Twelve new faculty joined the ranks of the College of Business and Economics this fall, some in every department.
“The new faculty members hail from a wide range of backgrounds and highly regarded institutions, which adds to the diversity of our existing faculty,” says Diane Schooley-Pettis, the associate dean for faculty and administrative affairs. “They fill new, existing and visiting positions to ensure that COBE can continue to offer classes that keep students on track for their graduation. We are pleased to welcome these enthusiastic and highly qualified faculty to the college.”
Joining the Department of Accountancy:
Allen Hartt, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Allen Hartt received his Ph.D. in accountancy and his master of science in accountancy from Bentley University, and a master of public affairs from Indiana University. Hartt currently uses sociometric badges (wearable electronic sensors) from the MIT Media Lab to produce psychology-based research applied to issues in accounting settings. His other research interests include fraudulent financial reporting and ethical judgment and decision-making in accounting settings. He is currently a member of the American Accounting Association and a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute.
Outside of work, Hartt keeps in shape by jogging and biking, and enjoys hiking and downhill skiing. He is an avid reader and reads regularly for leisure.
Joining the Department of Economics:
Jingxian Hu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Jingxian Hu’s research interest lies in monetary policies and exchange rate regimes of open economies, especially for emerging markets. She studies the policy implications by analyzing the economic dynamics with theoretical models and computational methods. Her teaching areas include macroeconomics, monetary economics and quantitative methods. Before joining Boise State University, she obtained her Ph.D. in economics from University of Kansas and M.A. in economics from Renmin University of China.
Lee Parton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Lee Parton earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from North Carolina State University and his B.S. as a double major in economics and information systems from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Parton’s research focuses on measuring and understanding the effects of environmental regulation and land use policy. He is currently working on several projects including measuring willingness to pay for public land use change, analyzing the distributional effects of random violence in communities and measuring producer responses to climate change policy uncertainty.  Lee also has research interests in discrete choice experiments and environmental mandates as related to technological spillovers.
Joining the Department of Finance:
Kyle Allen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Kyle Allen earned his Ph.D. in finance from Texas Tech University, an MBA in global management and finance from Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a B.S. in business management from Utah Valley University. Allen previously worked as an assistant professor at Utah Valley University and Louisiana Tech University. His research interests are financial markets, money market funds, and the interaction between regulators, financial institutions, and investors.
Qiping (Jimmy) Huang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Before joining Boise State, Huang received his Ph.D. from University of Kentucky, and MBA from Miami University at Ohio. His research interests include investment, hedge funds, and mutual funds.
Before joining academia, he was a senior consultant at Ernst & Young Advisory in Beijing, China.
Joining the Department of Information Technology and Supply Chain Management
Steven James Pentland (ITM) Assistant Professor
Steven Pentland received his Ph.D. in management information systems from the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. His research interests include automated interviewing, affective computing, and human analytics. Pentland’s current research focuses on the development of scalable interviewing systems for the collection and analysis of human behaviors. He is currently evaluating the efficacy of using such systems to automatically detect deception and screen job applicants during online interviews. Pentland has contributed to a variety of projects supported by the National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security and the Army Research Office. His teaching interests include data collection, management and analytics.
Joining the Department of Management
Felice Klein, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Before joining Boise State, Felice Klein was a member of the faculty at Michigan State University. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in May 2012.
Her research focuses on compensation and inequality in the workplace. In her current research, she studies the role that gender plays on differences in compensation and leadership, and how these differences impact performance at both the individual and organizational levels.
She has published her work in Industrial Relations and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management and received the 2013 Emerging Scholar Award in Employee Participation and Ownership from the HR Division of Academy of Management, The Foundation for Enterprise Development, the Employee Ownership Foundation, and the Equity Administration, Inc. She currently teaches courses on compensation and human resource management.
Liam P. Maher, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Liam Patrick Maher earned his bachelor of arts in finance at Western Washington University, his MBA at Seattle University, and his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from Florida State University.
His research interests include social influence, leadership, organizational politics, identity, and change management. His research can be found in Personnel Psychology, The Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Group & Organization Management, and Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies.
