Barbara Arel joined the faculty in 2006 after completing her PhD at Arizona State University. Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Arel worked as a senior auditor in a regional public accounting firm and is currently licensed as a certified public accountant. She is also a member of the American Accounting Association. Her teaching interests are in the areas of auditing, accounting information systems and financial accounting and her research focuses on the judgment and decision making processes of auditors. Her research has been published in Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Advances in Accounting and The CPA Journal.

Cathy A. Beaudoin, PhD - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 317 Kalkin
Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 1:00PM-2:30PM or by appointment
Phone: (802) 656-0313
E-mail: cabeaudo@bsad.uvm.edu

Cathy Beaudoin is an Assistant Professor at The University of Vermont School of Business. She holds degrees from California State Polytechnic University (B.S.), Columbia University (MBA), and Drexel University (Ph.D.).

Cathy has extensive accounting work experience, both in public accounting and industry. She has worked in the tax department at KPMG Peat Marwick, in various accounting and reporting positions in the financial services industry including a Fortune 100 company, and was also the Vice President of Finance of a large, publicly-traded company.

Cathy's research interests include examining the decision making process in accounting and financial reporting contexts. This includes examining various factors that influence financial executives accounting and financial reporting choices as well as examining how accounting and financial reporting factors influence managers operating decisions.

Cathy was raised in Enfield, Connecticut. She has lived in many areas of the United States including Los Angeles, New York City, Tampa, Philadelphia, and now Vermont. Cathy likes to participate in sporting activities and currently competes in triathlons. She is also an avid reader of both fiction and nonfiction works, listens to a wide range of podcasts, and is continually looking for new music to enjoy.

Matthew W. Bovee, Ph.D. - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 219 Kalkin
Office Hours: 4:00 - 5:30 PM Tuesdays or by appointment
Phone: 802 656-0502
E-mail: bovee@bsad.uvm.edu

Before joining the School of Business Administration in January 2003, Matt served in several positions at the University of Kansas which included Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Information Services and Dean of Libraries and Assistant Advancement Director. Prior to that, he was Business Development Manager in the Data Management Centre for Corning Besselaar, England. In general Matt is interested in how people model information, both individually and collectively. (1) Information quality is becoming recognized as a critical and competitive strength in business. As we move toward expected availability of information online, there seems to be growing concern for the quality of that information, but very little investigation into if and how people evaluate it. For example, the primary accounting models of what investors and analysts consider to be important to the usefulness of information were never empirically validated; (2) As XML taxonomies proliferate, there seems to be implicit acceptance that a generation of middleware vendors will arise and be capable of patching the semantic gaps between parallel, inconsistent taxonomies. (3) Agent-based search is facilitated in a semi-structured, bounded environment. One such environment is the EDGAR database of public financial statements, where a wealth of information is available, but buried in lengthy files.

Empirical Validation of the Accounting Models of Information Usefulness: This line of research currently evaluates investor perceptions of the characteristics of useful information according to the major accounting standards boards (FASB & IASB). Perceptions were assessed by a survey created using the accounting standards boards models and documentation. The final sample includes data from over 500 investors. Results suggest that portions of the FASB/IASB model are not suitable for investors. Subsequent surveys are planned for financial analysts and accountants - the intermediary experts in the information flow to investors. A long-term goal of the study is to reconcile and, hopefully, merge the models of information usefulness (Accounting) and information quality (Information Systems).

Assessing Information Quality (dissertation topic): 1) The study developed a theoretically grounded information quality (IQ) model integrating existing models; 2) and empirically validated the model. Future stages of the research will evaluate the suitability of belief functions and evidential reasoning to implement the model in a desktop decision support tool.

Assessing the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) Taxonomy for Financial Reporting: Nicknamed The Kansas Project in the XBRL community. Empirically evaluated XBRL, an XML business reporting taxonomy, using financials from annual statements of 80 companies from the 1999 Fortune 1000. Pilot data set was used by EDGAR Online to establish the raw XBRL data set for XBRL Express. Results accepted by JIS. XML holds great promise for Ecommerce information-sharing. However, ontological and semantic consensus and the ease of developing information taxonomies are assumed. Such issues are relatively unexplored and will be widely encountered. The XBRL project explores these critical issues, develops a foundation for future research, and establishes important industry contacts.

The FRAANK Project: Ongoing research at the Ernst and Young Center for Auditing Research and Advanced Technology (EYCARAT), the Financial Reporting and Auditing Agent with Net Knowledge (FRAANK) parses information from multiple sources in real-time to assist in valuations and audit judgments. Currently, FRAANK parses 10Q or 10K financial statements retrieved from the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) EDGAR site and tags the Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statements in XBRL (see above) using extensive pattern matching and a knowledge-base of synonyms and root terms. Current development is aimed at increasing its accuracy (approximately 65% now) and scope.

Suggested topics for comment:
Theoretic and applied modeling of information and knowledge; health care informatics; knowledge management, IS applications of uncertain reasoning.
Assessing Information Quality, Assessing the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) Taxonomy for Financial Reporting, The FRAANK Project.

Christopher D. Hodgdon, Ph.D. - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 308 Kalkin
Office Hours: T, TH 10:00-11:00 and 2:30-3:30 or by appointment
Phone: 656-5774
E-mail: chodgdon@bsad.uvm.edu

Chris Hodgdon's teaching and research interests include international and financial accounting as well as accounting theory and history. Dr. Hodgdon was named the 2000 Doctoral Consortium Fellow by the American Accounting Association. He was also awarded the 2005 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the International Section of the American Accounting Association. He has served as a tax analyst for MCI Telecommunications Corp. and controller for Environmental Information Networks.

