Category: Fall 2024 Issue

Welcome to our Fall 2024 semester newsletter! This edition captures the vibrant energy of the season and our commitment to academic and professional excellence. As we embark on the Fall 2024 semester, we embrace change and growth, reflecting on our journey and the exciting opportunities ahead. This time of year, brings a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. Whether welcoming new students, launching innovative programs, or celebrating the achievements of our faculty and alumni, the energy on campus is palpable. We are building on the momentum of past successes while embracing new opportunities that push us toward even greater heights. With the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester, I am filled with excitement and reflection. This season always brings a renewed sense of purpose and possibility; this year is no exception. Our traditional “Buff Branding” event, though moved indoors to Legacy Hall due to the extreme Texas heat, was a... Read more

Branding is just as important in higher education as it is in consumer packaged goods and services. Those words and symbols serve to communicate the uniqueness of the offering, and provide customers and clients a handy place to hang their hat, if you will. In the process, the brand becomes a known quantity, and, hopefully, known for its greatness. The College of Business took on a new brand back in 2017 when Dr. Paul Engler, along with the Paul F. and Virginia J. Engler Foundation, made a significant donation to the College. We thus became the Engler College of Business, putting us on common ground with other named colleges and schools of business around the country. But it became apparent we needed to do more than rest on our accolades and good fortune, and devise an even more profound brand, a mindset, and ethos, of how we educate our students.... Read more

The operational compass of any business or organization is its strategic plan, and true north is its mission statement. But these are not “one and done” kinds of things. They must be revised and updated continually, to reflect changes in both the external and internal environments. It is never safe to simply say that you’ve done one before, and that it is good forever. All of which helps explain why the College of Business always attends to its strategic plan and mission statement. Just as our own changing strengths and weaknesses affect our ability to function, so do externalities such as the economy, demographics, technology, and more. Had we not recognized forces such as these, we never would have entered into the online education arena in 1997, and adapted our guiding documents shortly thereafter. To that end, the Strategic Planning Committee, under the leadership of Dr. Jeffry Babb, Associate Dean... Read more

While a freshly printed diploma is the last thing our students walk away from WT with, there’s another document in their other hand that they need to have been working on long before graduation. That is their resumé, which, as we all know, details their prior academic and work experiences, their special skills, and their professional plans.  But in the age of AI, much has changed when students submit their resumés, either by emailing or uploading them to corporate websites. Today, it is just as likely that a machine powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is reading and filtering those incoming resumés, as it is for a human to be examining them. Depending on how a company instructs its AI software to retain or kick out resumés, it is possible for job candidates to wind up in the discard pile through now fault of their own. It’s just that their resumé... Read more

It is not very common for a younger sibling to directly follow the academic arc their older sibling took, but in the case of the Brothers Orthengren, Corey (BBA Accounting, 2019) and Trey (BBA Accounting, 2020) did just that. Then they both pursued their MPA degrees (now known as MAcc), with Corey graduating in 2020 and Trey in 2022. That wasn’t enough, though, as each pursued their CPA credentials. Corey,28, earned his in 2023, and Trey, 26, received his in 2024. Even twins would be hard pressed to mirror each other’s actions, much less siblings born nearly three years apart. It’s just that these Amarillo men were born with the same Accounting gene. The only difference is that Corey (left in photos) is a financial planner at SFMG Wealth Advisors in Plano, while Trey (right in photos) is Senior Accountant with Williams Group Holdings in Amarillo. It took a long... Read more

While teaching is and always will be the major emphasis in the College of Business, research–or intellectual contributions as we like to say–is a close second. It demonstrates the faculty member’s ability to conduct academic inquiries into phenomena in their field, and in so doing, create new knowledge by extending the range of prior findings. The best part is that faculty are free to select the topics they wish to research, but in order to play the game so to speak, you have to do it. Dr. Eric Hoffman, Associate & Pickens Professor of Economics, knows the “game” very well, but in his case, it’s game theory, a popular topic within his field. “Perhaps the best way to understand game theory is to consider a simple example. Suppose that our hypothetical company must decide on a price to sell our product for, which will be based on the demand for... Read more

It may come as a surprise to students as well as alumni to find out that the faculty who teach their courses do not lead dull, uninspiring lives outside the classroom. Stereotypes die hard, and in some cases, could not be farther from the truth. Two Engler College of Business faculty members are proving they can have outside interests beyond academia, and also excel at them. Robin Clark, Clinical Assistant Professor of Business Law, is a relative newcomer to lifting, having started in 2017 under the tutelage of an Amarillo coach. “I have entered local, regional and national powerlifting meets as well as local and national strengthlifting meets.  I have placed 1st in my division in every meet entered,” she said. “I hold multiple state, national and world records in squat, bench press, overhead press and deadlift.”  Wait. A world record holder among our ranks? You would never know it... Read more

Imagine being able to sit in a room with a retired executive, who not only teaches the fundamentals of his profession, but adds the spice of first-person, real-world experiences. It sounds priceless, but for two sections of the Principles of Management course this semester in the Engler College of Business, students are doing just that. David Hudson, former President of Southwestern Public Service Company (which is a division of Xcel Energy) has come on board as an Adjunct Professor an enhancing our students’ education with stories of how all those textbook principles actually work. Hudson is teaching both face-to-face and online sections of the course, bringing not only a career spent in the field, but also one with just one company. That’s a rarity in today’s job market, and he was here in Amarillo to witness many things, including the growth of the City, expansion into renewables, and also the... Read more

Each academic year brings with it not only hundreds of new students to replace those who have graduated, but also new faculty. This year is no different, with three new and one returning faculty members arriving to fill our needs as well as provide depth and breadth across our curriculum. Dr. Jimmy Kim is Assistant Professor Management in the MMGB Department. Prior to coming to WT, he was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship at North Dakota State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Stategic management in 2022 at the University of Pittsburgh. He also holds an M.S. in Strategic Management from Seoul National University in South Korea. He is currently teaching courses in Small Business Management and Principles of Management. His research interests are in strategic management and entrepreneurship. Specifically, his research focuses on managing creativity and commercialization within the creative industry, as... Read more