Mission & Executive Board
The Western Academy of Management (WAM) began in 1960, and is an independent affiliate of the National Academy of Management. WAM's mission is:
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Mission
To foster the general advancement of knowledge in the theory and practice of management in its domestic and international, and public and private, applications.
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To perform and support educational activities that contribute to intellectual and operational leadership in the field of management.
To promote research in the field of management.
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To improve the teaching of management and promote professionalism in the practice of manageme​nt.​​
Executive Board
Carol Flinchbaugh
President
Carol Flinchbaugh, Ph.D. joined the University of New Mexico State as an associate professor in the management division. In addition to her teaching role, Dr. Flinchbaugh has several ongoing research projects focusing on the topics of employee responses to workplace demands, HR systems in the non-profit setting, and understanding generational differences in the workplace. She is an advisor to the NMSU student SHRM Chapter. Her teaching interests span from human resource management to contemporary issues in HRM to staffing and recruitment for undergraduates. Her main research interests include: strategic human resource management, workplace job demands and stress, student psychological resources, human resource management, employee well-being, positive organizational scholarship, and organizational behavior.
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Chris Bradshaw
President Elect
Chris Bradshaw, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Management at California State University, Stanislaus. Before pursuing graduate studies in business Chris worked for five years in the telecommunications industry. He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the University of Missouri in May, 2014. Chris's research interests include employee help-seeking behavior, conflict within new venture teams, and entrepreneurial motivation. Chris lives in Modesto, California, with his wife and three children.
Jonathan Westover
Vice President
Dr. Westover is a professor and chair of Organizational Leadership in the Woodbury School of Business at Utah Valley University, Academic Director of the UVU Center for Social Impact and the UVU SIMLab, and Faculty Fellow for Ethics in Public Life (previously the Associate Director) in the Center for the Study of Ethics. Dr. Westover has been published widely in academic journals, books, and practitioner publications. He is a regular visiting faculty member in other international graduate business programs. He is also an award-winning US-based Amazon.com #1 Best Selling Author, ranked # 1 HR, Innovation, and Future of Work Global Thought Leader & Influencer (Thinkers360), ranked in the Top 30 in Management and Organizational Culture (Global Gurus), entrepreneur, management consultant, teacher, and research academic based in Orem, Utah. He serves on a host of nonprofit, community, and association boards and committees and has received numerous awards for his teaching, research, and service to the community.
Lori T. Peterson
Past President
Dr. Lori T. Peterson is excited to serve as the WAM President for 2023-2023. After completing her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University, she has served as a management and health care administration faculty member at universities in Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma. As a management and health services researcher, she has completed numerous qualitative and quantitative studies, including grant funded projects resulting in a variety of publications. Dr. Peterson is a visiting qualitative researcher at the South American Center for Qualitative Research based at the Universidad Norbert Wiener in Lima, Peru. Earlier this year, Dr. Peterson began a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in grounded theory methodologies at the Glaser Center for Grounded Theory at the Institute for Research Theory and Methods. In her spare time, she is putting her training as a certified facilitator in the LEGO® Serious Play® method to support creative thinking, strategic planning and more.
Jim Downing
Chief Financial Officer
Jim Downing, Ph.D. a Senior Lecturer of Strategy in the Department of Defense Management at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, conducts research on the formation of strategic groups to create unique approaches for engaging an organization's environment. Additionally, he enjoys conducting wine business research through an entrepreneurship lens to understand how wineries develop differentiation in the fragmented Northern California wine industry. Jim's doctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago provided the foundation for his current research endeavors while stressing the importance of participating in the Academy. “The greatest aspect of WAM is the people. The organization prides itself with scholars looking to be colleagues and helping others in our research pursuits. I have discovered more co-authors at the WAM conferences than any other academic organization. My research has advanced from the good feedback received at presentations and from fun discussions during social activities - this is what it means to be Whammy. The WAM annual conference is a gathering I look forward to attending every year. The Western Academy of Management attendees are my fellow scholars, these are my friends, these are my colleagues."
Réka Anna Lassu
Communication Director
Réka Anna Lassu is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Pepperdine University. She has an interdisciplinary background, earning her PhD in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida, MS in Communication from the University of Lugano in Switzerland, MS in Business Administration from Virginia Tech, and BA in Psychology-Honors from Chico State. Réka’s research focuses on leadership and wellbeing. For example, she investigates why supervisor pressure for employee performance and wellbeing may sometimes backfire. She collaborates with companies across industries (e.g., nonprofit, healthcare) on projects that both enhance organizational effectiveness and advance management science. She is a regular presenter at international conferences and has published research in peer-reviewed business journals. Réka has taught university business courses since 2012. Her favorite part of teaching is mentoring students to discover their strengths and career passion. To inform her research & teaching, Réka draws on a variety of experiences outside academia. She was the manager of a purposeful travel leadership development program, a TEDx organizing team member/speaker coach, the fundraising coordinator for a social entrepreneurship start-up, and a professional development coach for small business owners.
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Suzanne Zivnuska
Rep at Large (3 yr.)
Suzanne Zivnuska, Ph.D. is Associate Dean for Chico State’s College of Business. Suzanne's Ph.D. training in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at Florida State prepared her for a dynamic career in teaching and research. Suzanne maintains her expertise in optimizing employee performance through her research, teaching, and administrative roles. Suzanne has published more than 30 academic articles in areas such as organizational politics and impression management, as well as lifestyle issues related to the interface between work and family, social media use at work, and health at work. Suzanne is a recipient of the University’s Presidential Honor for Professional Achievement (2020), and has been identified by Research Gate, a social media platform for researchers, as the most-cited author at Chico State. In addition to her administrative duties and her research, Suzanne stays current in classroom pedagogy by teaching human resources, negotiation, and consulting.
Bahareh Javadizadeh
Rep at Large (2 yr.)
Bahareh Javadizadeh, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Management at San Francisco State University who specializes in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior. Her research explores the individual and organizational outcomes of perceived identity threat in the workplace, the creation of façades of conformity as a coping mechanism, and the buffering role of the climate of authenticity. Moreover, she has an interest in exploring glass ceiling beliefs among women and minorities as well as civility in the workplace. Alongside her research, Bahareh has taught Human Capital Management, Organizational Behavior, and Teamwork. In her teaching, she centers her effort on the wholesale establishment of a challenging, engaging, and thought-provoking environment in which students are continually confronted with provocative questions, tasked with applying course materials to real world examples, and asked to share their ideas with the rest of the class with an emphasis on promoting civil collaboration and teamwork. The Department of Management within the NMSU College of Business recognized her for outstanding teaching during 2017-2018
Kyle Ehrhardt
Rep at Large (2 yr.)
Kyle Ehrhardt joined the Business School faculty at the University of Colorado Denver in August 2014 after completing his PhD studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business. Prior to his doctoral studies, Ehrhardt was employed for several years in the sport management industry, working for a US-based national governing organization. Ehrhardt's research interests center on the intersection of workplace relationships and topics related to diversity and discrimination – and in particular, how experiences in these areas contribute toward employees’ attitudes regarding their work and workplace. His research has appeared in a variety of journals and he serves on the editorial boards of Personnel Psychology, Human Relations, and the Journal of Business & Psychology.
Past WAM Presidents
