Andrew Miller Archives - 91��Ƶ News

91��Ƶ’s new MA in Human Resources focuses on organizational leadership for change, resilience, empowerment

91��Ƶ Communications — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 14:31:38 +0000

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91��Ƶ’s newest graduate degree program, the MA in Human Resources, launches in August 2022.

The 30-hour degree program is designed for working professionals who want to shift to an HR career track or for current HR professionals who want to enhance their effectiveness as organizational leaders. It includes evening online synchronous courses and can be completed in 21 months.

“If you’re the kind of leader who thinks about motivated and productive employees as key to your organization’s success, this is a great degree for you to pursue,” said Andrew Miller, director of 91��Ƶ’s Department of Business and Leadership graduate programs. “It combines the foundational skills to engage in HR leadership, basically getting the right people in the right places to fulfill the organizational purpose, but then with this extra unique focus on the wellbeing and thriving of employees.”

Examples of this, he says, would be a people-centered process for developing systems, processes and policies: job rotation for repetitive work, securing and offering appropriate benefits, working to create both physically and emotionally safe workspaces.

For current HR professionals looking to broaden their skill-set, the program also offers leadership training and integration of several unique interdisciplinary fields, including trauma awareness and resilience.

“Learning more about how people behave under stress or in stressful conditions, the processes to repair harm with restorative practices are unique skills a leader can bring into the workplace,” Miller said.

The curriculum focuses on the philosophical foundations and core competencies of leadership, specifically developing one’s distinctive leadership style that is responsive to and supportive of employee, organizational, societal and ecological well-being.

Courses include

Human Resources and the Employee Experience��
Strategic Talent Management��
Compensation and Benefits: Total Rewards��
Labor Law, Compliance and Risk Management��
Learning and Development��
Change Leadership and Facilitation for Resilience
HR Analytics and Evaluation��
Human Resource Leadership
Intro to Leadership Theory��
Organizational Behavior��

*pending approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

Learn more at the MA in HR website or by emailing graduate@emu.edu.

Collaborative MBA program transitions to new director

Lauren Jefferson — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 20:47:05 +0000

The , a joint graduate degree program of Bluffton University, Canadian Mennonite University, 91��Ƶ and Goshen College, has approximately 51 graduates scattered across the globe and a new cohort beginning this fall. The hybrid program develops professional technical and relational skills and prepares students to lead for the common good.

, who has taught undergraduate and graduate business courses at 91��Ƶ, is the program’s new director. Administrative responsibilities rotate among partnering institutions. He takes over from , professor of business at Bluffton University, who is retiring. Lehman has led the program since spring 2014.

“I’m honored to be stepping into a leadership role behind one of the visionaries behind this program,” Miller said. “Dr. Lehman’s innovative, collaborative leadership is emblematic of the kind of leaders our program helps to develop.”

Lamar Nisly, vice president and dean for academic affairs at Bluffton University, pointed to how the program matured during Lehman’s involvement through five cohorts, with another two currently in progress. “Dr. Lehman has creatively led the Collaborative MBA program as it has matured and solidified. We very much appreciate his thoughtful leadership in exploring new possibilities and developing a sustainable program.”

Professor George Lehman, retiring from Bluffton University, has led the program since 2014.

The Collaborative MBA program integrates Anabaptist-Christian roots with the faculty’s jointly shared and “holistic view of how all of our decisions and actions affect other people, the community, and the world,” said Lehman, in a press release announcing the program’s start in 2014.

That unique approach to business still energizes Miller, who has taught in 91��Ƶ’s graduate programs for several years. “I’m excited to work with business leaders who care for their organizations, employees and the environment, and to be working with a program across several universities that draws from the belief that one’s faith and values should be primary in how business should be operated and how we treat others.”

The Collaborative MBA curriculum is based on the concept of “leadership for the common good,” which includes values of spirituality, community, leading as service, justice, sustainability, and global citizenship.

Prospective students can enter the program through the doorway of any of the four sponsoring schools.

“This unique MBA program helps students develop their focus on environmental sustainability and social justice issues within a framework of sound business skills,” Miller said. “Businesses must be financially sound, but should also be socially responsible. The program provides a setting where students can discuss and consider what that reality looks like for them in their current organizations and roles.”

The mostly online coursework enables a global emphasis: resulting in classmates from around the world joining students from the U.S. and Canada. Students also come to the program from a variety of professional fields, including manufacturing, health care administration, ministry, nonprofit management.

