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Achievements for April 2022

Achievements for April 2022
College of Business faculty, students and staff continue to excel in fulfilling the college's mission to drive discovery, create opportunity and empower individuals to lead the future of business.

Learn more about recent honors, appointments and publications at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Business in this month's achievements column. The achievements of faculty, staff and students are grouped within the college’s three mission-focused goals of research + discovery, learning + transformation and connection + engagement.

Research + Discovery

  • Ravi Agarwal, was selected as one of three award winners of the 2021 Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) Doctoral Support Award Competition. He will receive a support award for his proposal, "Regulatory Focus in Key Account Management Teams, Governance Mechanisms and Solution Outcomes," and named an ISBM Doctoral Fellow.
  • Özgür Araz, Ron and Carol Cope professor of supply chain management and analytics, S. Sajeesh, Nathan J Gold Distinguished Professor of Marketing and associate professor of marketing, and their co-authors' article, "Market Positioning in Food Industry in Response to Public Health Policies," was accepted for publication in Production and Operations Management. 
  • Kyle Langvardt, assistant professor of law and entrepreneurship, was interviewed for a March 15 Omaha World-Herald article on the Charles W. Herbster gubernatorial campaign recently pulling a TV ad featuring law enforcement officials amid concerns that the ad violated state law. Langvardt teaches courses for the law and business minor. Read the Omaha World-Herald story.
  • Scott Swenseth, faculty director of Business Graduate Programs and associate professor of supply chain management and analytics, has been invited to serve on the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) Freight Advisory Committee to help update the Nebraska State Freight Plan. The committee acts in an advisory capacity to identify priorities, issues, projects and funding needs to promote freight movements in Nebraska. Once completed, the State Freight Plan allows NDOT to accurately understand the movement of goods within a larger geographic and economic framework and speculate on future trends, enabling the State to make sound decisions on public infrastructure investments.
  • Erkut Sönmez, associate professor of supply chain management and analytics, was cited in a March 11 Washington Post article on how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated food prices and shortages abroad. Read the article.
  • KMTV 3 News Now interviewed Erkut Sönmez in their story "Rising wheat price hurts Omaha bakery, community at large" on March 11 about the contributing factors to rising prices this year, as well as discourages consumers considering stockpiling items like flour. See the TV segment.
  • Eric Thompson, department chair, K.H. Nelson College Professor of Economics and director of Bureau of Business Research, appeared in an April 1 New York Times article on Nebraska’s low unemployment rate, which he said might be caused by the labor market rebalancing. Read the New York Times article.
  • Yunxia (Peter) Zhu, associate professor of supply chain management and analytics program director of master of science in business analytics, recent research in Management Science, “A Framework for Analyzing Influencer Marketing in Social Networks: Selection and Scheduling of Influencers,” was featured in the scholarly journal's blog called Management Science Review. Read the blog post titled Effective Design of Influencer Marketing Campaign in Social Networks.
  • Yunxia (Peter) Zhu appeared in a March 8 KMTV story on the rising prices of aluminum. Zhu spoke about how aluminum canning prices rose at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when people were buying canned alcohol to drink at home instead of drinking at bars. He said people can help maintain affordable prices by recycling aluminum to keep it in their community. Watch the TV segment.

Learning + Transformation

  • The MBA@Nebraska program ranked No. 3 in the nation and No. 9 overall globally in the latest online MBA rankings from Financial Times. Jumping five spots from last year, the program maintained the top ranking for best value in the U.S. for the second year in a row. Read the College of Business story.
  • Jake Bowman, a junior management major from Lincoln, appeared in a March 25 KLKN story for helping launch a name, image and likeness advisory program to help Husker athletes optimize marketing opportunities. Bowman and advisers in the program set up a table at Memorial Stadium each Thursday to answer Husker athletes’ NIL-related questions. Joe Petsick also appeared in the story. Read the KLKN story.
  • Megan Whittaker, senior finance major from Elkhorn, Nebraska, was named a Women in Sports Tech (WiST) fellow, which is part of a program by WiST to support female students in starting their careers in the sports tech industry. A golf student-athlete, Whittaker will complete a summer internship with a leading sports tech company and receive one-on-one mentorship and professional development.
  • Anna Stuckwisch, senior management and marketing major from Omaha, Nebraska, placed first in the Elevator Pitch Contest as part of the Twin Cities Collegiate Sales Team Championship. Nebraska took sixth in the national sales competition hosted by the University of Minnesota. Team members included: Jenny Johnson, senior management and marketing major from Elkhorn; Jordan Kuhn, junior management and marketing major from Scottsdale, Arizona; Jayden Long, senior supply chain management from Omaha; Stuckwisch; and Taryn Mayfield, senior marketing major from Grand Island, Nebraska.
  • Nebraska Business Honors Academy students swept top awards at the annual Leadership Challenge Event at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Students who won first place included: Olivia Eno, sophomore accounting major from Omaha; Natalie Karrels, freshman supply chain management major from Brookfield, Wisconsin; Nick Lauver, sophomore actuarial science major from Papillion, Nebraska; Sydney Pelster, sophomore business administration major from Wallace, Nebraska; and Sophie Thomas, freshman marketing major from Lakeville, Minnesota. Another Honors Academy team won the Communication award, and team members included: Tori Diersen, sophomore economics major from Brookings, South Dakota; Summer Liu, sophomore international business major from Omaha; Reese Munson, sophomore supply chain management major from Omaha; Whitney Schwisow, sophomore actuarial science major from Beatrice, Nebraska; and Garrett Smith, freshman marketing major from Lee's Summit, Missouri.
  • The Nebraska team of sophomore actuarial science majors won the Travelers Actuarial Case Competition, where they competed against four other schools: Drake University, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, University of Minnesota and University of St. Thomas. Team members included: Joshua Madsen from Washington, Illinois; Colby Marsden from Stilwell, Kansas; Ashley McRae from Naperville, Illinois; Cole Niebur from Omaha; Jared Oney from Aurora, Colorado; and Isaac Young from Wausau, Wisconsin.
  • Two teams took top honors at the annual UNL Actuarial Science Case Competition. Sponsored by Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), the Nebraska Actuaries Club, Mutual of Omaha, Milliman and Global Indemnity, the case study introduced students to actuarial topics as they relate to property and casualty insurance. Winning team members included: Janice Shu Lin Chng, senior actuarial science major from Butterworth, Malaysia; Caitlin Murphy, sophomore actuarial science and mathematics major from Exeter, Nebraska; Erin Siew, sophomore actuarial science major from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Brooke Eschenbrenner, junior actuarial science major from Kearney, Nebraska; Joey Ng, junior actuarial science major from Kuala Lumpur; and Taylor Jarvis, senior accounting major from Lincoln.
  • Eleven student-athletes majoring in business earned Academic All-Big Ten honors. Read the Nebraska Athletics story.
  • The Husker Venture Fund was featured by the Lincoln Journal Star, March 19. Joe Petsick and students Emily Kist and Adam Folsom created the College of Business program in collaboration with the college’s Center for Entrepreneurship so the University of Nebraska–Lincoln had its own venture capital fund to support Nebraska startups. Read the story.

