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.​​
2026 Open Positions
Open positions announced soon.
Executive Board
Lori T. Peterson
President Pro-Tempore
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.
Jonathan Westover
President Elect
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.
Carol Flinchbaugh
Past 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.
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."
Kyle Ehrhardt
Vice President
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.
Réka Anna Lassu
Chief Communication Officer
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.
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
Johnna Capitano
Rep at Large (3 yr.)
Johnna Capitano, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at West Chester University, teaching management, organizational behavior, and human resources courses. Prior to transitioning into academia, she was the Senior Director of Training and Organizational Development at Aramark in Philadelphia. Her research focuses on the work-home interface and temporal issues in organizations, particularly organizational socialization. She has won the Best Student Paper Award for the Academy of Management MOC Division and the John J. Clark Outstanding PhD Behavioral Research Award at Drexel University. Her Ph.D. is from Drexel University.
Past WAM Presidents
