September 13, 2013
FOCUS
Volume 4, Issue 36
Louis Judge Honored by NBMBAA
Pg. 1
Chomp-N-Chat at the SBE
Pg. 1
Student Profile—Vanity Oakes
Pg. 2
SBE Faculty Book Launch Invitation
Pg. 2
Louis Judge, III to be Honored by National Black MBA Association
On September 13, Louis Judge will
be recognized by the National Black
MBA Association (NBMBAA) at its
annual convention in Houston as their
selection for
Outstanding MBA of
the Year. This award
recognizes an
association member for
the development of
future leaders in their community and
in the organization.
Louis is a 2010 graduate of the
School of Business and Economics
Master of Business Administration
program and a Six Sigma Black Belt
certificate holder from WSSU. He is an
accomplished innovator and leader in
the Greensboro business community
where he works at North Carolina A&T
negotiating licenses for universityowned intellectual properties, the
development of business models for
university startups, and the search for
commercial partners with the capacity
to contribute to the University’s
research efforts. In addition to his
degree from WSSU, Louis holds a
bachelor’s degree in electronics and
computer technology from N.C. A&T
and a Technology Transfer
Certification from the National
Technology Transfer Center.
Prior to his joining the staff at N.C.
A&T in 2004, Louis served as a
Technology Innovation Specialist for
the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration at the NASA Glenn
Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
1
Louis is active in the community,
serving on the boards of the A&T
Center for Entrepreneurship, the East
Market Street Merchants Association,
the Jessa Maria Foundation, Just Plain
Etiquette and the NC Agricultural
Biotech Strategic Projects Workgroup.
Louis is a 2012 Leadership
Greensboro graduate and a 2013
member of the Guilford County Citizen
Academy. Among his
accomplishments are the creation of
an annual jobs fair in Greensboro that
has grown to more than 40 companies
and universities participating and the
establishment of N.C. A&T’s
Innovation Challenge, an annual
contest in creativity and ingenuity for
students.
Established in 1970, the National
Black MBA Association is dedicated to
developing partnerships to create
intellectual and economic wealth in
the black community. Partnering with
more than 400 top business
organizations, the association has
inroads into a wide range of industries
as well as the public and private
sectors. It has 8,000 members in 42
chapters. The Piedmont Triad chapter
has about 65 members. The SBE has
an undergraduate chapter under the
leadership of faculty advisor, Dr.
Sharon White and student President,
Crystal White.
http://
aggieresearch.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/ats
-tech-transfer-director-receives-nationalhonor/
1Source:
FOCUS is published weekly by the School of Business and Economics at WinstonSalem State University. This and past issues of the newsletter are available at
wssu.edu/sbe/focus/default.aspx. For information concerning the
Chomp-n-Chat
“I heard that the average
unemployment rate for recent graduates
was 8.9 percent. How
can I improve my
marketability in a
tough employment
climate?” “What’s
being done about the
hot classrooms?”
“I’ve been purged/I
don’t know my alternate PIN. Who can help
me?”
These are just a few of the discussion
items we have heard while passing through
the hallways of the SBE. Answers to these
and other questions affecting the School of
Business and Economics can be found at the
opening session of our Chomp-N-Chat with
the Dean series on Monday, September
16 at 12:30 p.m.
These events feature a gathering of
students, faculty, staff and Interim Dean
Suresh Gopalan, who is always interested in
what and how each of us is doing and what
we have to say. It is truly an opportunity to
get to know people you see every day, but in
a most relaxed atmosphere where pizza, soft
drinks and conversation are plentiful.
Plan to attend this session on
September 16 and put the remaining
sessions on your calendar of events:

November 18, 2013 at 12:30 p.m.

February 17, 2014 at 12:30 p.m.

