Mays Impacts

Four faculty members have been awarded Mays Faculty Fellowships to fund their research. Faculty members will each receive $15,000 for four years to support their research and to supplement their summer salaries.

Those awarded fellowships include:

Leonard Bierman, a professor of management, who has taught at Texas A&M for 20 years. His research interests include employee regulation, negotiations and international trade.

Wendy Boswell, assistant professor of management, researches employee attraction and retention, strategic alignment, work-related stress and executive job search. She joined Mays in 2000.

Mary Lea McAnally, associate professor of accounting, enjoys researching capital markets and bank accounting and regulation. She joined Mays last year.

Sorin Sorescu, an associate professor of finance who also joined Mays last year, researches free markets.

The fellowships, which become effective Sept. 1, 2003, are awarded based on past research performance and potential future research opportunities.

The Department of Marketing is hosting the Texas Universities Marketing Faculty Research Colloquium April 4. Marketing faculty affiliated with a number of Texas-based universities including Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, University of Houston, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Texas at Dallas will be participating in this annual event.

Rajan Varadarajan, Distinguished Professor of Marketing, and James H. Leigh, associate professor of marketing and PhD advisor, are serving co-chairs for the colloquium.

The Center for Retailing Studies (CRS) welcomes Cheryl Holland as its new associate director. Holland, who has 25 years of retailing experience, most recently served as senior vice president of merchandising for Ashford.com, an Internet retailer that sells luxury accessories, fine jewelry, watches, diamonds and decorative home furnishings.

According to Alison Pond, marketing and communications coordinator for CRS, Holland has a reputation as an exceptional leader and is respected for her high ethical standards.

Holland, who recently visited Mays as a guest lecturer, graduated with honors from Texas Women’s University and received the university’s Distinguished Alumna Award.

Mays alumnus Joe Tortorice ’70, founder and president of Jason’s Deli Corp., and his wife, Shelley, recently committed $250,000 to endow the Shelley and Joe Tortorice ’70 Faculty Fellowship. The gift will provide a Mays faculty member with funds for teaching, research, service and professional development activities.

“Shelley and Joe’s gift will be critical in allowing Mays Business School to protect its most valuable asset — our faculty,” says Dean Jerry Strawser.

The Tortorice’s fellowship is part of $500,000 gift to Texas A&M’s One Spirit One Vision Campaign. The remaining $250,000 will endow five scholarships for students in the Corps of Cadets.

Tortorice, who graduated with a BBA in marketing believes, “the greatest way to increase the well being of mankind is through education.”

When Mays freshman, Erica Enders, isn’t studying, she’s probably on the racetrack. At 16, Enders became the youngest national event finalist in the National Hot Rod Association’s history.

In fact, the Disney Channel created an original movie, “Right on Track,” about Enders’ life as well as her success in paving the way for other girls in drag racing. The movie aired in late March. Enders’ younger sister, Courtney, also is a drag-racing champion and the two appear in the movie performing the actual drag-racing scenes.

Visit www.endersracing.com for more information.