Another semester has just about ticked over since the last chair’s message from December. As May begins, there is a great deal of excitement in the air. Seniors are getting ready to graduate, faculty are getting final projects and exams graded (and getting ready for the summer!)—and it is an opportune time to pause and look back over the past academic year, as well as to look ahead at what’s in store for next year.

Foremost in my mind is the incredible achievement by our AMA Student Chapter, which just recently was selected as the number one overall student chapter (out of 390) at the 2019 AMA International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans. Our Chapter won seven awards altogether and was the talk of the conference. Congratulations to everyone in our fabulous AMA Chapter! Also, congratulations and many thanks to Dr. Craig Atwater, our AMA Faculty Advisor, as well as faculty co-advisors Drew Allmond and Jim Thompson.

As many of you are aware, 2019 is a pivotal year for the Fox School. Interim Dean Ronald Anderson has convened a Strategic Planning Task Force to set our priorities and chart our direction for the future of the school. Concordant with that, Dean Anderson has asked me to conduct a similar exercise for our Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department. This effort comes on the heels of an external review that was conducted by faculty and deans from Rutgers, the University of Delaware and the University of Washington. We look forward to receiving the report from the review team and to begin to implement some of their suggestions to strengthen our programs and our impact.

This spring we are in the process of completing a successful hiring campaign: We expect to welcome two new faculty members for Fall 2019, one in operations and supply chain management and one in quantitative marketing. These faculty members will provide a serious boost to those two important areas.

Finally, every year we have arrivals, departures and congratulatory news as well. This month we will host a goodbye reception for former department chair and long-time professor Dr. Michael Smith. We will miss you Mike! We are also sorry to say goodbye to Dr. Angelika Dimoka, who will be joining the University of Houston this summer. On a different note, I would like to congratulate Professor Katie Gerst on her appointment to be the Fox School’s next director of our Honors Program.

I’d like to wish everyone a great summer in whatever you do: Relaxing, traveling, getting sand in your shoes or even getting in some teaching, learning or research. Whatever you get done, let’s look forward to hitting the Fall with some recharged batteries!