Business & Technology Faculty and Staff

EAB 346
Phone: 314-246-7162
Email: elizabethrisik37@webster.edu

Elizabeth Risik, PhD, has a BA in Finance from Michigan State University, a MS in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Risik's areas of teaching include financial strategy, mergers and acquisitions and principles of finance. Risik's areas of research include corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, options pricing, behavioral finance and mutual funds.

EAB 349
Phone: 314-968-5992
Email: dippelr@webster.edu

Professor Rich Dippel has a BS in Business Administration from Saint Louis University, a MBA from Saint Louis University and a JD from Saint Louis University. Dippel's areas of teaching include legal procedure management of evidence and accounting information systems. Dippel's research interests include technical, legal and internal control implications of today's digital multifunctional devices. He has been published in the Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting.

Email: mitchellison23@webster.edu

Mitch Ellison is a chartered financial analyst, a certified public accountant, a certified management accountant and is certified in financial management. With Neil Seitz, he is co-author of the international used textbook, "Capital Budgeting and Long-Term Financial Decisions," fourth edition. Ellison has extensive experience as a consultant to several firms in merger and acquisition analysis, strategic planning, executive compensation and in various SEC and FASB implementation issues. Additionally, he has over 30 years of teaching experience in finance and accounting. He earned his PhD in Finance from Saint Louis University. On a non-work-related note he enjoys biking, travel and building things.

EAB 352
Phone: 314-246-7591
Email: baichunfeng18@webster.edu

Dr. Baichun Feng has a BA in Civil Engineering from Tsinghua University, a MS in Transportation Engineering and a minor in Statistics from University of Minnesota and a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from The Pennsylvania State University. Baichun’s research interests focus on understanding the complexities of outsourcing and supply chain management. Baichun also has been working in the area of transportation and the interface of finance and operations management. Baichun’s research work has been published at Productions and Operations Management, International Journal of Production Research, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research. Information Technology and Management and Transportation Research Record.

EAB 345
Phone: 314-246-7017
Email: hinsonsy@webster.edu

Dr. Steve Hinson has a BS in Economics from Berea College, an MA in Economics from the University of Kentucky, a PhD in Economics from the University of Kentucky and an MBA from Webster University. Hinson's teaching responsibilities include principles of economics, macroeconomics and international economics. His areas of research include sustainability and income inequality.

EAB 347
Phone: 314-246-7943
Email: tluh@webster.edu

Dr. Troy Luh has a BS in Accounting from Evangel University, his MAcc from Missouri State University, MSvS (Masters of Sciences in Valuation Sciences) from Lindenwood University and his PhD in Higher Education and Leadership from Saint Louis University. His expertise is in financial accounting, auditing, business valuation and forensic accounting. Luh's areas of teaching include intermediate accounting, auditing, business valuation and forensic accounting. His areas of research include business valuation and forensic accounting. Luh has been published in The Tax Advisor, The Asset and The St. Louis Business Journal.

EAB 310
Phone: 314-246-7020
Email: danielmueller57@webster.edu

Dr. Daniel Mueller is a visiting professor at Webster University Walker School of Business & Technology redesigning the graduate program in Health Administration. Recently, Mueller served as a faculty liaison for the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health King Fahd Specialist Hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In his leadership role, he coordinated an Executive Master Degree in the Science of Health Administration for the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Health Professions Department of Health Administration. Previously, Mueller served as assistant vice chancellor for International Affairs at Washington University School of Medicine and director of International Health Services. Mueller is a returned Peace Corp volunteer and past county director for the US Peace Corps. Mueller has experience in health care leadership educational programs, health care system design and quality improvements process. He has a strong interest in providing international executive health care administration programs to improve global health delivery.

EAB 348
Phone: 314-246-7794
Email: runniu68@webster.edu

Dr. Run Niu has a BA in Economics (Enterprise Management) from Tsinghua University, a BE in Engineering (Mechanical) from Tsinghua University, a ME from Tsinghua University and a PhD in Management Science from the University of Alberta. Niu's areas of teaching include operations management, management science and related courses. Niu's areas of research include decision problems on the interfaces of operations/marketing, operations/supply chain management, business/education applications of social networks and virtual worlds, word-of-mouth and referral rewards management in retailing. Run has been published in Decision Support Systems, European Journal of Marketing, Asian Pacific Journal of Operations Research and Information System and e-Business Management Journal.

EAB 346
Phone: 314-246-7162
Email: elizabethrisik37@webster.edu

Dr. Elizabeth Risik has a BA in Finance from Michigan State University, a MS in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Risik's areas of teaching include financial strategy, mergers and acquisitions and principles of finance. Risik's areas of research include corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, options pricing, behavioral finance and mutual funds.

