The Smeal College of Business and Penn State College of Medicine have teamed up to offer a five-year joint M.D./M.B.A. program beginning in the 2012-2013 academic year. Designed to appeal to highly qualified and motivated medical students who have an interest in the business of medicine, the program is now accepting applications for admission in the fall 2012 semester. The program's goal is to train medical doctors as both good clinicians and skilled business analysts. Such graduates may decide to be in clinical practice, but possessing the additional M.B.A. degree opens up myriad possibilities, including managing hospitals and working for firms in biotechnology, consulting, insurance, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, venture capital, and other industries. (more)
Milton J. "Mickey" Bergstein, whose 72-year relationship with Penn State began as a student and included 25-years broadcasting football and other sports, died Feb. 14 in State College, Pa. Bergstein, associate professor emeritus of marketing, was 89 years old. (more)
Many people fall victim to emotional eating, but it doesn't happen only when they're feeling bad, according to researchers. Having a good day at work, for example, can sometimes lead to a candy bar treat from the vending machine, according to Karen Winterich, assistant professor of marketing, Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Kelly Haws of Texas A&M University. At other times, positive feelings lead to choosing a healthier option, such as fruit. (more)
For the first time since its inception in 2007, the executive speaker series at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, Leadership in Focus: Executive Insights, will host a current Penn State student as a featured speaker. Elaine Tanella, overall chair of the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, will be the college's guest speaker on Feb 24.
Tanella, a senior Schreyer Scholar majoring in bioengineering with a minor in Italian, will join Smeal Dean James B. Thomas for an interactive on-stage conversation at 11:15 a.m. in the Business Building's Struthers Auditorium (110 BB) on the University Park campus. The talk is free and open to the public. (more)
The U.S. may have its first black president and the Fortune 500 its first black female chief executive, but African American CEOs account for a mere one percent of the chiefs of those 500 largest companies.
Andrew Carton, assistant professor of management and organization at Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Ashleigh Shelby Rosette of Duke University, suggest in the current issue of the Academy of Management Journal that what steers people's perceptions of African Americans are stereotypes about blacks' leadership failings, biases that may not even be conscious. (more)
Financial Times has ranked the Penn State Smeal College of Business MBA Program sixth among all publicly supported programs in the United States. The program is ranked 22nd among all U.S. programs and 49th globally, according to the newspaper. The ranking is based on information provided by the schools and surveys of graduates from the classes of 2006, 2007 and 2008. The criteria include alumni salary and career development, the diversity and international reach of the school and its MBA program, and its research capabilities. (more)
Alumni of the Sigma chapter of the Phi Sigma Delta fraternity have joined together to honor one of their own and help students in need through the creation of the group's fourth scholarship endowment at the Penn State. The James F. Schwab/Phi Sigma Delta Sigma Educational Foundation Trustee Scholarship has been funded with support from the foundation as well as family members and friends of the late James F. Schwab, a 1968 Penn State graduate and the foundation's treasurer and president-elect at the time of his death in 2009. (more)
President Barack Obama recently presented the 2011 Presidential Securing Americans' Value and Efficiency (SAVE) award to Penn State Smeal College of Business alumnus Matthew Ritsko, a financial manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Ritsko met the president on Jan. 9 in the Oval Office to receive the SAVE award, which gives front-line federal workers the chance to submit their ideas on how their agencies can save money and work more efficiently. Ritsko's winning proposal calls for NASA to create a "lending library" where specialized space tools and hardware purchased by one NASA organization will be made available to other NASA programs and projects. (more)
Barbara Gray, professor of organizational behavior in the Smeal College of Business, and Anthony Baratta, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering in the College of Engineering, recently traveled to Japan to spread the message of their work on the Three Mile Island disaster recovery efforts. They met with residents and government officials affected by the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami and shared methods they developed for restoring trust and alleviating worry in the wake of nuclear disaster. (more)
In May of 2010, Smeal MBA alumnus Matthew Jones traveled to earthquake-ravaged Haiti to live in a tent, spending only a dollar a day on food. Twenty-eight days later he came back nearly 30 pounds lighter, but filled with a desire to help those in need. After returning home, Jones and his brother, Andrew, a current Smeal MBA student, founded Poverty Resolutions to help identify long-term solutions to the suffering in Haiti. (more)
