One study, co-authored with Shirley Chen of Wilfrid Laurier University, examined how product size labels may influence perceptions of quality. In the study, consumers tended to rate products as higher quality when they carried distinctive labels such as “Titan” or “Grande” instead of conventional labels such as “Large” or “Double.” The findings suggest that distinctive labels may make products seem more unique, particularly when they come from larger chains.

Another project examined how ironic brand names may shape perceptions of how healthy a product is. Consumers tended to view products with names such as “Death Wish,” “Dirty” or “Brain Freeze” as less healthy, especially when the products were the kinds they generally considered healthy. The findings also suggest that descriptive packaging information, such as a list of key ingredients, may lessen the influence of an ironic name on those perceptions.

A third project, co-authored with Iman Paul of Rutgers University–Camden and Jeffrey Parker of the University of Illinois Chicago, focused on how consumers perceive products and services from employee-owned businesses. Across studies involving products such as car seats and coffee makers, as well as services and actual purchase choices, consumers tended to rate offerings from employee-owned businesses as higher quality and were more willing to choose or pay for them. One possible explanation is that consumers associate employee ownership with greater care and responsibility.

The fourth project, co-authored with Paul, Parker and Anshu Suri of University College Dublin, explored how political ideology relates to the way consumers think about their future selves. Across the studies, more conservative participants tended to report feeling more connected to their future selves and showed a stronger preference for options with future benefits, such as retirement savings and sustainable products. The findings suggest that asking consumers to think about their future selves may narrow differences in choices across political ideologies.

Mohanty joined �鶹��Ƶ in 2021. Her research interests include consumer behavior, brand management and marketing strategies.

“Your flights, hotel, plans and reservations end up scattered across a dozen apps, emails and screenshots, and when something goes wrong mid-trip you’re the one scrambling to fix it,” Sanchez said.

His answer was Trip Pilot, an organizer and in-trip companion designed to keep travel information in one place and help travelers handle problems as they happen.

Sanchez was one of 21 participants to pitch an idea on the opening night of Techstars Startup Weekend AI: Ideas in Action, held Oct. 2-4 in Winston-Salem. Trip Pilot was among six concepts selected by participants for development over the weekend.

Martha and Spencer Love School of Business students and alumni had a strong showing across the competition, helping develop the first- and second-place ventures while contributing to several other teams. The Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship served as a facilitator sponsor and helped send �鶹��Ƶ students to Winston-Salem, covering registration and lodging for participants.

Startup Weekend moves quickly. Participants pitch ideas Friday, form teams around selected concepts and spend the weekend testing those ideas with customers and mentors, developing business models and preparing final pitches for judges.

For Sanchez, that process changed Trip Pilot significantly.

“We started out targeting older travelers with a text-and-call AI assistant, then moved away from that and repositioned it as an organizer and companion rather than another planning or booking app,” Sanchez said.

By the end of the weekend, he had narrowed his audience to college students taking their first trips as independent adults. As the weekend progressed, Sanchez took on a larger role in developing and testing the idea.

“Working mostly on my own forced me to learn how to validate an idea, not just pitch it,” Sanchez said. “I built a simple survey to see if strangers cared, and I realized how much I had been guessing about my customer. I also learned I can keep going and lead even when things don’t go to plan.”

Sanchez is continuing to develop the concept through customer interviews, including conversations with �鶹��Ƶ students who have studied abroad.

Carmine Familletti ‘27, a finance and entrepreneurship major from Basking Ridge, N.J., took a different path into the weekend’s first-place venture. After listening to the opening-night pitches and talking with several teams, the idea behind Little Helper stood out to him.

is a safety application for children’s Windows PCs and Macs designed to identify potential signs of grooming, bullying or explicit content in online chats and alert parents.

“I spent time talking with other teams and testing their ideas, and this one stood out as the strongest, so I joined the team,” Familletti said.

Familletti served as chief financial officer, building the pricing model, calculating operating costs and developing a three-year financial plan. His financial work also influenced how the product was designed.