The online format employs small cohorts participating in synchronous classes, “a significant shift” from other programs, Lehman said. “A number of our May grads found they were becoming a resource to their organizations and communities because of their extensive experience with online learning technologies.”

A key contributor to the program’s ideation more than a decade ago, Lehman was “the catalyst who brought the partner schools together for exploratory conversations,” said Professor Michelle Horning, who leads the program at Goshen College.

She called Lehman a “wonderful colleague” who also cared for his students, collecting and integrating their feedback into program improvements.

Professor David Brubaker, dean of 91��Ƶ’s School of Social Sciences and Professions, met Lehman in 2016 when he came to 91��Ƶ to welcome a first-year cohort and teach a five-day residential course. “What most impressed me about George was that he clearly cared as much about the community that these new students were building as he did about the content of the course that he was teaching,” he said.

Professor Melissa Green, director of the program for Bluffton University, thanked Lehman for providing a “solid cornerstone” and “for his tireless work and enduring dedication to this wonderful innovative initiative. “He has provided outstanding leadership and exceptional support toward the students, faculty and program,” she said.

Collaborative MBA program graduates third cohort

Collaborative MBA program’s global classroom meets for week-long residency

Business 101 field trip nets a surprising car dealership job

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 14:15:02 +0000

Attending an intro-level class doesn’t usually land a student a job, but that’s exactly what happened last fall when 91��Ƶ professor of business and economics Andrew Miller took his Business 101 students for a tour of the Steven Toyota car dealership in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

“I’ve always been told I’m a people person, so any opportunity or anything, I reach out to people,” said Zach Wheeler, a junior marketing major from Churchville, Virginia. “I’ll take any opportunity I can. I’m always looking for chances to better myself, too.”

Zach Wheeler, listing specialist at Steven Toyota dealership in Harrisonburg, sells inventory through online platforms like eBay and Craigslist. Zach landed the job after a field trip to the dealership while in Professor Andy Miller’s Business 101 class.

That chance came as an off-hand mention during the tour by dealership owner Ryan Sodikoff that he had an open position.

“I pretty much came up to Ryan after the field trip and said, ‘I’d love to be part of this team,’” he remembers. “‘Is there, like, part time whatever you have for me? I can pretty much do anything.’ I honestly didn’t know what my job was going to be.”

Miller put in a good word – as Wheeler tells it, he told Sodikoff, “If you get a chance to hire this kid, go ahead and do it because he’s pretty good” – and Sodikoff’s interest was piqued, he said, even though “I wasn’t trying to recruit or anything at the time,” he said. “It was just a field trip.”

It was the second time Miller had taken students to the dealership to get an overall view of the business but also insight into what he calls “minutia marketing” and working with customers. He also regularly takes students to Washington D.C. to visit a variety of workplaces and learn about the city.

There’s a few fellow Royals already employed there, including senior Zeki Salehi, who has logged five years with the company. He manages the buying center and used car center, overseeing all departments that relate to used cars, such as acquisition, service, sales and reconditioning. Tristan Childress ’19 is a sales and leasing consultant.

Now Wheeler is the dealership’s “listing specialist,” which means he lists non-auto inventory to sell via online platforms like eBay and Craigslist.

At one end of the warehouse by his office is the car photo booth, but in the section Wheeler manages, there are rows and rows of overhead lights removed in a recent facility remodel, no-longer-needed office phones, car radios, tires and oil filters and parts that the service department can’t use, plus personal items from dealership employees – even furniture made in France – all waiting to be sold.

“I put a big task on him, to stage the facility and price out the equipment,” said Sodikoff. But since Wheeler has “kind of volunteered to do anything,” Sodikoff has also made him the face of grassroots marketing. That means that Wheeler will take a new car to, say, a dealership-sponsored golf tournament where it will be the prize for a hole-in-one.

“He represents us well,” Sodikoff said. “It’s a wonderful experience for him, and he’s loving it. He’s a great team member.”

Zach Wheeler says his position has exposed him to marketing techniques and “a different industry.” He hopes to work in marketing after graduation.

Wheeler’s a big dreamer; he said his “absolute biggest dream is to make a commercial for the Super Bowl.” In addition to his ongoing marketing studies at 91��Ƶ, he’s also studying to become a licensed car salesperson.

In the meantime, over the summer he averaged 35-40 hours each week at Steven Toyota.

