In April, our Department of Operations Management and Information Systems (OM&IS) held its 32nd Student Scholarship and Appreciation Dinner.
Held in Barsema Hall’s auditorium and its Haribo Commons, the evening began with a welcome from Interim Dean Denise Schoenbachler, followed by an awards ceremony, which honored the department’s outstanding alumni, faculty and students.
The Outstanding Alumnus Award was given to Zoya Khan, ’18. While at NIU, she served on the Dean’s Student Advisory Board, did an Experiential Learning Center project for AMITA Health and was in the Women in Business Professions organization. After graduation, she worked at the DeKalb Target distribution center as a supply chain operations manager and a production control manager, and she recently was promoted to the role of continuous improvement manager. She is a frequent guest speaker here at NIU and last fall was recognized with our NIU College of Business Young Alumna Award.
Faculty awards were also given, including the following:
Best OM&IS Undergraduate Teaching – Instructor
- Jim Caccia, who teaches OMIS 452 Database Management for Business.
Best OM&IS Undergraduate Teaching – Faculty
- Professor Charles Downing, who teaches OMIS 351 Information Systems in Organizations.
Best OM&IS Graduate Teaching – Instructor
- Brian Bender, who teaches OMIS 697 Digital Transformation Strategy.
Best OM&IS Graduate Teaching – Faculty
- Associate Professor Andrew Setterstrom, who teaches OMIS 643 Enterprise Process Improvement with SAP.
Outstanding Faculty Research Award
Assistant Professor Xinyan Cao
Professor Xinyan Cao was the lead author of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, a Financial Times Top 50 publication. The authors looked at the optimal contract design problem for a national brand manufacturer, which sells their product via a retailer. The retailer may introduce a store brand. The authors found that when the national brand product becomes more competitive, with a higher quality or a lower cost, both the manufacturer and the retailer are better off.
Outstanding Faculty Service Award
Associate Professor Yipeng Liu
Professor Yipeng Liu served at the university level on the Presidential Research, Scholarship, and Artistry Professorships Selection Committee, General Education Committee, and the Academic Planning Council. He also served at the college level on College Council (the personnel committee for the College of Business) and the Scholarship Review Committee, and for the OM&IS department on the OM&IS Curriculum Committee, the OM&IS Scholarship Committee, and a faculty search committee. He is the associate editor of Business & Information Systems Engineering Journal and has also reviewed a handful of papers at several leading management information systems journals.
Scholarship Awards
Undergraduate and graduate students who completed their degree in May were also recognized at the event, and scholarships were also awarded. Winners included:
Chizoba Ohalete Scholarship
Sumasree Danda
Deutsch Family Scholarship
Isabella Doles
Deutsch Family Scholarship
Celeste Mays
Deutsch Family Scholarship
Guadalupe Medina
Deutsch Family Scholarship
Meaghan Walsh
Godambe Family Scholarship
Jason Esparza
Marian E. Millington Scholarship
Sylvia Abbaker
Marian E. Millington Scholarship
Alexia Moore
Marian E. Millington Scholarship
Crystal Zavala
OM&IS Faculty Scholarship
Venkata Surya Vineel Nekkanti
OM&IS Leadership Award
Jaya Sandeep Bathina
OM&IS Student Excellence Scholarship (Petersen Family)
Ajay Rama Raju Datla
Nathan Griffin Memorial Scholarship
Dipti Jain
Brian Osterberg Memorial Scholarship
Michael Kuba
Outstanding MIS Student Scholarship
Khaja Saffee Ahmed
Outstanding MIS Student Scholarship
Sharath Muruganandam
Outstanding MIS Student Scholarship
Vaishnavi Peddiraj
Outstanding MIS Student Scholarship
Manasa Rao Prathi
Outstanding MIS Student Scholarship
Savanth Yeluri
Outstanding OM&IS Student Scholarship
Adan Oertel
Stanley Lipien and James Mailander Scholarship
Ibrahim Alrefai
Stanley Lipien and James Mailander Scholarship
Zachary Kaczka
Stanley Lipien and James Mailander Scholarship
Aidan Moore
Stanley Lipien and James Mailander Scholarship
Alex Pyevich
Stanley Lipien and James Mailander Scholarship
Yahir Santiago
Stanley Lipien and James Mailander Scholarship
David Sutter
William and Eileen Breitzke Endowed Scholarship
Umer Azhar
William and Eileen Breitzke Endowed Scholarship
Paul Kaggwa
William and Eileen Breitzke Endowed Scholarship
Galilea Luna
William and Eileen Breitzke Endowed Scholarship
Eamonn Redmond-Mattucci
William and Eileen Breitzke Endowed Scholarship
Jerome Vaddepally
Congratulations to all winners and thank you to the whole OM&IS department.