“I used that cost data to see which features were cheap and which were expensive to run,” Familletti said. “That helped us redesign the AI engine to be as cost-efficient as possible, cutting our AI cost from about $26 per family per month to about $1.20.”

By the final pitch, Familletti said the team had more than a concept to show the judges.

“We came in with more than an idea,” Familletti said. “By the final pitch, we had a working product, survey data from real parents, and financial numbers we could defend.”

Little Helper earned first place and received Sparq Coworking memberships, app development support from YohDev and a sponsored launch party to help the team continue developing the venture.

Gabi Czerveny ’27, a marketing major from Charlotte, N.C., joined Transfer Ready, a concept pitched by �鶹��Ƶ alumnus Aaron Satko ’25 after his own experience trying to buy a business.

“He was like, ‘I have an idea for putting the value from the CEO’s head back into the business,’” Czerveny said.

The team developed the concept around helping business owners capture knowledge that might otherwise exist primarily in their heads before retiring or selling the company.

For Czerveny, part of the work was helping the team turn a wide range of ideas into a focused concept.

“We had a lot of ideas on the table, so I helped us narrow in on what we could realistically accomplish over the weekend,” Czerveny said.

She also helped refine the team’s presentation, cutting down slides and making sure the final pitch clearly communicated the idea.

Transfer Ready earned second place and the Social Impact Award, recognizing the venture’s potential to support business and wealth transfer, particularly for minority- and women-owned businesses.

“They said that was so important, especially for small towns, because there are so many small businesses and a lot of them shut down when an owner leaves,” Czerveny said. “Our idea was to keep these companies that have been in business, in business.”

The team also received Sparq Coworking memberships and development support from Sigma Software Vertex to continue building the venture.

The Transfer Ready team also included �鶹��Ƶ students Pierson Norris ’27, Aaron Grubman ’29 and Murray Marks Jr. ’28, along with alumni Joshua Mason ’25 and Satko. Kathy Atwiine ’29 participated on another team during the weekend.

Czerveny’s role with Startup Weekend began before the competition. As a Techstars student ambassador, she helped recruit �鶹��Ƶ participants and worked with Ashley Wilcox, director of the Doherty Center, to get students involved.

Wilcox also traveled to Winston-Salem and served as a judge during the weekend.

“The experience exposed us to different people, perspectives and ideas than we might otherwise encounter,” Czerveny said. “I would mainly suggest that people go to push themselves out of their comfort zones. There are always new ideas there that you would never think of. You really leave the weekend feeling refreshed and focused”

Familletti echoed that advice for students considering a future Startup Weekend.

“Just do it,” Familletti said. “Whatever your skill set, and whatever you do or don’t know going in, the competition will push you to learn something new.”

The annual experience uses Charlotte as a classroom, helping students connect business education with the economic and social forces shaping the city.

Thomas Flaherty ’27, an entrepreneurship and innovation major, said the tour challenged some of his assumptions about affordable housing.

“The bus tour really changed my perception because the housing was actually really nice, clean and friendly-looking,” Flaherty said. “There were lots of trees and people walking around, so it showed how the housing met people’s living needs.”

Ian Knarr ’30, an economics major, came away with a different perspective on the city itself.

“Usually, when you see a city, you only see one part of it, but we got to see so many parts and how every part is different from each other,” Knarr said.

Trapani encouraged students to think about how understanding a place can shape the way they engage with its challenges.

“Things don’t just change. You have to change them,” Trapani told students. “It is important in order for you to become a full member of society to understand what you deeply care about and fight for it.”

Hanchett discussed how federal and local policies shaped Charlotte’s neighborhoods and development patterns and why understanding that history matters for future business and community leaders.

“The stories that I’m telling are stories that you will find everywhere in the U.S.,” Hanchett said. “It is hard sometimes to see them, but it shapes who we are.”

Dodson introduced students to DreamKey Partners’ work in affordable and mixed-income housing, including the Brightwalk development near uptown Charlotte. Students learned about the financing, partnerships and long-term planning involved in developing mixed-income communities and how those projects can affect surrounding neighborhoods.