EAB 343
Phone: 314-246-7574
Email: bradford@webster.edu

Brad G. Scott, PhD, is a professor of finance and international business at Webster University. He has taught in London and the Netherlands, and led short courses to Switzerland, China, Thailand and Japan. He has been the previous chair of the Business Department and director of the MBA program, and served on many other service committees. Scott’s past experience includes a family retail business and as a commercial banking officer. He received both his PhD and his MBA from Saint Louis University, and has remained active in his field with papers and presentations in both finance and online education.

EAB 342
Phone: 314-246-7893
Email: douglaswhitman@webster.edu

Doug Whitman earned a Doctor of Science in Healthcare Management from the University of Alabama Birmingham. He earned an MBA at Duke University and his undergraduate degree at the University of Arkansas.

He is currently an MHA program lead and assistant professor of Health Administration in the Walker School of Business & Technology at Webster University in St. Louis. He began teaching Healthcare Management at the University of North Carolina in 2014.

Prior to entering academia, Whitman served in various healthcare leadership positions for 20 years, including president of small nonprofit healthcare organization, Vice President of a large national healthcare company and director of strategic growth for a mid-sized regional healthcare company. Most recently, he was a healthcare consultant specializing in crisis change management.

Professional licenses include licensed nursing home administrator and licensed assisted living administrator.

Before entering healthcare, he was CEO of a technology startup, senior vice president of a broadcasting company and Managing Director of an investment bank.

Whitman was raised in Seattle and lived in Arkansas and North Carolina before moving to Missouri in 2020. He is married to a first-grade teacher, and the couple has two children. He is also a professional DJ on the side … he likes his classic rock loud. He enjoys running, runs a 5K most mornings before work, and has completed a dozen marathons and triathlons.

EAB 383
Phone: 314-246-7081
Email: rhineeri@webster.edu

Dr. Eric Rhiney holds a BSBA in Marketing from the University of Central Missouri, an MBA from Webster University, and also a PhD in International Business and Marketing from Saint Louis University. His areas of teaching include marketing research, marketing strategy and survey design. His areas of research interests are international marketing (consumer ethnocentrism), consumer behavior (cross-cultural identity), and branding (heritage branding).

EAB 389
Phone: 314-246-7940
Email: baeblerb@webster.edu

Dr. Barrett Baebler received his BSBA in Finance from the University of Missouri-Columbia and his MA in Finance from Webster University, and a Doctor of Management from Webster University. Baebler's areas of teaching include nonprofit revenue development, business plan development, entrepreneurial financial management, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit management. His areas of interest and research include entrepreneurship, nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship. He currently serves as the director of Nonprofit Management and Leadership for the Walker School.

EAB 384
Email: sfranklin20@webster.edu

Sharilyn Franklin manages a portfolio of firms operating in the areas of organizational development, brand development and human capital capacity building. She has a 30-year history of successfully working with individuals, teams and organizations to identify problems and create value-based opportunities. She has coached or trained more than 1600 individuals at all developmental stages, from around the globe, and in various industries. She teaches graduate-level courses and has taught internationally. Franklin has received over 200 business, civic or academic awards and enjoys relationships with brands like Goldman Sachs, Gillette, Sprite, CNN and Anheuser Busch, to name a few. She is an acclaimed consultant, board-certified coach, and catalyst for improved productivity and performance.

EAB 380
Phone: 314-246-7544
Email: marcela@webster.edu

Dr. Albert J. Marcella Jr. holds a BA with a dual major in Management Information Systems and Management from Bryant College, an MBA in Finance from The University of New Haven, and a PhD in Management (emphasis in Information Technology) from Walden University. Marcella's areas of teaching include ITM security and information technology. Marcella has authored numerous articles to audit related publications and has authored and co-authored many audit related text books including such titles as: Auditing IBM's Customer Information Control System; Auditing Disaster Contingency Planning; EDI: Security, Control and Audit, Assessing Individual and Organizational Ethics: A Value-Added Audit, Outsourcing, Downsizing, and Reengineering: Internal Control Implications, and Electronic Commerce: Control Issues for Virtual Enterprises.

EAB 370
Phone: 314-246-5978
Email: dobannon@webster.edu

Dr. Doug O'Bannon has a BS in Management from Arizona State University, an MBA with Emphasis in Economics and Finance from Arizona State University and a PhD from the University of Maryland where his major was strategy and his minor was in human resource management. O'Bannon's areas of teaching include economics, management, HRM, labor relations, strategic HRM and strategic management. O'Bannon's research interests include top management teams, expectancy-valence as a predictor of resource movement and real-time strategy. O'Bannon has been published in the Administrative Science Quarterly and Business and Society and recently presented papers on dynamic strategy at the Academy of Management and Southern Academy of Management.

