Faculty
Dr. Mohamed Abdelhamid – Ph.D., Management Science and Systems
Course Taught: MBA 520 Data Analytics, MBA 601 Database Management Systems using SQL
Dr. Abdelhamid received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Intercollege with distinction. He received his Master in Business Administration with MIS emphasis from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. He has received his Ph.D. in Management Science & Systems from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Abdelhamid has publications in journals and books. He has presented in various conferences on privacy issues as they pertain to information management systems in the healthcare industry.
Dr. Banafsheh Behzad – Ph.D., Industrial Engineering
Dr. Behzad is a professor of Decision Technologies and Statistics. She received her Master of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Northern Illinois University. And, received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has countless publications in academic journals and has been part of presentations on the topic of healthcare as it pertains to her field of mastery. In addition, she was VP of Communications for Women in OR/MS (WORMS).
Dr. Minder Chen – Ph.D., MIS
Dr. Minder Chen received his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona in 1988. Dr. Chen is currently a professor of Management Information Systems in the Martin V. Smith School of Business and Economics at California State University Channel Islands. He served as the Program Chair of the Business and Economics Program at CSUCI. He was previously an associate professor of Decision Science and MIS at George Mason University. He served as an Area Coordinator of the Information Systems and Operations Management area and the Director of the Executive Master Program in Technology Management at GMU. Dr. Chen has taught a variety of courses including management information systems, entrepreneurship, project management, management, and Chinese classics and management at both undergraduate and graduate levels. His primary research interests include electronic commerce, Web services, business reengineering, innovation and entrepreneurship, collaboration technologies and virtual teams, and IT offshore outsourcing. He has published more than 40 journal papers in journals such as Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, etc. He has also published several books in Chinese in areas such as The Book of Changes and Management, Creativity, Management Information Systems, and Lean Interactive Startup.
Dr. Robert Chi - Ph.D., MIS
Dr. Chi received his MS degree in Management Information Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. degree in Information Systems from the University of Texas-Austin. He has 29 years of teaching experience at California State University Long Beach, University of California Riverside, and other schools. Dr. Chi has served as the Department Chair for 6 years and Associate Dean for 5 years at CSU-Long Beach. He is a member of many advisory boards and a frequent speaker in the US and abroad. He has published research articles in academic journals in E-commerce and Information Systems. He is the founder and Chief Editor of Journal of Electronic Commerce Research which was ranked #4 in quality by more than 400 scholars worldwide in 2002.
Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu – Ph.D., Hotel and Restaurant Administration
Courses Taught: MBA 650 Project Management, MBA 500 Management Information Systems
Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu is currently the Provost and Full Professor of Business (with tenure) at Virscend University in Irvine, California. Previously, he served as the Dean and the McKibbon Endowed Chair Professor of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida (USF), where he also held roles as the Director of the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology and Innovation, Coordinator of International Programs for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and Director of Global Partnerships for the Muma College of Business between 2010 and 2025. Dr. Cobanoglu is a renowned expert in hospitality and tourism technology. He was a Fulbright Specialist commissioned by the Fulbright Commission from 2018 to 2021. Additionally, he is a Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP), certified by Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals (HFTP) and the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). He serves as the Editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology (JHTT), which is indexed in SSCI with an Impact Factor of 6.9. Dr. Cobanoglu has co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed research papers, 10 books and contributed to more than 20 conference proceedings. Additionally, he is currently serving as the President of the Association of Global Educators (AGE) and GetCertificate.Online.
Dr. Sean Jasso – Ph.D., Political Economy
Sean D. Jasso, Ph.D. is commencing his twentieth year teaching and writing in two distinct fields – management and political economy. His research centers on the many complexities of globalization combined with political and economic risk. He holds a Ph.D. in political economy and a master’s degree in public policy from Claremont Graduate University in California. Additionally, he holds an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA. Dr. Jasso’s teaching career is supported by working for many years in hospitality management for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, in healthcare as a marketing director for a national hospital corporation, and in management consultancy serving clients in multiple industries from healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, education to wealth management. Dr. Jasso serves on corporate and advisory boards most recently for a global agriculture corporation and currently for higher education institutions in Mexico, the UAE and the UK. He works regularly with education clientele from China, Vietnam, Japan, India, Mexico, Egypt and the UK. Dr. Jasso lectures throughout the world and remains passionate about bringing his students to the world and the world to his classroom.
Dr. Maria Lee – Ph.D., Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Ping Lin – Ph.D., Accounting
Dr. Jianqing "Fisher" Wu – Ph.D., MIS
Dr.Wu received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from Krannert School of Management, Purdue University. He was an assistant professor at Foster School of Business, University of Washington. Dr.Wu has published a paper in Management Science. He is interested in the research areas of Building, Pricing, Mobile Commerce, Information Security, Game Theory, and Convex Analysis. Dr.Wu also received his MBA degree from Purdue University and a bachelor degree in Electronic Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
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