By Betty Montgomery
MBA Research offers a variety of workshops, webinars, conference presentations and other professional development activities for business and marketing teachers nationwide. MBA Research is a not-for-profit, research-based support for all business administration educators in the areas of entrepreneurship, finance, hospitality, management/administration and marketing.
In order to provide engage and relevant professional development, MBA Research has developed an adjunct professional development team that brings recent, real-world experience to their peers. Each team member is highly qualified in terms of experience with MBA Research, its products, research and services, and has demonstrated high levels of achievement with their own local high school business and marketing programs. Since teachers learn best from other teachers, this team offers professional development in a way that is applicable, informational and helpful.
All MBA Research professional development staff members have taught and mentored a wide range of business and marketing students. All of the staff members also have been active in both their student organizations and their professional associations, including the Kentucky Association for Career and Technical Education (KACTE) and the National Business Education Association (NBEA). The MBA Research professional development team is made up of teachers who care about their profession as a whole and believe in giving back to strengthen and support it.
Will Morgan is a new member of the professional development team. He is a national instructor for the High School of Business program, which is a prestigious program that brings college-inspired business administration courses to high schools across the U.S. Morgan is one of five teachers in the state certified to teach High School of Business. He is able to offer an accelerated series of six courses that challenges students with hands-on marketing, management, finance and economics. Each course is built around industry-validated curriculum standards.
Morgan is a retired Army warrant officer who specialized in budget management. After the Army, he worked in manufacturing, specializing in supply chain management, special projects operations, budget management and staffing large complex departments.
Morgan later entered the world of academia as an instructor at Eastern High School (Jefferson County) and a part-time facilitator with the University of Phoenix. He has instructed courses such as web design, German, critical thinking, finance and marketing, and action research. He has a bachelor’s in business management from the University of Maryland, a master’s in human relations from Oklahoma University and doctoral work in business administration at Nova Southeastern University.
In addition to having a Kentucky teacher on the professional development team for MBA Research, two Kentucky teachers have been appointed to the Teacher Advisory Network (TAN). The MBA Research Teacher Advisory Network counsels the organization’s staff regarding work to support high school and college business and marketing education nationwide.
Advisers provide feedback on a wide range of national initiatives so local school programs align curricula with the needs of the business community to ensure that graduates develop key skills critical to employability. Teachers selected for the network were screened on the basis of professional qualifications, including experience with contemporary business curricula, active support of an appropriate student organization, engagement of the local business community and proof-of-learning activities such as testing and realistic project work.
Teachers from throughout the nation were named to the network this spring and will serve three-year terms. Two teachers from Kentucky recently were appointed to this National Teacher Advisory Network:
Kristin Sexton, MBA Research Teacher Advisory Network (TAN), serves as a marketing teacher and DECA adviser at Taylor County High School. She has a master’s degree in teaching 5-12 business education from the University of the Cumberlands and a master’s in business administration in marketing and healthcare administration from Campbellsville University.
Sexton sponsors the longest consecutive gold-certified school-based enterprise in Kentucky, Cardinal Kroger School Based Enterprise. She is passionate about student involvement in CTSOs and is active in the Kentucky DECA organization and Kentucky marketing Education Association.
Holly Claborn, MBA Research TAN, is a business and marketing education teacher at the Clinton County Area Technology Center. She has served as an FBLA adviser for 20 years and under her leadership, her students place regularly at regional, state and national levels. Claborn holds a Rank I in education leadership, a master’s in secondary education and bachelor’s in business education from Western Kentucky University. She just received her principal certification from Eastern Kentucky University.
MBA Research’s work to integrate ethical decision-making into business administration curricula continues. The Ethical Leadership Course and a significant number of Leadership Aptitude and Performance (LAPs) standard curriculum and activities are now available. All of these grant-funded materials and resources are available free to qualified teachers in Kentucky.
To help support this initiative, state-based MBA ethics integration specialists are being appointed across the nation. These practitioners will be certified to offer training in each state to introduce the new, free materials and to help other teachers understand how they can best be used within the framework of their state’s policies and priorities.
Krysti Conlin is Kentucky’s new MBA Research ethics integration specialist. She has been teaching business and marketing at Whitley County High School for more than 20 years and is her school district’s career and technical education coordinator.
Conlin has served on several committees for the Kentucky Department of Education, including the Business and Marketing Leadership Team, various pathway revision and development committees, several Curriculum Alignment Committees, the Kentucky Occupational Skills Standards Assessment Scoring and Analysis Team and the Kentucky Marketing Education Association Task Force. She holds a Rank I in school leadership, a master’s in secondary education (marketing) and a bachelor’s degree in comprehensive business education (grades 5-12), all from Cumberland College.