“It is not just about housing,” Dodson said. “By building this community, we became an economic catalyst.”

Amarina Beard-Galati ’28, an entrepreneurship and innovation major, said traveling along Central Avenue highlighted another dimension of the city.

“Seeing all these shops and all these cultures that people have created is a sign that people want to come together and create a community that embraces us all,” Beard-Galati said.

For students in the Center for Humanity in Business program, Charlotte will become an even larger part of their �鶹��Ƶ experience when they spend their fourth year living in the city and completing a co-op experience tied to responsible management practices and their career interests.

Meira Flavin ’30, a marketing major, said the visit shifted her understanding of Charlotte.

“Coming into this experience, I had a preconceived notion of what Charlotte was,” Flavin said. “That changed today.”

He started over.

Taylor was leading about 1,200 employees when he told company leaders he eventually wanted to run a business. Their response: He needed to learn how to build brands. So the engineer and plant manager moved into marketing, working alongside colleagues who were much earlier in their careers.

“It was a wonderful lesson in humility,” Taylor said. “It was a great chance to learn and to be in the learning mode, not the knowing mode.”

That willingness to keep learning became a recurring theme on Sept. 10 in LaRose Digital Theatre at the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.

The conversation was moderated by Jack Ryan P’17, founder and principal of Jack Ryan Advisory and chair of the Love School of Business Board of Advisors.

Taylor spent more than 40 years with P&G, with assignments across the United States, Asia and Europe before eventually becoming chairman, president and CEO. Today, he serves as senior operating adviser to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, chairman of the supervisory board of Opella Healthcare Group and non-executive chair of Delta Air Lines’ board of directors.

When Ryan asked what advice he would give students preparing to enter the workforce, Taylor pushed back on the idea that there is one ideal first assignment.

“Many people ask me, ‘What’s the right first assignment? Do I need to start in marketing or sales?’” Taylor said. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do with the first assignment. Do you come into whatever you’re asked to do and do it with excellence?”

He said that strong work creates the credibility to take on larger challenges and eventually influence the organization itself.

“If you really want to change the system, be successful at wherever you are,” Taylor said. “That gives you a platform to be able to change the system. You build credibility that you can accomplish outcomes, and once you do that, the willingness for others to listen to you grows.”

Taylor said one of the strongest differentiators he has seen among successful leaders is their ability to bring out the best in the people around them.

“The greatest differentiator I’ve seen in my time with P&G, my time at Delta and now working with a private equity company is often their ability to unleash those around them,” Taylor said. “Those that have relatively little ego, but a high level of achievement, a high level of personal accountability and a high level of empathy for others.”

That combination, he said, creates something leaders cannot achieve on their own.

“What happens is they generate followership,” Taylor said. “That creates wonderful outcomes, especially when you get to mid- and higher levels, because the group amplifies the results.”

Students later turned the conversation toward artificial intelligence, asking Taylor what skills they should focus on as AI changes marketing and business.

Taylor said AI is already helping companies create and analyze content more quickly, but technology does not replace the need to understand the people a business serves.

“When we go to markets, the first meeting is in homes,” Taylor said. “We’d get to know the person. We’d learn about their life, their kids. ‘Tell us what you do each day.’”

He said those visits allowed teams to observe what consumers actually did, not just what they said they needed.

“You find there’s a lot of compensating behaviors consumers have,” Taylor said. “They’ll say, ‘This is not an issue,’ but you see they do an extra step because something doesn’t work the way they think it should.”

Taylor shared examples from P&G’s work in markets around the world, including observing how consumers washed their hair in rural China and how a consumer in Japan used Febreze on furniture she wished she could wash.

“You don’t see that looking at a sheet of paper,” Taylor said.

For Taylor, AI can accelerate the work once a company understands the problem it is trying to solve.

“AI will let you have faster, better answers once you know what to work on,” Taylor said. “What mountain do you want to climb? And that often comes from a better consumer insight and empathy.”

For the final student question, Taylor was asked whether there was one piece of advice he had used as a filter when making major decisions throughout his career.

His answer brought the conversation back to learning.

