Three Spears School faculty honored during Watson Graduate School Awards Banquet

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Three Spears School of Business faculty members were recognized for their outstanding performance in the classroom during the 2015 Watson Graduate School of Management Scholarship and Awards Banquet on April 19.

Those honored were Ajay Sukhdial, Outstanding MBA Faculty Award; Cynthia Wang, Greiner Graduate Excellence in Teaching Award, and Rick Wilson, Chandler Frates and Reitz Teaching Excellence Award.

“These professors are among the best any program can hope to have,” said Ramesh Sharda, vice dean of the Watson Graduate School. “They motivate and challenge our MBA students, they cover difficult topics but in an engaging fashion, and their classes introduce current topics and relate management theories and models to practice.”

Sukhdial, associate professor in the Department of Marketing, was recognized with the Outstanding MBA Faculty Award, which is given annually to the outstanding faculty member on the Stillwater campus. It is based on nominations from MBA students.

One of the nominations for Sukhdial said, “Ajay has continuously shown his commitment to positively impacting the MBA students that pass through this program. His approach to teaching the professional development course has helped to build an MBA program that is dead-set on creating business professionals that will positively impact businesses, communities and the world.”

Wang, associate professor in the Department of Management, was the recipient of the Greiner Graduate Excellence in Teaching Award. Created in 1987, the Greiner Award recognizes an outstanding graduate faculty member annually through nominations by students and fellow professors.

One of those nominating her wrote, “Dr. Wang engages her students and provokes participation in a welcome and open atmosphere. Students are involved in a variety of learning methods, including class discussions, videos, group work, book work, debates, and many other engaging activities. Dr. Wang embodies the perfect combination of professionalism and personality, creating professionally personable relationships, both inside and outside the classroom.”

Wilson, professor and head of the Department of Management Science and Information Systems and W. Paul Miller Professor of Business Administration, was the winner of the Chandler Frates and Reitz Teaching Excellence Award. It is presented annually to the outstanding MBA faculty teaching on the OSU-Tulsa campus. Wilson also won the Chandler Frates and Reitz award in 2010.

A person nominating Wilson said, “I was impressed with Rick because his assistance was not limited to material we covered in the classroom, but demonstrated where related concepts can be used in real business situations. I had a challenging situation with my job and thought Rick’s expertise might be able to help me develop a solution. When I asked him if he would be willing to discuss it and offer some suggestions, he readily accepted and carved time out of his busy daytime schedule to meet with me.”