EAB 381
Phone: 314-246-2354
Email: juliepalmer56@webster.edu

Julie (JP) Palmer received a BS in Animal Science and Chemistry from Colorado State University, MBA from the University of Nebraska and her PhD from the University of Missouri. Palmer's areas of teaching are human resource management and organizational behavior. Her areas of research include management education, recruitment and organizational reputation. Palmer is the Walker School of Business' faculty advisor for Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE). She has been published in Academy of Business Research Journal, Academy of Management Proceedings, and Midwest Academy of Management Proceedings.

EAB 310
Phone: 314-246-7020
Email: malhotni@webster.edu

Dr. Ray-Chaudhuri holds a DBA in Marketing from Grenoble ecole de Management. Her areas of teaching are international marketing, entrepreneurial marketing, marketing strategy and sales. Her research interests lie in the fields of sales, sales person performance and teaching strategies. She has spent her career in academia teaching and being part higher education administration.

EAB 382
Phone: 314-246-5062
Email: renzga@webster.edu

Dr. Gary Renz has a BS from the University of Minnesota, a JD from UCLA, and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. His areas of teaching include human resources management, organizational behavior, leadership and law. Renz' areas of research include leadership, emotions, motivation, staffing, compensation and law.

EAB 390
Phone: 314-246-7537
Email: joeroberts@webster.edu

Dr. Joe Roberts received his PhD from University of Chicago. He is chair of the Management Department and also serves as director of the Entrepreneurship program. He is the national program director of the Coleman Foundation Faculty Fellows program. He won an award for the 2012 Peter Drucker Challenge. His work includes presenting entrepreneurship and innovation workshops and seminars in China, Taiwan, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Finland and India. He has authored several articles and won the Telly and Aegis Awards for the documentary "Entrepreneurship, Then and Now." Roberts works as an entrepreneurship consultant and has extensive experience helping entrepreneurs procure start-up funding.

EAB 342
Phone: 314-246-4259
Email: dustinsmith64@webster.edu

Dr. Dustin Smith received his PhD from Washington State University with an emphasis on corporate social responsibility and business strategy. Smith's current research examines stakeholder reactions to social initiatives and country-level predictors of firm social performance. His other research interests include firm resource deployment, social value capture and social entrepreneurship. His work has been featured in the Academy of Management Proceedings and has won best paper from the Western Academy of Management. Professionally Smith has worked for the Boeing Commercial Airplanes division and for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington State.

EAB 379
Phone: 314-246-2479
Email: ecetuncel24@webster.edu

Dr. Ece Tuncel holds a BS Business Administration and a MS in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, both from the Middle East Technical University. She received her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Tuncel's research examines the effects of cognition, emotion and personality on individual decision-making, particularly in negotiation settings and has been published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Psychological Science, and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research among other outlets. Tuncel has taught courses in the areas of organizational behavior, negotiation, decision-making and international management. She is a native of Turkey.

EAB 366
Phone: 314-246-8761
Email: jamescurtis89@webster.edu

Jim Curtis was a career Air Force cyber officer who served in the White House as a presidential communicator for presidents Bush and Clinton. He then spent 16 years in the IT industry culminating as a vice president with SRA International. His expertise encompasses information assurance, systems analysis, risk management, enterprise architectures, and space and logistics operations. Curtis serves as a permanent board director and past president of the Armed Forces Communications-Electronics Association, Scott-St. Louis chapter. From 2003–2013, he was an adjunct professor of Public Policy at Maryville University, and for the past three years he has been an adjunct professor of Cybersecurity at Webster University. He earned his doctorate degree from Saint Louis University in Public Policy where the subject of his research was public-private partnerships.

EAB 369
Phone: 314-246-7570
Email: boycebk@webster.edu

Brenda Boyce received her BS in Chemistry and BS in Biology from Quincy University and her MS in Management Information Systems from The University of Missouri. Boyce's areas of teaching includes data structures, statistics, research methodology and systems concepts.

EAB 374
Phone: 314-246-2520
Email: lasanthigamage67@webster.edu

Lasanthi Gamage received her PhD in Computer Science from Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2015. She received her MS in Computer Science from St. Cloud State University in 2009 and her BEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka in 2006. Her primary teaching interests include computer programming, data structures, algorithmic analysis, computer architecture and database management systems, operating systems, analytical geometry, and calculus. Her research interests are in mobile databases, big data, distributed computing and parallel computing. She comes with over five years of undergraduate teaching experience.

EAB 364
Phone: 314-246-7699
Email: grandlar@webster.edu

Dr. Larry Granda has a BS in Mathematics and BA in Philosophy from Webster University, an MA in Mathematics from Saint Louis University and a PhD in Mathematics from Saint Louis University. Granda's area of teaching is mathematics and his area of research is low-dimensional topology. He has been published in Houston Journal of Mathematics and Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications.