“Probably the simplest one is: Can I make a difference, and can I learn?” Taylor said.

He encouraged students to consider those questions as they evaluate their own opportunities, rather than getting caught up in salary, job titles or whether an assignment appears prestigious.

“Pick a place that you’re happy to walk in the door every day, you can hold your head up, you can learn and you can make a difference,” Taylor said. “You have talents and the ability to do a ton of things. You get to choose how you use those.”

�鶹��Ƶ Lessons from Leaders

Launched in 2017 by Dean Emeritus Raghu Tadepalli, Lessons from Leaders brings senior executives to campus for open talks, small group discussions and purposeful one-on-one networking that connects students with mentors. The program helps bridge classroom learning to real-world decision-making and strategy, and aims for every student to leave with a new contact and meaningful career insights.

A new chapter in �鶹��Ƶ’s global sport education programming officially began Sept. 7 in Pistoia, Italy.

Five �鶹��Ƶ students arrived in the Tuscan city as the inaugural cohort participating in the university’s partnership with Lumos Pistoia Basket 2000, a professional basketball organization, and the Accademia Europea di Firenze (AEF). Their arrival was marked by a from the club as the students prepare to begin a semester combining study abroad with hands-on experience in the professional sport industry.

As part of their initial visit, the students explored Pistoia’s historic center before making their way to LumoSquare, the 3,835-seat home of Pistoia Basket and a growing community hub. Accompanied by Professor Marco Bracci and Elisabetta Santanni, academic director of AEF/�鶹��Ƶ in Florence, the group toured the facility, met members of the club staff, and received a personal welcome from Pistoia Basket President Joseph Mark David.

The visit offered the students their first look at the organization, where they will soon become part of the day-to-day operations. Beginning in mid-September, they will work alongside Pistoia Basket staff on projects involving sport management, marketing and social media.

“This experience is over a year in the making and couldn’t have come together without the amazing work of our partners at AEF, especially Elisabetta Santanni and Marco Bracci,” said David Bockino, professor of sport management. “As we launch the partnership this semester, we’re already discussing how to make it accessible to more students moving forward. The reception on campus has been great – we have students lining up to participate in the future.”

A global professional experience

Announced last fall, �鶹��Ƶ’s partnership with AEF and Pistoia Basket was developed in collaboration with the Department of Sport Management to expand experiential learning opportunities for students studying in Florence. It combines two hallmarks of an �鶹��Ƶ education – global engagement and professional experience – placing students inside a European professional sport organization while they study abroad.

“This experience was the logical next step as �鶹��Ƶ grows its sport-related experiences,” Bockino said. “As a university, we’re great at study abroad and at helping our students get internships. Why not put those two together? When these students eventually hit the job market, they’ll arrive with a true resume differentiator: an internship with a professional Italian basketball club that allows them to better understand sport from a global perspective.”

As part of a mentored, two-credit internship with Pistoia Basket, students will spend approximately 10 hours each week gaining practical experience in event operations, fan engagement, marketing, communications and social media. Their responsibilities will be tailored to their academic backgrounds and professional interests.

For example, students interested in media analytics may evaluate the club’s social media performance, while students studying sport management or strategic communications will work to increase Pistoia Basket’s visibility among college students studying abroad in Florence. Participants will also meet regularly with accompanying professors and complete applied and reflection-based assignments.

The cohort will also contribute to a video storytelling project designed to introduce Pistoia Basket to new audiences in the United States. Funded by the �鶹��Ƶ Innovation Council and coordinated through �鶹��Ƶ’s Sports Media Lab and �鶹��Ƶ Sports Vision, the project will use footage captured by the students to tell the story of Pistoia’s 2026-27 season. According to Bockino, the resulting videos are expected to appear on �鶹��Ƶ social media channels and during �鶹��Ƶ Athletics broadcasts.

This fall’s inaugural cohort includes Robbie Pataky ’28, a strategic communications major; Amelia Weaver ’28, a sport management and media analytics double major; Riley Greenwald ’28, a sport management major; Olivia Tichnor ’28, a marketing major; and Max Edelstein ’28, a sport management major.