“I never imagined I would come in here doing what I’m doing,” he said. “It’s given me exposure to a different industry that I’ve never participated in before.”

Andrew Miller named new director of MBA, MAOL programs

Lauren Jefferson — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 18:33:24 +0000

91��Ƶ announces the appointment of Andrew Miller as director of the MBA and MA in organizational leadership programs.

He will also be 91��Ƶ’s representative in the program, an innovative online degree program offered jointly by 91��Ƶ, Bluffton University, Canadian Mennonite University and Goshen College.

Miller succeeds Dr. David Brubaker, who has been named to a leadership position within the university’s new three-school academic structure. Brubaker will be dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professions. [Read more about the three school structure.]

“Andrew views our programs in the context of a changing environment, and is thus able to propose adaptive changes that bring greater relevance while retaining our core values,” said Brubaker. “He has that rare ability to see the whole system while not losing track of the details.”

Miller has been a faculty member and administrator at 91��Ƶ since 2012. He has taught in the department of business and leadership, as well as in graduate programs, and directed the cross-cultural program. He is currently pursuing a PhD in strategic leadership studies at James Madison University.

“I’ve enjoyed mentoring undergraduate students as they explore who they are in becoming leaders in their work and community, and I’m looking forward to supporting 91��Ƶ’s graduate students as they study in our programs with a focus on becoming better leaders and individuals who positively influence their community. with a similar strong emphasis on leadership development,” Miller said.

Since beginning in 1999, 91��Ƶ’s MBA program has graduated 133 from diverse professional fields. Courses meet in the evening in a hybrid format and focus on management skills, leadership and stewardship strategies within the common good framework. The curriculum includes a unique Costa Rica-based capstone course.

The MAOL began in 2014 to meet the needs of mid-career professionals seeking to enhance their leadership skills and organizational understanding. Nearly 30 graduates work in a variety of fields, from education and business to healthcare and with nonprofits.

In addition to teaching experience and a professional resume that includes working with various organizations, Miller has also been involved in curriculum development and reorganization at 91��Ƶ.

He holds an MS in agricultural economics at Iowa State University and a Master of Divinity degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in international agriculture and economics from 91��Ƶ, Miller worked for Mennonite Central Committee as agricultural program coordinator in Prey Veng Province, Cambodia, for two years. Later as MCC southeast Asia co-representative, he supervised the Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam country programs as well as advised local partner organizations.

Donning of the Kente ceremony kicks off 91��Ƶ’s 100th Commencement celebration

Lauren Jefferson — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 16:34:01 +0000

“The question is, what have you learned, and what traditions has 91��Ƶ imprinted on you?” asked Professor of�� soon-to-be-graduates at 91��Ƶ’s third annual Donning of the Kente ceremony in Martin Chapel.

“Do you know what an 91��Ƶ graduate should do and be when you are no longer on campus? Think of these things, of the people who invested in you because they believed in you. … Be a very good ambassador,” he urged.

Though many of students present perhaps thought beyond impending finals to consider their future plans, the ceremony was the first time to put on their caps and gowns and the first inkling of the celebration to come. During the May 6 Commencement ceremony, each of the 33 will wear a special stole, some made of kente cloth but others of satin fabric symbolizing heritage, roots within one or various communities, or citizenship.

Professor David Owusu-Ansah, professor of history at James Madison University, encouraged graduates to think and act as ambassadors of their alma mater. He teaches an African history course every two years at 91��Ƶ.

The formal presentation of these stoles was the reason for coming together with family, friends and 91��Ƶ community members Wednesday evening. The ceremony celebrates the accomplishments of graduating students of color as well as the history of black students’ and students of color achievements at the university, according to Multicultural Student Services Director Celeste Thomas, who started the first event three years ago.

See this event and more in 91��Ƶ’s Centennial timeline chronicling diversity on campus.��

“We gather here to honor these students, some of whom are the first of their family to graduate from college, and to wish them well on their way forward,” she said in her welcome. “For those of you who our graduates have selected to place the kente cloth over their shoulders, it is a great honor.”

Micah Shristi, co-director of international student services and advisor to the International Student Organization, and M. Esther Showalter, advisor to the Latino Student Alliance, also co-hosted the event.

Read 2017 and 2016 coverage of the event.��

Donning of the Kente participants

Eyman Alasbali is graduating with an MA in education. Her father Ghorm Alasbali and mother Abdiah Alshebri presented the stole. She plans to take additional classes for a second concentration and then return to help her community.