April 21, 2014 at 12:30 p.m.
We look forward to seeing you there!
FOCUS News
Page 2
Student Profile—Vanity Lael Oakes
Vanity Oakes most certainly chose
the right major when she decided to
pursue her degree! She is an active,
outgoing, passionate, caring and driven
individual. Just witnessing her abundance
of energy can result in exhaustion.
Vanity, a Winston-Salem native, is a
senior marketing major who balances her
time between studies, service, work, and
volunteer activities. In
the volunteer arena, she
has served on the campus
recreation marketing
team, was a camp
counselor for Cheer
Explosion, and helps to
support St. Paul’s Episcopal Church as a
Summer Enrichment volunteer where
she serves as a mentor to the youth
program. She continued her mentoring
service at WSSU, where she supported
the S.T.A.R.S. program. This program
paired upper class participants in the
WSSU Honors Program with freshman
entrants to assist with skill development,
campus familiarity, and an opportunity to
expand their network.
On campus, she was elected to serve
as Miss Winston-Salem State University
for the 2013-2014 academic year. In this
capacity, she is responsible for initiating
various community service programs and
events, representing WSSU in the
National Black Alumni Hall of Fame
pageant this month and is an ambassador
for the University within the community
and beyond. She also participates in
other extracurricular activities, including
service as a member of Alpha Kappa
Alpha Sorority, a member of the
Powerhouse of Red and White
Cheerleading team, and a member of the
Student Athlete Advisory Council for
CIAA Athletics.
She arrived at WSSU as an
Achievement Scholar in the Honors
Program and has been on the Dean’s List
in each of her semesters at WSSU. Vanity
was invited to become a member of the
National Society of Collegiate Scholars in
her sophomore year. In the following
year, she was inducted into the Beta
Gamma Sigma Honor Society, the
international honor society recognizing
academic achievement in the study of
business, and was asked to serve on the
SBE Student Advisory Council, an
organization whose purpose is the
advocacy of student positions and
support of excellence at the School of
Business and Economics.
On the artistic side, Vanity
particularly enjoys listening to live music,
attending performing arts events, and
dancing. She has a passion for learning
about the various cultures the world
offers and was able to take a 10-day
excursion to six cities in Italy where she
sang classical music in cathedrals and
performing arts centers in each.
Vanity’s work experience has
included a summer internship with
Carolina Farm Credit ACA where she was
responsible for advertising and logo
design, press releases, and the analysis of
data utilizing Excel. She provided
administrative support to the WSSU
Management and Marketing department
in the Fall of 2011, and worked as a host
at Lonestar Steakhouse for two years
where she utilized her excellent
customer service and public relations
skills.
This past summer, Vanity interned
with Downtown Winston-Salem
Partnership (DWSP) where she assisted
with all marketing and operational
efforts for their events. She also worked
on the maintenance and updates of their
database of downtown businesses. After
the completion of her internship, the
President of the DWSP, Jason Theil,
invited her to continue during the
academic year and she accepted.
Following the completion of her
degree in May, Vanity hopes to pursue
employment opportunities in the
international marketing field.
SBE Book Launch Invitation
The School of Business and
Economics will host a book launch on
Thursday, September 26 at 3:30 p.m.
in the Finance Lab lobby on the first
floor of the RJ Reynolds Center
featuring
recent
publications by
members of
our faculty and
others who
have
collaborated on
the
publications .
This event will
include
features on the
following:
Introduction to Personal Financial
Planning: A Practical Approach, 2nd.
Ed. (with updates, PowerPoint slides,
and information on the latest income
tax, retirement and estate tax
changes) authored by Dr. Alexander
G. Kondeas, Dr. David Stewart and Mr.
Nicholas Daves from the Department
of Economics and Finance.
This publication is designed to be
a concise, rigorous and exciting
introduction to finance and personal
finance. It is infused with real-life
examples and practical applications,
permitting students to realize how
they can personally benefit.
Toward a Good Society in the
Twenty-First
Century, edited
by Dr. Nikolaos
Karagiannis
from the SBE
and Dr. John
Marangos from
the University
of Crete (the
largest Greek
Island). This
publication is
described by
Palgrave
Macmillan,
“Having previously defined a good
society as a sustainable society with a
high level of development, significant
