Faculty & Staff

Anthony Smith
Associate Professor and Co-Director
Anthony E. Smith, PhD, teaches in the EMU Business and Economics Department and in the MBA program. He co-directs the MBA program with a special interest in the concentration on Nonprofit Entrepreneurial Management. Dr. Smith serves as CEO and President of Secure Futures, LLC (www.securefutures.us) , a Staunton, VA based solar development company that financed, owns and operates EMU’s 104 kW solar PV installation on the EMU Library as the first commercial scale power purchase agreement in Virginia (www.emu.edu/solar). Dr. Smith previously served as the founding Executive Director of the Staunton Creative Community Fund, Inc., a nonprofit community development financial corporation he co-developed with support from the City of Staunton and civic and business leaders. He also served as the Managing Director of the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA, where he contributed to its financial and managerial turn-around in 2007. He has founded, co-founded and/or directed numerous small businesses and nonprofit organizations in community economic development, sustainable agriculture, energy management, and commodity futures trading in energy. He has served as National Program Leader for Community-Based Entrepreneurial Development for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Cooperative Research Education, and Extension Service.

Ronald Stoltzfus
Co-Director and Professor
Dr. Ronald L. Stoltzfus, CPA, PhD, specializes in financial accounting reporting issues. His work experience includes the controllership of a large farm equipment company in southeastern Pennsylvania and summer projects with a local construction contractor, tire retreader, and an aviation company. He has been part of the EMU department of business and economics since 1984. His research interests include off-balance sheet debts. Other interests include applications for the Balanced Scorecard.

Tony Bopp
Professor

David Brubaker
Professor
David R. Brubaker, Associate Professor of Organizational Studies. David earned a BS in business administration from Messiah College, an MBA from Eastern University, and a PhD from the University of Arizona, where he specialized in the study of religious and organizational conflicts. David has trained or consulted with over 100 organizations, including in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Since graduation from college in 1980 David served with several community development and conflict transformation organizations. These roles included Associate Director of Mennonite Conciliation Service and Assistant Director of Mennonite Central Committee’s Recife, Brazil program where he became fluent in Portuguese. David is the author of numerous articles on conflict transformation, both in organizations and internationally. He is also the author of “Promise and Peril: Understanding and Managing Change and Conflict in Congregations,” published by The Alban Institute.

David Cockley
Professor
Adjunct Faculty, Instructor – MBA Program, Eastern Mennonite University (2007 – present)

Associate Professor of Health Sciences (Health Services Administration), James Madison University (1996 – present); Teach Health Ethics, Health Law, Health Policy, Health Systems, Ambulatory Care Administration, Long-Term Care Administration in undergraduate and graduate programs

Education: B.S. 1975 Juniata College (Pennsylvania); M.S. 1977 Penn State University; Dr.PH 1996 (Health Policy and Administration) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Other Professional Activity: Board Member – Virginia Rural Health Resource Center; Board Member – Harrisonburg Community Health Center; Board – Northwest Virginia Health Service Agency

Research Interests: Rural Health Policy; Ambulatory Care Administration

Spencer Cowles
Professor
My primary teaching responsibilities include business strategy, international business, and business ethics and corporate social responsibility. I also team teach two courses in the General Education curriculum entitled “In the Grand Scheme of Things” and “Gold.” My research interests include the cultural impact of global free market capitalism, the links between education, innovation, and economic growth, and identity and change in the Mennonite Church. I have been active is leading and/or teaching in a variety of cross-cultural programs in Japan, Europe, Jamaica, and the Navajo Nation. Prior to coming to EMU I worked for a number of years at a major commercial bank in New England where my positions included lending to manufacturing companies in Rhode Island and to financial institutions in the Northeast.

William Culbreth
Assistant Professor
Bill Culbreth is teaching Business Law I and II, Human Resource Management, and the MBA law course. Bill earned a B.A. in anthropology from Wake Forest University and a J.D. from the T.C. Williams School of Law of the University of Richmond. He is currently the Deputy Commissioner/ Administrative Law Judge for the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission serving the Shenandoah Valley. Bill lives in Harrisonburg with his wife, Hallet, their three young children and a spoiled, lazy Lab. In his spare time, he enjoys fly fishing, fly tying, reading and travel.

Tom Frank
Adjunct Faculty
Thomas E. Frank teaches a Business Policy and Strategy course in the MBA program at EMU. He holds a B.B.A degree from The University of
Pittsburgh and an M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. Previously
Tom has taught undergraduate and graduate business courses at University of Toledo, University of Pittsburgh, University of Michigan, Central Connecticut State University and LCC International University in Lithuania.

Prior to his teaching career, Tom served as President/CEO of Hickory Farms Inc., President – Global Operations at Corporate Express Inc.;
Managing Director of KFC Corporation in Europe, The Middle East and
Africa; and Senior Vice President – Marketing for KFC Corporation in the United States. He has also been employed as a Marketing Consultant at well known firms in Westport, Connecticut, and began his business career in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Geoff Egekwu
Professor
Okechi Geoffrey Egekwu, MBA, PhD, is Professor in the Integrated Science and Technology program at James Madison University (JMU) where he teaches courses in product design/development, project management, manufacturing systems and technology management. He also teaches operations management at JMU’s InfoSec MBA program. Geoff earned a BS in Chemical Engineering, Masters in Business Administration, and PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering – all from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He has been part of the EMU MBA program since 2001. Other academic and consulting interests include applications of RFID technologies and critical infrastructure protection.

Chris Gingrich
Professor
Dr. Gingrich specializes in international trade and development issues. His international experience includes working 3 years in Haiti and 2 years in Nepal, both with Mennonite Central Committee. Most recently, he studied the economics of insecticide treated mosquito nets in Tanzania in conjunction with Mennonite Economic Development Associates. Other research topics include the effectiveness microfinance programs and the relationship between economic globalization and agricultural development.

Don Tyson
Associate Professor
Don Tyson has been teaching at EMU since August 1999. During the summer as well as on weekends throughout the school year, he works at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit on a prn basis. He has previous experience in a variety of clinical and administrative nursing roles related to critical care, post-anesthesia care, and quality improvement. He graduated from Goshen College in 1979 and from the University of Virginia in 1986. He is currently a doctoral student at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA – having completed all of his course work. He enjoys singing in the choral society, baseball, gardening and camping.

P. Marshall Yoder
P. Marshall Yoder is an attorney with Wharton, Aldhizer and Weaver, PLC where he represents large and small businesses and non-profits in the areas of business law, succession issues and estate planning. Marshall also has an active collaborative law practice, a client-centered process in which the parties and their lawyers commit to resolving disputes outside the courtroom through face-to-face meetings using interest-based negotiations. Marshall previously served as the co-head of the litigation section of a large Charlotte, North Carolina firm before moving to Harrisonburg in 2005. In addition to teaching in the MBA program, he teaches a pre-law capstone course and will be co-teaching a dialogue education course in the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU. Marshall has also designed and assisted in trainings for mediators, lawyers and other professionals using dialogue education principles and has assisted in a number of workplace conflict trainings. He has served on the Boards of numerous non-profits and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Campbell University School of Law and is currently completing his practicum for his M.A. in conflict transformation from EMU.

Staff

Patty Eckard
Office Coordinator
In addition to working as office coordinator for the business and economics department, Patty is a mother of two teenage boys. She is treasurer at her church, and she and her husband, Jim, are co-presidents of the Broadway Band Boosters. Her hobbies include reading, crosstitch, scrapbooking, and cooking.