Genesis Arzu ��is earning a degree in digital media and��plans to work in a production studio as an audio engineer after graduation. Celeste Thomas presented her stole.

Natasha Bridge is earning a degree in kinesiology and exercise science. Carolyn Stauffer, professor of sociology, presented her with the stole. Natasha plans to move home and work and further her education within the next two years.

Jazmine Carter is earning a degree in business administration, and plans to attend graduate school in the spring. Andrew Miller, instructor of business, awarded her stole.

Kevin A. Clark is earning a degree in Spanish with a minor in digital communications. Ann Hershberger, professor of nursing, presented his stole.

Phoebe Coffie is earning a degree in biology. After graduation, she plans to take the MCAT and continue shadowing and volunteering, working towards medical school entrance. Micah Shristi presented her stole.

Fabiana Espinal is followed by Denait Gebretsadik during the processional.

Kimberly Daley is graduating with a degree in nursing. Marcia Pusey, instructor of nursing, presented her stole. Her goal is to be debt-free within three years.

Drew Diaz is earning a degree in biology and hopes to go to medical school His mother Pam Diaz awarded the stole.

Fabiana Espinal has earned a degree in liberal arts with a concentration in psychology. Amanda Styer and Alex Bowdey presented the stole. She plans to continue to be involved in the community following an internship related to Title IX and restorative justice. She’ll begin graduate school in fall 2019.

Denait Gebretsadik is graduating with a degree in history and a minor in Spanish. She was gifted her stole by Asmait Asgedom, and it was presented by Mark Sawin, professor of history.

Brothers Maleke and Jerome Jones will each graduate with a degree in psychology.

Jerome Jones will graduate with a degree in psychology and plans to pursue a master’s degree in clinical psychology. Melody Pannell, professor of sociology, presented his stole.

Maleke Jones is graduating with a degree in psychology and a minor in pre-law. He will work for a local police department. Melody Pannell presented his stole.

Emmanuel Kampanga earned a degree in biology. He plans to take the MCAT and apply for medical schools in Europe. Micah Shristi presented his stole.

Keyri Lopez-Godoy is graduating with a degree in liberal arts and a PK-6 elementary education endorsement. She will teach in Harrisonburg City Schools. Mentor Louise Gallagher presented the stole.

Luisa Angel Mallard is earning a degree in communication. She hopes to eventually earn a master’s degree in restorative justice. Micah Shristi presented her stole.

Lania McKoy will graduate with a nursing degree and a psychology minor. Lamarr Wharwood presented her with the stole. She plans to celebrate this accomplishment, study for the nursing boards and then be the best nurse she can be.

Kennedy Okerere, a brother of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, is congratulated by Celeste Thomas, director of multicultural student services.

Mandy Miller is earning a degree in social work. She wants to work for two years and then return for a master’s degree. Celeste Thomas awarded her stole.

Kennedy Okerere is earning a degree in business administration. He will return to his home state of Maryland to begin a new job.��Celeste Thomas awarded his stole.

Louisa Quaynor will graduate with a degree in nursing. She plans to work in a Richmond area hospital after graduation. Marcia Pusey, instructor of nursing, awarded her stole.

Alejandra Tejada Rivera is earning a degree in nursing. She plans to work at Sentara RMH in the orthopedic unit. David Diaz presented her stole.

Da’Jahnea Robinson is earning a degree in psychology. Charisse Robinson presented her with the stole. Da’Jahnea will continue her studies in the MA in Counseling program at 91��Ƶ.

Chang Tan receives congratulations from close friend and fellow MA in biomedicine graduate student Thi Do Lovo after she placed the stole around his neck.

Chang Tan will graduate with an MA in biomedicine. He will work as a research coordinator while preparing medical school applications. Fellow graduate student��Thi Do Lovo presented his stole.

Delight Tigoe has earned a degree in accounting. Her stole was presented by Lana Miller, undergraduate campus pastor, and Andrew Miller, instructor of business.

Myneshia Walker is graduating with a degree in sociology and a minor in coaching. She plans to return to her hometown and begin working. Sandy Brownscombe, professor of physical education, presented her stole.

Adila Wahdat graduates with a degree in digital media. She will work in marketing for a jewelry company. Friend Asmait Asgedom gifted her stole and was also the presenter.

Aminata Wallet-Mohamed will graduate with a degree in sociology. Friend Asmait Asgedom gifted her stole and was also the presenter.