provision of meaningful jobs, and low
Continued on Page 3
Book Launch Article
levels of inequality and social
ills, Toward a Good Society in the
Twenty-first Century provides a
wide range of principles and
policies that would be necessary if
we are to achieve a good society.
Marangos and Karagiannis
have put together a
comprehensive volume that
explores the principles and
policies needed to bring about the
good society, and focuses on four
broad themes which are deemed
important towards achieving a
good or better society: quality
education and fair distribution;
environmentally sustainable
prosperity; inclusive economic
development and significant job
creation; and beneficial civic
institutions, and deepening of
freedom and time use. All these
topics can be highly controversial
and call for alternative
perspectives on theoretical
(philosophical) and policy
grounds.”
Consistency and Viability of
Capitalist Economic Systems, also
authored by John Marangos is
described by Palgrave Macmillan
as, “The ultimate survival of an
economic system depends on
whether or not the
interrelationships between its
institutions and its members are
consistent with each
other. Consistency and Viability of
Capitalist Economic
Systems develops an original
analytical
framework to
understand
the
relationship
between the
economic,
political, and
ideological
structures,
the external
environment,
and the
process of
reform that give rise to certain
economic systems by establishing
consistency. Consistency,
however, is not enough; a
consistent economic system must
be flexible and have the internal
mechanisms to be able to adapt to
changes in social reality, thus
making possible its survival over
time. In other words, the
economic system is viable when it
is able to encourage increases in
labor productivity and there is
popular support. Thus the
economic system, in its broad
social science context, must be
both consistent and viable.
Economic systems examined in
this text are the capitalist
economics systems of Great
Britain, Japan,
European
Union and
Sweden.”
Interpersonal Skills in
Organizations, written by Suzanne
C. de Janasz, from the Institute for
Management Development, Karen
O. Dowd, from the University of
Denver, and Beth Z. Schneider
from the SBE. It is described by
McGraw Hill as, “Interpersonal
Skills in Organizations by de
Janasz, Dowd, and Schneider takes
a fresh, thoughtful look at the key
skills necessary for personal and
managerial success in
organizations today. Exploding
with exercises, cases, and group
activities, the book employs an
experiential approach suitable for
all student audiences. The book is
organized into 4 distinct sections
(Understanding Yourself,
Understanding Others,
Understanding Teams, and
Leading) that can be used
collectively or modularly
depending on the instructors’
preferences and students’ needs.
The emphasis in this edition
focuses on making the text more
current along with making the
text pedagogically
effective for students
and instructors.”
The US Economy
and Neoliberalism,
edited by Drs. Nikolaos
Karagiannis, Zagros
Madjd-Sadjadi, and the
late Dr. Swapan Sen
from the SBE. It is
described by Routledge,
Taylor and Francis
Group as, “In recent times, policy makers,
scientists, academics and commentators
have become increasingly nervous about the
US economic downturn. Discussions have
centered around the range and magnitude of
the country’s socio-economic problems, its
vexing production decline and its
unsatisfactory macroeconomic performance,
which give rise to the following questions:
what are the sources of this recent downfall?
And can this situation be reversed by
pursuing the same orthodox and neoliberal
policies?
This new edited volume, from a top
international set of contributors, seeks to
answer these questions and to offer
alternative, realistic and feasible strategies
and policy recommendations towards
reversing this situation.
In particular, the volume seeks to
challenge US neoliberalism on theoretical
and political grounds, and to offer
alternative strategies and policies towards
addressing the country’s recent challenges
and multi-dimensional problems. The
volume is structured around three main
themes:

The return of government:
Philosophical issues and ethics

Economic policies for sustainable
growth and prosperity

Financial fragility and alternative
monetary policy proposals
This unique and highly topical,
multidisciplinary volume, will be of great
interest to students and researchers in the
areas of economics, political economy and
contemporary US politics.
Attention SBE Graduates:
We would like to include your information in the
“Where in the World” section. Please send updates,
including your name, title, company name, year of
graduation and current city, and state/country to
greenebp@wssu.edu.