He quickly learned just how many steps that takes.

As a quality engineer co-op, Coughenour is supporting the launch of ALTA Rounds, a new plastic-free coffee pod. Working with the quality team, he has contributed to product trials, data analysis and quality checks on the manufacturing floor.

“Being in the plant has shown me that a product launch is not just one big step, but a lot of smaller steps that all must come together,” Coughenour said.

He was drawn to the opportunity because it paired hands-on manufacturing experience with a product designed to reduce environmental impact.

“No week looked exactly the same as we prepared for the launch,” Coughenour said. “I collected samples and interpreted data during quality and R&D trials, led two associates at the end of the production line, and worked with outside companies to calibrate and test equipment.”

The experience also changed how he thinks about quality in manufacturing.

“Quality is not just about inspecting a final product,” Coughenour said. “It is about understanding the process, identifying opportunities for improvement and helping ensure consistency from start to finish.”

One of his most meaningful responsibilities was helping coordinate, establish and lead end-of-line quality checks. The work gave him a direct role in determining whether the product consistently met quality standards.

“I was trusted with a responsibility that directly tied into the quality of the product,” Coughenour said. “It helped me see how my work fit into the bigger picture of the ALTA Rounds launch.”

Coughenour also worked on improving the calibration process to make it more automated and efficient.

Together, those projects gave him hands-on experience in operations, problem-solving and production while showing him how much coordination goes into maintaining product quality.

The internship also helped clarify the kind of work he wants to pursue.

“I want to do work where I can see the impact of what I am doing,” Coughenour said. “Being at KDP has shown me that I enjoy the hands-on side of supply chain, especially when it involves operations, problem-solving and production.”

He also wants that work to contribute to environmental sustainability. Supporting the development of a plastic-free coffee pod showed him how supply chain and manufacturing roles can connect day-to-day operations with a broader purpose.

“Knowing that my work could contribute, even in a small way, to environmental sustainability gives me a greater sense of purpose and motivation,” he said.

His advice to other students is to stay open to unfamiliar work and bring consistent effort to the experience.

“Be open, persistent and dedicated,” Coughenour said. “Be open to asking questions and taking on new challenges. What you put into this experience is ultimately what you will get out of it.”

“I wanted something that would challenge me even more,” Keicher said. “Something without the training wheels.”

His manager responded by turning over a raw-material sourcing project that had originally been part of his own workload. Keicher researched potential suppliers, analyzed sourcing options and developed a strategy that he later presented to senior leaders in supply chain management and engineering.

The project became one of the most meaningful parts of his internship.

“I asked for another project because I wanted to push myself,” Keicher said. “Being trusted with that level of responsibility gave me the chance to work through the strategy independently and present my recommendation to company leaders.”

The opportunity also connected Keicher with an interest that began years earlier. He took flight lessons throughout high school, developing an early passion for aviation and firsthand familiarity with the industry.

He soon realized, however, that “no one likes a creative pilot who wants to test the conventions of flight mid-air.”

Instead, Keicher found a place for that curiosity in aviation manufacturing.

“I love the aviation industry,” he said. “Nothing is cooler than being able to say you help build jets for a living.”

Keicher, a supply chain management and data analytics major from Sycamore, Ill., worked with Honda Aircraft’s procurement team at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C.

His internship included production meetings, supplier visits and regular walks through the manufacturing floor. He learned more about sourcing strategy, the purchase-order life cycle and the role procurement plays in keeping aircraft production moving.

One of his first visits to the production floor gave him a closer look at Honda’s “go to the spot” philosophy. When a part had a quality issue, Keicher went directly to where it was being used and spoke with the technician working with it.

“I was able to understand what was wrong, why it was wrong and what information the supplier needed to fix the issue,” Keicher said.

The experience helped him see how procurement decisions connect to the work happening on the production floor and how communication among technicians, buyers and suppliers can help resolve problems.

Throughout the summer, Keicher contributed to projects involving sourcing, workload analysis, process improvement and employee training.