Alexa Weeks is earning a degree in liberal arts with licensure in elementary education. Lana Miller, undergraduate campus pastor, presented her stole. Alexa hopes to find a teaching job in the Harrisonburg area after graduation.

From left: Micah Shristi, director of international student services, with Aminata Wallet-Mohamed, Adila Wahdat, Luisa Mallard, and Asmait Asgedom, who gifted and presented several stoles to friends.

Brittany Williams is earning a degree in recreation, leadership and sport studies. She plans to stay in Harrisonburg and work. Celeste Thomas presented her stole.

Isaiah Harris-Winn is earning a degree in business administration. Carolyn Stauffer, professor of sociology, presented his stole. He hopes to continue his basketball career overseas.

Elizabeth Witmer is earning a degree in social work with minors in sociology and Spanish. Ann Hershberger, professor of nursing, presented her stole. She will complete her social work practicum this summer in Guatemala and then continue working as office coordinator in the Intensive English Program.

Ryan Yates is earning an MA in interdisciplinary studies and a graduate certificate in transformative leadership. He plans to move to Los Angeles, California, and “create opportunities that will live on well beyond my years.” Deanna Durham, professor of social work, and Celeste Thomas presented him with his stole.

Brianna Zook is earning a degree in kinesiology and exercise science with minors in business and coaching. Kevin Griffin, head women’s basketball coach, presented her with the stole. She plans to attend graduate school.

Theater-focused cross-cultural returns from semester in Central Europe

Randi B. Hagi — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 20:49:40 +0000

“If Salzburg is like your floral grandmother who loves to show you her old scrapbooks, then Vienna is your mysterious great aunt who sits by herself, waiting for you to ask the first question,” wrote junior Liesl Graber in a blog post this past semester. Graber was one of 22 students traveling through Central Europe as part of 91��Ƶ’s first theater-oriented cross-cultural trip.

Altogether, the students attended 35 plays during the semester, visited 38 theaters, and produced their own dramatic piece about the different stages of cultural integration.

Professor and his wife Amanda led the trip, accompanied by their three young children. As students, the two spent time in Salzburg, and Justin Poole spent five months in Vienna between 2009 and 2010 studying experimental performance through the Austrian Academic Exchange Service while earning his PhD through the University of Maryland.

Poole wanted students to experience European art and culture, especially that of “artists who used their works to protest against homogenized aesthetics, and for minority groups.” Plays ranged from Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” (which premiered in Vienna 225 years prior) to an anti-fascist piece performed by an avant-garde German group.

The fall cross-cultural group, with Professor Justin Poole, wife Amanda and their three children, take a break. (Courtesy photo)

91��Ƶ cross-cultural trips, whether themed or not, are designed to be accessible to all majors, says Director of Cross-cultural Programs . Just five of the group were theater majors, with many others having past experience with campus theater productions, which are open to all students.

The trips are “flavored” by “leaders’ backgrounds and expertise … the use of theater as a mode or method of learning is an important development in this program,” Miller added.

Vienna, “known as the intellectual, cultural, and musical capital of the world during much of the 19th and 20th centuries,” became home base for eight weeks, says 91��Ƶ junior Michael Austin. They went on excursions elsewhere in Austria and to Hungary, France, and the Czech Republic, and spent a final two weeks in London.

Esther Ajayi tells a humorous story about meeting Ian McKellan at a theater in London.

The travelers studied the German language; European cultural identities, integration and religion; political dissident artists; and art as a means of cross-cultural exchange. One exchange occurred at Connection, a coffee shop which only employs young migrants, and offers language, writing, and financial workshops to Austria’s burgeoning refugee population (primarily from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria). Students regularly visited Connection to tutor refugees in English.

Host family scenarios varied, from a quiet apartment to a septuagenarian couple with their multilingual nurses and housekeepers to a house mother who required the shower be squeegeed and bedsheets folded each morning.

Eight days of free travel allowed small groups of students to plan their own short trips to Rome, Ireland, Tuscany, and France. Matej Gligorevic, who now hails from Ephrata, Pa., writes, “this free travel opportunity allowed me to see my family in Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina again after five years … there I spent many days catching up with old friends and spending quality time with my grandmother in her flat.”

Gligorevic, Esther Ajayi, Corey Hostetler and Caleb Townsend went to see “No Man’s Land” while in London, a play about two aging writers played by Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. They waited outside in the cold afterward, and finally intercepted McKellen – who told them, “I’m going to entrust America to you.”