EAB 321
Phone: 314-246-8622
Email: maherp@webster.edu

Dr. Peter Maher has a BS in Mathematics, University of Wales, a MS Computer Science, University of Wales and a PhD in Computer Science (emphasis in Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Wales. Maher's areas of teaching include data structures and algorithms, object oriented analysis and design and agile software development. Maher's areas of research include agile development methodologies, software methodologies for outsourcing companies, effective assessment techniques and management. He has been published in Research in Higher Education Journal, IEEE-CS Conference on Software Engineering and Training (CSEET), International Conference on Information Technology New Generations (ITNG) and American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences.

EAB 310
Phone: 314-246-7021
Email: dmenendez94@webster.edu

Doug Menendez is a talented and seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience in risk management, auditing and compliance. He brings a wealth of expertise with particular strengths in areas such as information technology controls/security/audit, enterprise and operational risk management, process improvement, and regulatory compliance. Menendez has worked across multiple industry leading companies, including Mastercard, Graybar Electric, Enterprise Holdings and Express Scripts. In addition to his executive career, Menendez is past president of both the IIA (Institute of Internal Auditors) and ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) St. Louis chapters and has held many committee and board positions with both professional associations. Menendez is also a member of InfraGard (FBI's public-private security partnership), the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), local Data Analytics User Groups and is on the SecureWorld Expo Advisory Council. He is also deeply committed to mentoring students to find successful careers and has participated in the Mentored Pathways Program and Saint Louis University Alumni Advisor Network. Menendez has established himself as a thought leader in the field of IT auditing and cyber security. He co-authored a book Cyber Forensics: A Field Manual for Collecting, Examining and Preserving Evidence of Computer Crimes, 2nd Edition. He has also written articles for authoritative journals and contributed to research publications. Menendez is a speaker at local, national and international conferences and is an instructor at Webster University. Menendez obtained his BS/BA degree in Accounting and an MBA from Saint Louis University. He is a certified internal auditor (CIA), certified information systems auditor (CISA), and holds an ISACA Cybersecurity certificate.

EAB 373
Phone: 314-246-7878
Email: aovlia@webster.edu

Dr. Ali Ovlia has a BS in Marine Engineering, a BS and MS in Computer Science from University of Oklahoma and a Doctor of Management from Webster University. Ovlia's areas of teaching include information systems, decision support systems, information analysis data communications and networks architecture. Ovlia's areas of research include systems modeling intelligence systems. His book Accounting Information System: The Crossroads of Accounting and IT was published in 2011.

EAB 378
Phone: 314-246-7608
Email: qshao@webster.edu

Professor Quinn Shao has a BA from Shandong University, a MA in Education from from Simon Fraser University and a MS from the University of Wyoming. Shao's areas of teaching include object oriented programming, operating systems and web development. Her areas of research include comparative studies in computing education and web development. She has been published in AACE (Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education), HICE (Hawaii International Conference on Education), SITE (Advancement of Computing at Society for Information Technology and Education) and ACIS (Association for Computer and Information Science), ACM Southeast Conference.

EAB 362
Phone: 314-246-7678
Email: smithma@webster.edu

Dr. Martha Smith has a BA in Computer Science from Webster University, an MS in Computer Science Distributed Systems from Webster University and a PhD from Saint Louis University. Smith's areas of teaching include object-oriented programming, data structures, database analysis design, database applications and web usability and accessibility. Smith's areas of research include the underrepresentation of minorities in computer science and human-computer interaction (HCI). She has been published in CCSC (The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges), International Symposium Emerging Technologies for Online Learning, and HICB (Hawaii International Conference on Business). She is one of the founders of the St. Louis chapter of Service Design Network (SDN).

EAB 371
Phone: 314-246-2359
Email: xiaoyuansuo51@webster.edu

Dr. Xiaoyuan Suo received her BS, MS and PhD in computer science from Georgia State University. Suo's areas of teaching include programming, telecommunications and network architecture. Her areas of research include user studies on touch based visualization systems, developing methodologies on building user friendly touch based visualizations, and touch based visualization design analysis. She has been published in the proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Visual Computing and Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

EAB 375
Phone: 314-246-8602
Email: wang@webster.edu

Dr. JiangPing Wang has a BA in Electrical Engineering from Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, a MS in Information Systems from the University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom and a PhD in Engineering Management from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri. Wang's areas of teaching include database design, database applications, data warehousing, web databases, database in web services, distributed application development, computer programming, operating systems and computer architecture. His areas of research include database management systems, decision support systems, business intelligence, e-commerce data processing, and software project management. Wang has been published in Web Enabled Online Analytical Processing for Intelligent Business Decision-Making and the proceedings of 10th Wuhan International Conference on E-Business.