THE BUSINESS JOURNAL
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Eastern Mennonite University
Department of Business and Economics
Fall 2006
Farewell to Rick Yoder
The Department of Business and Economics said good-bye to Rick Yoder, who retired from EMU and with his wife, Carolyn, moved to Nepal where Rick has taken a job with a British Foreign Aid (DFID) and World Bank sponsored health program. Rick and Carolyn plan to be in Nepal for four years.
Watch for an update from Rick about his work in Nepal in the January 2007 issue of “The Business Journal,”
New Adjunct Faculty
Kathryn Hayman, MBA, PHR, is teaching Principles of Management. Kathryn is a Human Resources (HR), Coaching, Facilitation and Career Planning specialist with over 15 years corporate business experience. Kathryn is currently part of the HR team at Dynamic Aviation, a global company that modifies aircraft and leases aircraft along with pilots and mechanics to customers in niche markets, headquartered in Bridgewater , VA. Previous to Dynamic Aviation, Kathryn was the Director of Operations with The Hayman Group, an HR Consulting company working with individuals and organizations to assess goals and strategies and to develop competencies that ensure success. Additional corporate positions have included Nortel Networks, a global supplier of networking solutions, and Bell Canada , the leading provider of telecommunication services in the Canadian market. Kathryn holds a Masters degree in Business Administration and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Ottawa in Ottawa , Canada . She is certified as a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) by the HR Certification Institute. Kathryn and Tom, her husband, reside in Penn Laird, VA, along with their 2-year old son, Thomas.
Leah Kratz, an alumni of EMU’s accounting program, will be teaching Auditing in the spring of 2007. She is currently employed at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville , VA as the Assistant Fiscal Director. Additionally, she is completing her Masters in Business Administration from James Madison University . Leah lives in Harrisonburg with her husband Jeremy and enjoys traveling, cooking and reading.
Jim Leaman is teaching Principles of Microeconomics and Economic Development. Jim is an EMU alum, having graduated with majors in business administration and computer science. He then gained several years experience in business management here locally before enrolling at James Madison University , where he earned an M.P.A. degree focusing on nonprofit management. For the next 12 years Jim worked in missions and business in Kenya , providing educational and operational leadership and management within a large NGO. For the past four years he has been working toward a Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh . Jim will teach several economics courses while he continues to work toward degree completion. His research and teaching interests lie in the interrelated areas of international development, global political economy, and public administration.
Janet Morris is teaching two sections of Financial Management. Janet received her MBA from University of Southern New Hampshire and her BA in Business from the University of Massachusetts . Her career has brought her thru the ranks of accounting, cost accountant, senior general accountant, finance manager, and VP of finance and administration. Janet gave up the corporate life to start a family and relocated to Virginia . For the past 6 years she has taught on a part-time basis at various local colleges in Harrisonburg . Janet, husband Ron and son Jonathan live in Harrisonburg .
Homecoming Events
The Department of Business and Economics and the local MEDA chapter will be sponsoring a breakfast on Saturday, October 14, 8:00 a.m. in the University Common Gym. David Batstone, Senior Editor of Worthwhile magazine and Executive Editor of Sojourners, will be the featured speaker. David’s presentation is entitled “A Life of Significance.” All department students are invited to attend. Cost of the breakfast is $8, and we will we will pay $4 of that cost for students who don’t have a meal plan, and $2 for students who do have a meal plan. Please let Patty know if you plan to attend. Phone: 432-4150, e-mail: .
David will also be speaking at a community-wide event on Thursday, October 12, 7:00 p.m. in Lehman Auditorium. The title of his presentation is “Conducting Business with Purpose and Profit.” This event is free and open to the public, and students are especially encouraged to attend.
MEDA Convention
The annual MEDA convention will be held Nov. 2-5 in Tampa , Florida . This year’s theme is “Set the Pace.” The department will be sending nine students to the convention.
Student Steering Committee
Each year, the Department invites several students to be a part of the Student Steering Committee. This committee attends department meetings every other week and is intended to help faculty get student perspectives on department activities and issues. We are pleased to have Amina Auezova, Jonathan Beckler, Corrie Stutzman, and Jeremy Yoder serving on this Committee for the 2006-07 year.
Sophomores, juniors, and seniors are eligible to serve on the Student Steering Committee. Please let Patty Eckard know if you would be interested in serving on this committee in the future.
MBA Program Gets a Strong Start
On August 25, the 2006-07 year began for the MBA program. 15 new students began their studies, with 8 of those students beginning the new Health Services Administration program. Response to the new HSA program has been positive and the strong numbers are due to hard work on the part of Allon Lefever, the director.
Faculty Research
Several department faculty are working on research projects:
Leo Plante
Leo has submitted an article entitled “After Materialism: Lessons on Economic Rationality and Consumer Utility from the Book of Ecclesiastes.” This article has been submitted to the journal Faith and Economics, and proposes that one can look back to the wisdom of Ecclesiastes to find the essential elements of post-modern economic thought.
Chris Gingrich
During the past 5 months I've worked with a Nepali graduate student at George Mason University to analyze a microfinance program in rural southeast Nepal . Our task is to determine is whether the program effectively reaches relatively poor households, its primary target audience. To do this we examine household level socioeconomic data for 280 households, half of whom participate in the program and half who do not. Our preliminary results suggest that this program actually serves mostly wealthy house-holds, a result that is both surprising and disturbing. We do not yet know whether this result stems from program mismanagement or from Nepal 's rigid social structure. We hope to soon publish these results in an academic journal.
Spencer Cowles
At the invitation of the editor of the Anthropology of Work Review, I am writing an essay review of three books on the decline of unionism in the United States over the past 30 years. The books are: Reorganizing the Rust Belt: An Inside Study of the American Labor Movement (Steven Henry Lopez); Rebuilding labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement (Ruth Milkman & Kim Voss, eds.); The Voice of Southern Labor: Radio, Music, and Textile Strikes, 1929-1934 (Vincent J. Roscigno and William F. Danaher). These are rather divergent sources and I hope to write a richly contextualized essay that focuses on several specific movements and events in the history of the U.S. labor movement. In the essay, I plan to analyze the decline in skilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and the forces of economic globalization as the primary factors causing the decline in union activity. I will also draw on previous research I have done on the decline of the U.S. steel industry. Finally, I hope to include a brief case study on the Harrisonburg plant of Walker Manufacturing Co. that was decertified in the 1970’s.