David A. Jones, Ph.D. - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 311 Kalkin
Office Hours: Tues: 1:00 2:00 PM or by appointment
Phone: 656-3302
E-mail: dajones@bsad.uvm.edu

David Jones completed his Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Calgary in Canada. In his research he focuses on employees' perceptions of fairness in the workplace. David studies the processes through which employees judge fairness and unfairness, and though which they respond through cooperative behavior, turnover, revenge, and counterproductive behavior (e.g., wasting time, theft). David also conducts research on employee recruitment and job applicant dishonesty. David is active in presenting his research at scholarly conferences like the annual meetings of the Academy of Management and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and has published his research in journals that include the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, and the Journal of Management. Dr. Jones is currently a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

In his work with organizations, David served for two years on the Board of Directors, and a term as Chair of the Board, for a non-profit organization called the New Sudan Education Initiative (www.nesei.org) whose mission is to build secondary schools in South Sudan. David has also applied principles of workplace fairness to projects within government, retail, and information technology sectors. For instance, David and his colleague, Dr. Daniel Skarlicki, trained managers of a retail store in the principles of workplace fairness and their evaluation of the training showed that employees' perceptions of fairness and cooperative work behaviors increased from before to after the training. David also worked with the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) Foundation to study how GMCR's company-funded volunteerism program affects employee attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Are employees more committed, proud, and loyal as a result of their opportunities to volunteer through the program?). David is becoming increasingly interested in how employees respond to their company's socially responsible business practices.

David teaches Principles of Management and Organizational Behavior (BSAD 120) during Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. For students enrolled in BSAD 120, the required textbook is: Organizational Behavior: Essentials. McShane, Steven, L., & Von Glinow, Mary Ann. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2007. ISBN 0-07-353006-9.

Marilyn T. Lucas, Ph.D. - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 202 Kalkin
Office Hours: MW 2- 3 p.m. or by appointment
Phone: 656-8276
E-mail: mlucas@bsad.uvm.edu

Dr. Lucas completed her Bachelor of Science in 1988 in Dijon, France, then moved to the United States. She completed her MS at Michigan Technological University, followed by her Ph.D. in Operations Management from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. She has taught previously at Bentley College, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and teaches Production and Operations Management. Dr. Lucas grew up on Reunion Island, which is off the East Coast of Africa.

Hugh  Marble III, Ph.D., CFA - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 313A Kalkin
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2:30pm - 3:30pm or by appointment
Phone: 656-8273
E-mail: hmarble@bsad.uvm.edu

Hugh Marble III joined the faculty of UVM in 2007 after completing his PhD at the University of Florida. Before pursuing the PhD, he worked as a consultant for Public Financial Management, a firm specializing in providing capital market, financial and strategic advice to public debt issuers. He is a CFA charterholder and has an MBA from Rollins College and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Marble's research looks at changes in credit ratings and also at the impact of debt contracts on firm incentives.

David  Novak, Ph.D. - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 310 Kalkin
Office Hours: MW 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. or by appointment
Phone: 656-4043
E-mail: david.novak@uvm.edu

David Novak completed his Ph.D. in Management Science and Information Technology at Virginia Tech in 2001. His teaching and research interests include computer networking and telecommunications, applied simulation, design and implementation of decision support systems (DSS) and the application of operations research models to solve real world problems. Dr. Novak has published in journals such as the European Journal of Operational Research, Decision Support Systems, Computers and Operations Research, Networks and Spatial Economics, and the Journal of Transport Geography.

Dr. Novak is also affiliated with the University of Vermont Transportation Research Center (TRC) and is actively working on a number of research projects funded through grants from the TRC as well as through a grant from the New England University Transportation Consortium (NEUTC) at MIT. The research focuses on decision making from a system-wide perspective, modeling disruptions on transportation networks, identifying the links most critical to a transportation network, and evaluating network performance.

He is also actively involved in research pertaining to student use of laptops and tablet PCs in the classroom and how the use of technology in the classroom impacts learning outcomes. The research is sponsored by a grant from Mircosoft Research.

Please feel free to visit Dr. Novak's personal Web site .
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Chun  Zhang, Ph.D. - Details
Assistant Professor
Office: 213A Kalkin
Office Hours: 2:00pm-4:00pm, Tuesdays or by appointment
Phone: 656-4116
E-mail: chun.zhang@uvm.edu

Dr. Zhang joined UVM in the fall of 2005. She received her Ph.D. in Marketing and her M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and her B.A. in Finance from Renmin University of China. Her teaching interests revolve around marketing management, international marketing, and research methods in marketing. Dr. Zhang's current research interests include relationship management challenges in channels of distribution and issues of cooperation and competition in supplier-manufacturer relations. For her work related to upstream supply chain, Dr. Zhang has received several research grants from the prestigious MIT-IMVP (International Motor Vehicle Program). Her scholarly work has appeared in a number of top international business journals including the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of International Marketing, the Journal of World Business, and International Marketing Review. Dr. Zhang's industry experiences include statistical analyst for the Risk Management Group at Kraft Foods Inc. and project intern for Euro-Asia Flower Trade Corporation, Beijing.