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Belk College announces 2022 faculty, staff award recipients

Belk College announces 2022 faculty, staff award recipients
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Awards recognize excellence in research, teaching and service.

The Belk College of Business has presented awards to eight faculty and staff members in recognition of their accomplishments in teaching, research and service.

The annual awards were presented during the Belk College’s End-of-Year Reception hosted by Dean Jennifer Troyer on April 22.

Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award

 
Tom Marshall, senior lecturer in finance, has received the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Since joining the Belk College in 2005, Marshall has empowered his students to become leaders and succeed professionally, while also teaching them the importance of integrity, honesty, dependability, and helping others. 
 

Marshall is a retired insurance executive. Before joining the Belk College faculty, he served as regional vice president of Auto Owners Insurance Co. from 1988 to 2004. He worked in the insurance industry for more than 30 years. He was also the inaugural recipient of UNC Charlotte’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019. He also serves as faculty advisor for Gamma Iota Sigma, a student organization with a focus on insurance, risk management and actuarial science. 

Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award

 
George Banks, professor of management and chair of the Department of Management, has received the Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award. 
 

Banks consistently receives strong teaching evaluations, and after completing qualitative and quantitative studies with colleagues on effective leadership strategies, his work has been incorporated into MBA, Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), the Organizational Science doctoral program, Executive Education, and women-in-business training.

Part-Time Teaching Excellence Award

 
Angela Rudd, a faculty member in the Department of Business Information Systems and Operations Management, has received the Part-Time Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. Since joining the Belk College in 2016, Rudd has consistently received high teaching evaluations. She has demonstrated excellence in teaching by:
 

  • working with full-time faculty to help all instructors deliver a consistent teaching experience for all sections of INFO 2130.

  • participating in putting together a Canvas course called “Training Excel Essentials” as a refresher course for students who need excel proficiency in their classes.

  • forming a core team with other INFO 2130 instructors to meet with and provide guidance on navigating the changes in instruction and exams due to the pandemic.

Outstanding Service Award

 
Craig A. Depken II, professor of economics, is the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award for contributions of a faculty member in support of the college’s service mission. Depken, who joined the Belk College in August 2007, has a long legacy of outstanding service to the university and the economics profession. His service include serving as: 
 
  • Chair of the search committee for every tenured/tenure-track faculty search in the Economics Department since 2007.
  • Chair of the Belk College Review Committee since 2017. 
  • A member of the University’s Faculty Employment Status Committee since 2015.
  • Chair of the Belk College Graduate Council chair from 2010 to 2012.
  • A member of the Ph.D. Business Administration Admissions Committee.
  • Past program director for the Master of Science in Economics for six years.

Best Paper Award

 
Musab Kurnaz, assistant professor in the Department of Economics, has received the Best Paper Award for “Optimal Taxation of Families: Mirrlees meets Becker,” published in 2021 in The Economic Journal, one of the top journals in the economics profession. 
 

In his paper, Kurnaz combines arguments of two Nobel laureates, Gary Becker and James Mirrless, to construct an optimal taxation policy for families – a combination of income taxes and child tax credits. 

This publication is likely to lead other researchers to think not only about how to design optimal child tax credits, but also how to construct optimal policies for different cases. 

Kurnaz, who began his career as an assistant professor of economics at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey, joined the Belk College in 2018.

Distinguished Scholarship Award

 
Dongsong Zhang, Belk Endowed Chair in Business Analytics, has received the Distinguished Scholarship Award. He has played a critical role in the promotion and support of interdisciplinary data science research collaboration at UNC Charlotte.
 
Zhang has published approximately 160 research articles in academic journals and conference proceedings, which have more than 12,000 citations, placing him on Stanford University’s list of the world’s top 2% most-cited researchers.To support his research, he has received more than $3 million in external grants as principal or co-principal investigator from a variety of funding sources since 2015, including two National Science Foundation grants and one National Institutes of Health grant.
 
Zhang joined the Belk College faculty in 2018.

 

Staff Member of the Year Award

 
Meagan Glasco, director of professional development in the Niblock Student Center, is the recipient of the Staff Member of the Year Award. This award honors a staff member who exhibits exceptional job performance, a commitment to quality, a positive attitude, a focus on teamwork and a dedication to serving the students, faculty, staff and external constituencies of the Belk College.  
 

Glasco is described by her colleagues as supportive, consistent, helpful, full of authentic sincerity, innovative, thoughtful, and empathetic to the many constituents the Belk College serves. This year, Glasco has volunteered to serve in leadership roles on both the Belk College Staff Council and the Joint Faculty/Staff Committee on Diversity. With a focus on student success, she has shown she is quick to offer support and action around initiatives that are important to the college.

Dean’s Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

 
Zack Lord, assistant director of professional development and honors programs in the Niblock Student Center, has received the Dean’s Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which honors outstanding contributions by Belk College faculty or staff.
 
Lord has shown commitment to DEI in several ways:
 

  • By collaborating with the professional development team to bring a more diverse group of speakers and professionals to engage with students at events. He also co-created diversity commitments and resources with the Niblock Student Center’s professional development team.

  • While participating in the Belk College Joint Faculty/Staff Committee on Diversity, he volunteered to be a part of the subcommittee that planned the inaugural CONNECT, which supported the college’s Black and Latinx community.

  • While working with recruitment for the Business Honors Program, he has worked to diversify the group of honors students.

  • And leading the college’s first professional development event specifically for members of the Belk College LGBTQ+ community. The program, held in August in collaboration with the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce, engaged students and professionals from the Charlotte area.

The criteria for this award, in its second year, was developed by the Joint Faculty/Staff Committee on Diversity as part of its goal to identify and implement the highest impact inclusion initiatives across the community. 

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About the Belk College of Business
Established in 1970, UNC Charlotte’s Belk College of Business is one of the Carolinas’ largest business schools, with more than 5,100 students, more than 100 full-time faculty, and an alumni network of more than 34,000. Accredited by AACSB International, the college is committed to building strong partnerships in the greater Charlotte region and beyond as North Carolina's urban research business school. Learn more about how the Belk College is driving what’s next at belkcollege.charlotte.edu, and on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.