School of Business Administration Recognizes Faculty Excellence

We are proud to recognize the exceptional achievements of faculty in Gonzaga University’s School of Business Administration. Through their teaching, research, and service, these dedicated educators exemplify the values that define Gonzaga's School of Business. 

From advancing research in cultural intelligence to creating impactful learning experiences across local and global communities, our faculty continue to shape the next generation of business leaders.

The Loeken Awards, Centioli Faculty Excellence Awards, and Barnes Awards honor their extraordinary contributions and ongoing commitment to innovation, service, and student success.

Congratulations to this year’s recipients—thank you for inspiring our community and elevating the School of Business Administration.

LOEKEN ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD

This award recognizes faculty members for all-around academic excellence.

Ryan Herzog, Associate Professor of Economics
Ryan excels in many ways. What his contributions have in common is his passion for our mission, his vision for our future, and his concern for our students. He has made significant contributions to the school of business school, the university, and to the greater community.

LOEKEN SBA VISION & VALUES AWARD

This award recognizes faculty members for their significant contribution to helping the SBA fulfill its vision and live its values.

Peggy Sue Loroz, Professor of Marketing
Along with Casey McNellis, Peggy Sue led efforts to revamp our reappointment, promotion, and tenure guidelines. In part driven by the new Faculty Handbook and in part driven by AACSB accreditation standards, this work is critical to ensuring our long-term success as a business school.

Casey McNellis, Associate Professor of Accounting
Along with Peggy Sue Loroz, Casey led efforts to revamp our reappointment, promotion, and tenure guidelines. In part driven by the new Faculty Handbook and in part driven by AACSB accreditation standards, this work is critical to ensuring our long-term success as a business school.

CENTIOLI FACULTY SCHOLARS EXCELLENCE AWARD

This award recognizes faculty members for all-around academic excellence.

Shan Xiao, Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems
Shan is an outstanding all-around performer. Her work in the classroom is exemplary, and she worked with one of her students to not only produce a conference paper but to receive the “Best Paper Award” among the articles in the proceedings. Additionally, her work on artificial intelligence has led to potential collaboration with her colleagues in Gonzaga’s Institute of Applied Informatics and Technology.

Yelin Zhang, Associate Professor of Finance
Yelin had a particularly impressive year in the classroom. Multiple students commented on his excellence, citing his “unparalleled” enthusiasm, his “genuine interest” in his students, and his “thoughtful” feedback. He also continued his practice of advising his students, particularly those interested in a career in finance.

BARNES ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD

This award recognizes excellence in teaching and academic advising.

Yemisi Awotoye, Associate Professor of Management
Yemisi has made experiential learning a central part of what she does in the classroom. In her strategic management courses, for example, she organizes her students into teams and assigns them a project with a local, often minority-based firm. The student teams are asked to serve as problem solvers to whatever organizational challenges they have identified. Initiatives like this, along with her commitment to continuous improvement, witness her participation in CTA programming, speak to her continued excellence in the classroom.

Gerhard Barone, Professor of Accounting
Gerhard has continued his long history of outstanding classroom performance. What makes his performance perhaps more special this time around is the number of substantial course revisions he has undertaken in the past 18 months. These revisions were necessitated by changing standards, new technologies, and, because he was often covering for other colleagues, the fact that it had been a while since he had taught the course. This level of effort, along with Gerhards’s willingness to revise an existing course for the Virtual MBA program, reflects his strong commitment to his students and to the business school.

BARNES ENGAGEMENT AWARD

This award recognizes engagement with the university and business communities.

Rebecca Bull Schaefer, Professor of Management
Becky has been tireless when it comes to building connections and partnerships. She has done a wonderful job of developing deep connections between her work here in the business school and the greater Spokane business and nonprofit communities. One example of this is the service-learning partnership she built between one of her MBA courses and Second Harvest Food Bank. Another example of her partnership efforts through teaching are the numerous site-visits she arranges for her undergraduate and MBA students. Her work as Director of Graduate Business Programs and her service on the board of the Women Helping Women Fund also point to her broad and effective engagement.

Mirjeta Beqiri, Professor of Operations Management
Mirjeta is one of the more engaged faculty in the university. Her record of participation and service is admirable. She builds service-learning opportunities, often with non-profit organizations, into her classes, she serves many outside organizations like READ’s Advisory Council, and she often invites community partners into her classes to interact with her students. This is all in addition to her fine work on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

BARNES INSPIRATION AWARD

This award recognizes engagement with the Jesuit mission of the university through teaching, research, advising, or service.

John Correia, Associate Professor of Management Information Systems
John continued his great work by focusing on aligning it with the mission and values of our Jesuit heritage. He developed a new class called “Finding mastery” and he continued his strong leadership of the Gonzaga Sports Consulting Group. In their own unique ways, both of these efforts are supportive of the principles of developing the whole person and learning by doing.

Cathy DeHart, Sr. Lecturer of Accounting
Cathy continued her amazing work in the area of sustainability. She worked with colleague Erica Johnson to develop a new sustainability course, and she dramatically improved her graduate sustainability class. She expanded the coverage of ESG in her undergraduate courses. She also developed several experiential opportunities, including a behind the scenes tour of the Hemmingson Center.