MS-SCM Faculty

Get to know our faculty! Click here to download a PDF of faculty profiles.

Craig Barkacs
Craig began his long and close association with the University of San Diego when he arrived as a law student in August of 1978. Upon attaining his J.D./MBA, Craig embarked on an exciting and illustrious career spanning the legal profession, the business world, and academia. As an attorney who often represented the underdog in high-profile civil and business litigation cases, he and Linda, his law partner/wife, consistently achieved outstanding results litigating opposite some of the largest and most powerful law firms in the country.

As an educator, Craig has designed and taught numerous courses on negotiation, corporate social responsibility, ethics, law, and international business, and has published extensively in those disciplines. He has been very active in teaching in USD’s study abroad programs, and in the numerous graduate programs in the School of Business at USD. In addition, he is often sought out by the media to provide commentary on business, legal, ethical, and political issues. As a way of connecting with the broader business community and as a way of keeping his skills honed and relevant, Craig and his wife are principals in The Barkacs Group (www.tbgexecutivetraining.com,) a business consulting firm that provides negotiation and ethics training for the private sector. 

Craig has won many awards for his research and publications and has been awarded a prestigious University Professorship by USD for outstanding career achievement in teaching, scholarship and service, the highest award given to an actively teaching professor. The graduate business students at USD have, on numerous occasions, honored him as Professor of the Year.

Linda Barkacs
Linda received her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and subsequently passed the California Bar Exam. She became an associate at the law firm of Hinchy, Witte, Wood, Anderson & Hodges. During that time, she was involved in a number of high profile trials, including a sexual harassment case against the City of Oceanside that resulted in a $1.2 million verdict.  In 1997, Linda and her husband, Craig, started their own law firm, Barkacs & Barkacs LLP. The firm specialized in business and civil litigation, as well as employment law.

Linda began teaching at USD in 1997. Since then, she has designed and taught numerous courses on negotiation, law, and ethics. She received additional training in negotiation at Harvard's Program on Negotiation, the Kellogg School at Northwestern, and Duke's CIBER program on International Negotiation. As a way of keeping her skills honed and relevant, Linda and her husband are principals in The Barkacs Group (www.tbgexecutivetraining.com,) a business consulting firm that provides negotiation, teams and ethics training for the private sector.

Linda was the university-wide 2008 and 2007 Professor of the Year, as chosen by USD's 2008 and 2007 senior classes. She also received the USD School of Business 2008 Outstanding Undergraduate Educator award. She has twice been voted USD's university-wide Faculty Advisor of the Year (2004 and 2005). In December 2007 the National Order of Omega gave her the Commitment to Excellence Award for outstanding leadership, scholarship, and character. In 2007, she received the Creative and Innovative Teaching Award, presented by the Academy of Educational Leadership. Also in 2007, she was a nominee for USD's 2007 Woman of Impact Award. Professor Barkacs has published extensively in the areas of law, ethics, and negotiation. In addition, she has co-authored a textbook, Dynamic Business Law, published in January 2008.Her second textbook, Dynamic Business Law – The Essentials, was published in January, 2009.

Laura Birou
Laura currently serves on the faculty for the Sustainable Supply Chain Management program at Louisiana Tech University, while also serving as a director for the International Institute for Advanced Purchasing and Supply. A highly sought-after public speaker, consultant and educator, she has over 25 years or experience in the field of Supply Chain Management. Laura is known for innovative educational and problem-solving approaches in the areas of Purchasing, Operations, Supply Chain Management, Strategy and Ethics.  Her research efforts are currently devoted to Humanitarian Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Supplier Relationship Management and Supply Chain Management Education.

Laura has worked in the purchasing and supply chain management field since 1983, beginning her career with American Hospital Supply and Hewlett-Packard. She has been utilized by her previous employers as a catalyst for strategic change implementing a JIT purchasing system, conducting a total quality management (TQM) analysis of the purchasing function, developing a coordinated inbound freight program and a supplier communications program, involvement with new product development, and the developing inventory reduction and cost reduction programs.  In addition, she has a wide variety of consulting experience in both the public and private sectors. In serving her clients she establishes relationships that span decades.

Laura is a graduate of Michigan State University with a B.A. in Marketing, an M.B.A. in Purchasing and Transportation Management, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration specializing in Purchasing, Operations and Strategic Management.  She has publications appearing in the Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management, the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, and Production and Inventory Management Journal.

Members of the purchasing community have bestowed numerous honors on Laura including: The Doctoral Dissertation Award, The International Swedish Scholarship, The John Hoagland Scholarship, District IV Professional Development Person of the Year 1990, and the Bob Angel Award 1992.

Jacquelyn Brown
Jacci joined the MS-SCM program in 2011 as instructor for the Leadership & Ethics course. Her background is in corporate training and development, working as a trainer, project manager, and training manager for over twelve years.  Her most recent position is Training Manager for EMCOR Group, where she administers training and development of staff utilizing performance management criteria and needs assessments. 

Jacci conducts online webinars in professional development and designed and developed harassment and sexual harassment prevention training which is delivered via the web. She also created an all-inclusive awareness and training program for Washington Mutual in 2002.  Jacci received a Master’s of Education from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego.

Bradley Chase
Brad is Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at USD.  He received a B.A. in Psychology with minors in math and philosophy, M.S.I.E. in Industrial Engineering with a concentration in operations research and systems, and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering with a concentration in ergonomics from the University of Louisville.  Brad has taught courses in Operations Management, Economics, Systems Engineering, Simulation, Work Analysis, Ergonomics, Statistical Process Control, Mathematics, and Statistics. 

