The Belk College of Business recently presented annual awards to faculty and staff who have excelled in teaching, research and service. This year’s recipients are:
Dmitry Shapiro, associate professor of economics, who received the Best Paper Award for “Microfinance and Dynamic Incentives” published in the Journal of Development Economics. Shapiro joined the Belk College of Business in 2006 after completing a Ph.D. at Yale University. He is interested in modeling people's deviations from the predictions of classical economics, and in particular in analyzing them using the experimental methods.
Ram Kumar, professor of management information systems, who received the Distinguished Scholarship Award. He was recognized for his strong body of work in the areas of technology evaluation and selection, knowledge management and business analytics, e-business and project management. He has published more than 35 peer-reviewed journal articles in top-tier journals, along with many peer-reviewed conference proceedings and presentations to his credit. He joined the Belk College in 1993 and received a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
Moutaz Khouja, professor of operations management, who received the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Khouja, who teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, has taught Operations Management, Advanced Operations Management, Management of Service Operations and Introduction to Business Computing. He received the Gray’s MBA Faculty Award in 1999, the Belk College Distinguished Scholarship Award in 1997 and 2010 and earned the Belk College Distinguished Service Award in 2011. He was a finalist for the 2015 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. He joined Belk College in 1991 and earned a Ph.D. from Kent State University.
Rob Roy McGregor, professor of economics, who received the Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award. He has been an economics instructor in the Belk College since 1991. He teaches courses in macroeconomics, monetary and financial theory, econometrics and forecasting. These courses serve multiple graduate programs, including the M.S. in Economics, M.S. in Mathematical Finance and the Ph.D. in Finance. He received a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina.
Jack Cathey, associate professor of accounting and director of the MACC program, who received the Outstanding Service Award. He has led the MACC program for almost 20 years. The program is ranked in the top quartile of master’s programs in accounting by the Financial Engineer. Cathey, a certified public accountant in North Carolina, has worked as a senior auditor with KPMG in Charlotte. He has published articles in a number of professional and academic journals and speaks frequently to academic and professional groups on topics related to financial reporting and information systems. He joined the Belk College in 1988 and earned a Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Nicole Tarr, director of academic planning and accreditation, who received the Staff Member of the Year Award. She received high praise from multiple colleagues and leaders in the college. Individuals noted she is “essential, efficient, effective, professional, dedicated, conscientious and always positive." One nominator summarized: “She does a tremendous amount of behind the scenes work to support the college’s mission. Foremost, she is the point of contact for all assurance of learning in the college, which plays a vital role in our accreditation with SACS and AACSB ... These tasks are…incredibly important to the college’s current operation and future development." She joined the Belk College in 2011 and received a Master of Social Work from the University of Georgia.