He helped develop a Power BI dashboard for the procurement team, created tools intended to streamline internal approval processes and documented procedures for onboarding new suppliers. He also led training sessions for incoming associates.

Keicher took the initiative to propose several updates to the company’s internship program. His recommendations included resources to help interns set goals with mentors, transfer knowledge to future interns and provide more useful feedback at the end of the experience.

The range of assignments allowed him to work across data analysis, supplier relationships and internal operations while seeing how each area supports a larger manufacturing process.

His coursework at the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business helped prepare him for projects that combined supply chain strategy with data analysis and communication.

In Introduction to Supply Chain Management with Coleman Rich, associate teaching professor of operations and supply chain management, Keicher learned tools including RACI matrices and critical path analysis. A course with Vinayaka Gude, assistant professor of business analytics, helped him strengthen his skills in data visualization, dashboard development and communicating findings clearly.

The internship confirmed Keicher’s interest in building a career in aerospace. It also reinforced the value of asking for the opportunities he wanted rather than waiting for them to appear.

“You have to ask the question,” Keicher said. “Ask for what you want the experience to be. That will define what you get to do.”

The program paired undergraduate students with faculty members to support AI-related projects across the school. Student fellows helped develop and deliver workshops, interview faculty and build materials for future courses and boot camps.

Sakura Kawakami ’26 worked with Scott Oakes, assistant teaching professor of management, and fellow students Julia Amodeo ‘26 and Katie Geraghty ’26 on workshops for Gateway classes.

The team visited eight classes and reached approximately 240 students through 20-minute sessions with hands-on exercises. The workshops introduced students to Gemini Pro, available through �鶹��Ƶ, and focused on practical skills such as improving prompts through iteration and added context.

“The primary goal was to establish a baseline of AI fluency among Gateway students, who are primarily first-year business students,” Oakes said. “We also wanted to test whether a short, bootcamp-style training session could effectively introduce students to practical AI skills within a classroom setting.”

Faculty established the project’s overall objectives before the students joined. Kawakami, Amodeo and Geraghty then helped develop classroom activities, learning objectives, presentation materials, pre- and post-session surveys, and the rollout plan. The students also led the workshops and helped analyze the resulting data.

“My role as an AI Fellow was to act as a bridge between students and faculty, advising students on how to use AI to enhance their learning, not replace it,” said Kawakami, a Business Analytics and Project Management major from Rotorua, New Zealand. “The goal was to make sure students felt confident using these tools in ways that supported them.”

One focus was helping students understand that effective use of AI often requires refining a prompt rather than accepting the first response.

“One of our biggest teaching points was the importance of iteration when prompting AI,” Kawakami said. “By refining and tailoring your prompts to your own needs, you get far more accurate and useful responses.”

Oakes said the student fellows strengthened the project by bringing their own experiences with AI into the classroom.

“Peer-to-peer learning is incredibly powerful,” he said. “First-year students often feel more comfortable asking questions and exploring new technologies when they see successful upper-level students demonstrating how they actually use those tools.”

Another team worked with Kem Zhang, associate professor of business analytics, on projects designed to support more advanced AI use in business courses.

Thomas Case ’26, a supply chain management and business analytics major from Atlanta, G.A. and Oliver Lorraine ’27, a project management and business analytics major from Red Bank, N.J. gathered input from faculty and developed materials for future workshops. One project focused on Associate Professor David Jiang’s, Bring the Venture to Life entrepreneurship course, where students develop and launch venture ideas.

Based on the needs identified for the course, the team created materials for an “AI-powered entrepreneurship” workshop covering topics such as prompting for code, e-commerce, payment integration and deployment.

Case led the workshop design and drafted presentation materials. Lorraine documented the development process and built reusable coding templates for future workshops and boot camps.

“The transition from AI users to AI builders or AI architects is an important distinction because knowing how to use a tool generally is much different than knowing how to use a tool to innovate,” said Case.

Lorraine also created Google Colab notebooks with coding templates for future use.

Zhang said the goal is to help students move beyond basic familiarity with AI tools.

“For business students, knowing how to use an AI tool is expected,” Zhang said. “The real advantage comes when they understand how these tools can be used in problem solving and to create concrete, AI-based solutions.”

