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:
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.
Executive Board
To improve the teaching of management and promote professionalism in the practice of management.
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.
Lori T. Peterson
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.
Carol Flinchbaugh
President Elect
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
Vice President
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.
Antoaneta Petkova
Past President
Antoaneta Petkova, Ph.D. is a Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. Antoaneta's research examines the interactions between organizations and their stakeholders that shape the value of organizational actions and outcomes. Antoaneta is interested in the processes of emergence and accumulation of organizational resources, such as reputation and legitimacy, which take place at the interface between institutions, organizations and their stakeholders. Antoaneta's favorite research contexts are new and emerging markets, such as information technologies and clean energy. Antoaneta is excited about the potential of entrepreneurship to address social and environmental issues. Antoaneta has been a member of WAM since 2007 and has served as a reviewer, doctoral student mentor, track chair, and a two-years representative at large. What Antoaneta loves about WAM is its collegiality, friendliness and relaxed yet professional atmosphere.
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 Emich
Rep at Large (2 yr.)
Kyle J. Emich, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics. His research explores the role of individual attributes, particularly perceptions and emotions, in team dynamics and other collective environments. It appears in a number of management and psychology journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organizational Research Methods, and Psychological Science. His work has also been cited in media outlets such as TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American.
Past WAM Presidents