Connection + Engagement

  • Jennifer Davidson, associate professor of practice in economics, Nebraska Council on Economic Education president and Nebraska Bankers Association Faculty Fellow, spoke in the Governor's Press Briefing where he proclaimed April to be Financial Awareness Month in Nebraska. She spoke about financial literacy and the efforts of the NCEE in reaching students in K-12 schools. See the Governor’s Facebook live video. The Custer County Chief, among other outlets, ran a story about the proclamation. Read the story.
  • Jayna Ghose, junior management major from Lincoln, was named College of Business Student of the Month by the Nebraska Business Student Advisory Board. A nontraditional undergraduate student with prior career experience in insurance, sales, training and restaurant management, Ghose maintains a 4.0 GPA while serving her family as a caretaker and mentoring youth.
  • Kayla Huthoefer Nelson, MBA@Nebraska student, was named a 2022 Rising Star among the Pikes Peak region's top 25 young professionals under age 40 by the Colorado Springs Business Journal. Read the article.
  • Chris Timm, director of the Business Career Center, spoke to the March 12 Grow Lincoln radio show on career topics including employment gaps and how job-seekers can best target job applications to fulfill artificial intelligence screening requirements. Listen to the podcast.
  • Three students received Student Luminary Awards for their exceptional leadership and commitment to improving campus life. Honorees included: Erin Fort, actuarial science and finance major from Delray Beach, Florida; Natalia Koval, actuarial science and mathematics major from Palatine, Illinois; and Harrison Lloyd, economics major from Pflugerville, Texas. Read the Nebraska Today article.
  • The Innocents Society and Mortar Board inducted eight business majors based on their outstanding scholarship, leadership and service to the university and community. The Innocents Society inducted Christine Trinh, economics and political science major from Lincoln, Nebraska. Students tapped as new members of Mortar Board include: Macy Baldwin, actuarial science and finance major from Cairo, Nebraska; Brian DuVal, finance major from Golden Valley, Minnesota; Grant Gubbels, accounting and finance major from Lincoln; Bennett Perlinger, management major from Paxton, Nebraska; Lucy Peterkin, international business major from Omaha; Dominic Pfeifer, finance major from Grand Island, Nebraska; and Jacob Zadalis, Clifton Builders management major from Omaha. Read the Nebraska Today article.
  • The Innocents Society initiated Erin Burnette, director of the Nebraska Business Honors Academy, as an Honorary Member of the Chancellor’s Senior Honorary on April 2. Read the Nebraska Today article.
  • Four College of Business faculty and staff earned the Friends and Family Award (formerly the Parents' Recognition Award) from the UNL Parents Association and UNL Teaching Council. The award annually recognizes those who made a significant difference in students’ lives. This year’s awardees with the number of years they have received the award include: Uchechukwu Jarrett, Seacrest Teaching Fellow and associate professor of practice in economics, (2); Kendra Ritchie, director of recruitment, (1); Mikki Sandin, assistant director of professional & life skills, (1); Andrew Waite, (1).
  • The College of Business partnered with the College of Law to host the sold-out Women Lead conference on March 4. The conference empowered women to lead through change. Read the College of Business story.
  • Three staff members were selected by the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Women to be recognized through a Nebraska Today feature during Women’s History Month in March. The nominees, who went above and beyond their roles at the university, were: Krista Hoover, human resources coordinator; Jaylen Peters, administrative support associate of Business Advising and Student Engagement; and Mikki Sandin. Read Hoover's story. Read Peters' story. Read Sandin's story.

This column is a monthly feature of the College of Business. Faculty, staff and students can submit achievements to be considered for this column via the News Proposal Form at the bottom of https://business.unl.edu webpage. On the form, select Recognize Achievement and fill out the related questions.

Published: April 8, 2022