial reporting, among others. Collins has been a member of the Smeal faculty since 2012.

Arthur Jones will be promoted to associate teaching professor in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems. He teaches courses in information systems health administration, organization of data, information systems management and applications, and business information systems analysis, among others. Jones joined the Smeal faculty in 2011.

Suzanne Wright will be promoted to associate teaching professor in the Department of Accounting. She teaches courses in accounting information systems, financial accounting, and financial reporting in special industries, among others. Wright has been a member of the Smeal faculty since 1996.

Barbara Yener will be promoted to associate teaching professor in the Department of Accounting. She is the director of Smeal’s Graduate Certificate in Corporate Accounting Foundations. She teaches courses such as financial and managerial accounting for decision making, auditing, principles of taxation, and financial accounting. Yener joined the Smeal faculty in 2013.

Last Updated June 22, 2018

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