Several projects from the spring semester are expected to continue during the 2026-27 academic year, including the entrepreneurship workshop, an AI Boot Camp for incoming students and additional work on AI integration.

The spring 2026 AI Student Fellows were Brandon Boudreau ‘27, Thomas Case ‘26, Oliver Lorraine ‘27, Dylan Stone ‘28, Julia Amodeo ‘26, Sakura Kawakami ‘26, Lindsay Balick ‘27, Katie Geraghty ‘26, Katrina Papierman ’26 and Tristan D’Adamo ‘28.

Sarah Bunnell, director of �鶹��Ƶ’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and associate professor of psychology, and George Talbert, assistant professor of marketing and sales, co-presented “The Power of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for Individual and Institutional Transformation, in Business Schools and Beyond.” The online session marked the group’s second community event and drew educators from across Europe and beyond.

Bunnell opened by tracing SoTL’s roots to Ernest Boyer’s influential 1990 framework, which expanded the definition of scholarship to include systematic study of student learning. She then expanded on the field’s history to include later contributions from scholars like �鶹��Ƶ’s Peter Felten, assistant provost for teaching and learning, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and professor of history, whose work has helped establish public dissemination, peer review and collaboration as foundational principles of SoTL practice.

Talbert then offered a personal lens, reflecting on his own transition from a senior marketing and sales career into higher education and how engaging with SoTL has reshaped his approach to teaching and student learning. Rather than focusing solely on content delivery and student satisfaction, he described moving toward deeper questions about how students’ thinking develops and whether his teaching approaches achieve their intended learning outcomes. This personal insight was highlighted by event organizers as a “”, and its accessibility to faculty across disciplines, not just educational researchers.

Bunnell and Talbert’s work is an example of meaningful collaboration between faculty across disciplines who center student learning, professional growth, and development of one’s teaching practice within their work. Their session is a meaningful contribution to the growing international dialogue about SoTL’s role in higher education, which �鶹��Ƶ is increasingly recognized as leading. The invitation for the keynote reflects the continued recognition of �鶹��Ƶ’s leadership in undergraduate teaching and educational development on the global stage. Following the session, Bunnell and Talbert were invited to remain engaged with the international SoTL community, with plans to continue building on the conversation in future collaborations.

Teza shares what she hopes to accomplish in her new role and how �鶹��Ƶ students can benefit.

How would you describe your career path?

My career path consists of a series of lateral and advancement roles that provided exposure to multiple facets of the apparel industry. These positions prepared me to lead several market-leading brands, develop strong teams and implement transformation across complex regional and global businesses.

What does serving as an Executive in Residence at the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business mean to you?

I am excited to mentor and guide the next generation of leaders. I look forward to translating classroom learning into real-world scenarios and creating professional pathways through networking, internship opportunities and exposure to different industries.

What kinds of conversations and experiences do you hope to create for �鶹��Ƶ students during your time on campus?

I look forward to meaningful conversations regarding leadership, insights into managing domestic and global businesses and how students can create a pathway to finding a career in which they will thrive.

What perspectives from your work in global consumer brands are you most excited to share with �鶹��Ƶ students?

Leading a winning global brand combines emotional brand equity, operational scale and local execution. Managing global teams is both challenging and rewarding; it is critical to be well-versed in regional cultures to maximize employee engagement, create consistency in brand positioning and delight consumers.

What advice would you offer students who are interested in leading teams or managing large, complex organizations?

Leading a large organization requires the alignment of people, capital and processes to deliver results at scale. Aligning on priorities, building strong teams, operational excellence, constant communication, establishing decision-making rights and protecting a culture are the foundational blocks for success.

Beyond your résumé, what should people know about you and what you enjoy outside of work?

My primary focus is my family and making the most out of every day. My husband and I travel extensively to explore off-the-beaten-path locations, and we have a passion for boating, pickleball and golf. We enjoy spending time with our three children as they navigate their own career and life journeys, and we continue to coach people and businesses to help them maximize their potential.