Previously, Maher taught the Negotiation and Conflict Management class at FSU and was honored with the Doctoral Student Teaching Award for his efforts. At Boise State, he will teach the undergraduate Leadership Skills and MBA Organizational Issues and Leadership classes.
In a previous life, Maher worked for Wells Fargo Bank throughout the Great Recession, helped launch Southern Wine and Spirits into the newly privatized Washington market and led several entrepreneurial ventures. In his spare time, Maher loves to travel and has been to 27 countries (and counting) spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. He is also a sports enthusiast, and avidly follows the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Mariners, Florida State Seminoles and Boise State Broncos.
Karen R. Nicholas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Karen Nicholas received her Ph.D. in management from West Virginia University and has lived and worked in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, the Bahamas, and many countries in Europe. She currently teaches in the areas of strategy, innovation, and change management, with interests in entrepreneurship and statistics.
Prior to returning to graduate studies at WVU, Karen was an entrepreneur with her own consulting and software firms. Typically working with high-technology firms, Karen has experience with a range of both large and small firms. Her research interests focus on inter-firm networks, examining firms’ collections of alliances. Networks are examined for their role in the mobility of resources, including knowledge resources and social resources such as status.
Karen is Canadian, and while she is an avid hockey fan, she is not a fan of winter!
Bastian Thomsen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Bastian Thomsen is an assistant professor of international business & entrepreneurship in the department of management. His research interests are in international and social entrepreneurship, social innovation, and how they relate to sustainable development, the environment, and the UN SDGs. Thomsen previously taught as an adjunct instructor at Bosie State University, where he won the 2014 Golden Apple Award and founded the international business program’s Global Scholars Program. He has led international service-learning trips to Guatemala, Ireland and Belize. He previously taught at the College of Idaho, Idaho State University, Wingate University and Old Dominion University. He also has seven years of professional experience in the financial sector, as well as more than 10 years experience consulting for nonprofits and start-up organizations. He obtained his Ph.D. in management with a focus on international social entrepreneurship and social innovation from Central Queensland University and is completing a second doctor of philosophy from the University of Oxford.
Joining the Department of Marketing
Bridgette Braig, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor
Bridgette Braig began her career as a marketing professor but has spent the last 20 years as a strategy and insights consultant, running her own company since 2002. Tackling client needs such as positioning, brand portfolio management, strategic planning, and innovation, she has worked with startups, the federal government, Fortune 100 companies, and nonprofits. Her work has spanned a range of industries with a recent shift toward business-to-business companies. Her favorite projects have had her help solve competitive challenges that bridge classic marketing and business strategy as B2B organizations learn to embrace digital transformation. Using marketing tools and customer insights to address problems far bigger than just marketing has been both rewarding and quite a ride as she’s had to keep her skills fresh in an environment of accelerated change.
Over the course of her career, she has taken ‘reverse sabbaticals’ every 5 or 6 years to bring her consulting and business experience to undergrad and MBA classrooms. Bridgette is excited to return to teaching, research, and university service full time. She views Boise State as a great opportunity to contribute to growing talent and capacity in the Boise Valley overall. After 22 years in Colorado, she’s psyched to join the Boise community.
Joanna Gabler, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor
Joanna Gabler, Ph.D., joined the Department of Marketing at Boise State in 2014. She has served as adjunct faculty, lecturer, and now as a visiting assistant professor. Prior to joining Boise State, she taught at two other universities. In addition, she has industry experience as a consumer behavior strategist for an advertising agency and as a senior research analyst for a software company.
Teaching for more than 20 years, Gabler uses experiential learning projects within the marketing courses she teaches. Student-led projects for local nonprofit and for-profit organizations provide students with opportunities to directly apply marketing knowledge to real-world business and nonprofit marketing decisions.
Gabler’s research interests examine consumer thoughts, emotions and behavioral strategies as related to online shopping and residential package/delivery theft, including the factors behind consumer decision making and the perceived efficacy of related theft-prevention products.