In addition to his time at USD, Brad has worked at United Parcel Service, San Diego State University, and Scripps Health. Brad directs the Ergonomics Laboratory at USD and has an appointment as a Research Scientist at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego.  He is an active consultant in the area of Performance Improvement and  has consulted with Toyota, Chrysler, Covenant Management Services, Active Input Solutions, SAIC, and Consolo Systems – a local software startup.  His research has been supported by the Army Research Institute, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. Navy, American Society for Engineering Education, and the University of San Diego.  He has published several journal articles and book chapters in the area of human performance and sits on the editorial board of two major journals, two edited texts, and several conference proceedings.  He has an interest in learning styles and the use of technology and utilizes Blackboard for every course taught.  Brad is a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, American Society for Engineering Education.

Carl Cooper
Carl has over 35 years experience in operations management.  He earned his B.S. in Engineering from Long Island University, his M.B.A. from C.W. Post College, Roth Graduate School, and his DBA in Management, Nova Southeastern University.  His diversified background includes line and staff management in consultancy, manufacturing, materials, quality, systems and administration.  In addition to his corporate experience, he has written numerous articles, and papers and lectured on JIT/ERP, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Re-engineering, Cycle Time Reduction, ISO/Baldrige, Purchasing, Operations /Manufacturing Management, Inventory Management, Training, Supply Chain and the Implementation of Change. Carl has co-authored the text, "Power Purchasing: Supply Management in the 21st Century." 

Currently, Carl is PARTNER - GATE 1 CONSULTANTS - A SOLUTIONS TEAM.  He is responsible for helping companies incorporate the tools and technologies required to reduce cycle time and improve quality and productivity.  In this capacity, he has consulted successfully with over 150 domestic and international organizations.   Carl has helped develop and implement a long-term strategy for the Operations area (including Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Logistics) that reduced customer delivery cycle time 75%, while increasing quality levels by a factor of 100.  He was also responsible for implementing world-wide supply chain and out-sourcing strategies.  Carl has worked in numerous industries including Pharmaceuticals, Government Agencies, Aircraft, Appliance, Banking, Chemical, Electronics, Trucking, Telecommunications, Construction, Office Equipment, Photographic, Semiconductor, Textiles, Office Equipment, Tobacco, Automotive, Optical, Plastics, Software and Utilities.

Simon Croom
Simon is Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of San Diego. He has spent his entire professional career in supply chain management, both as practitioner and as a leading academic researcher. His postgraduate studies were in politics & history and management science. His Ph.D. research was in co-design capabilities in the auto industry supply chain of Jaguar Cars through the doctoral program of Warwick Business School in the UK. Simon was admitted as Fellow to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply in 1992.

Simon has held an Associate Professorship in Operations at Warwick Business School for 12 years and previously was Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management, Operations Research and Supply Chain Management in the UK at Sheffield Hallam and Coventry Universities. He is a Research Fellow at Curtin Business School in Perth, Australia. In his business career, Simon owned several successful retail businesses and was a supply chain professional at Jaguar Cars Ltd and Eaves & Washbourne, both located in England.

Simon has written and spoken globally on the topic of e-procurement, e-business and supply chain strategy. He instigated the first e-business course at Warwick Business School in 1999 and his expertise led to being retained as an Advisor to the UK Government's Office of Government Commerce. He has completed a $400,000 project on World Class Supply Chain in the UK for a major financial organization. Croom has published over 60 technical papers and serves on the editorial boards for a number of leading journals.

Helen Eckmann
Helen has worked with the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management program since 2002, teaching Leadership & Ethics. Helen has a doctorate from the University of San Diego and a Master’s from Chapman University.  Both degrees are in organizational leadership.

Helen is the owner of James L. Consulting. In this capacity, she has worked for Fortune 100 companies, including Raytheon Corporation. At Raytheon, Helen delivered the leadership portion of their Material Program Management Program in Dallas, Texas. She has worked as a consultant in public and private sectors in pharmaceutical, service and manufacturing industries. 

Helen has a wide-ranging business background. She has worked in banking and manufacturing and was the Director of Personnel for Jazzercise, Corporate Headquarters. She was the Admissions Director for two schools, and at Santa Fe Christian school was part of a collaborative that helped to turn the school from bankruptcy to profitability. Helen is on the board of two nonprofit organizations and is one of the founding directors of The Foundation for College Christian Leaders.

Jim Eckmann
Jim is a Stanford Law School graduate, where he was on the Law Review, class of 1965.  After law school he joined a major San Diego law firm, Luce, Forward Hamilton & Scripps.  The Vietnam War required 4 years in the Navy as a JAG officer, where he received a Naval Unit Commendation.  In 1970 Jim rejoined Luce, Forward and he became a partner there in 1975, working almost exclusively in civil trial work, including lead attorney in a 6-month antitrust jury trial in federal court.

Jim left Luce, Forward in 1978 to form his own firm with two other Luce, Forward partners.  In 1984 he joined Gary Aguirre to specialize in high-risk, high reward plaintiffs’ homeowner jury trials.  Gary and Jim were the leaders in this field and the architects of legislation as well as participants in significant and “first impression” appellate decisions.  The firm was wildly successful and Jim and Gary ‘retired’ in 1994.  He “invented” a course for law school which has taught since 1996 and which emphasizes the practical aspects of the practice of law, and also taught Negotiations courses.  Jim has also taught other law-related courses at National University.

Jim has varied interests and other accomplishments beyond the legal field including authoring a book, founding a family foundation which provides scholarships, chairing (or membership on) several civic committees, and even volunteering to consult with firms in San Salvador and Bogotá, Colombia.  He also is a mediator and arbitrator in complex civil cases.  Jim walked across his home state of North Dakota in February 1995.  Additionally, he has written several original screenplays on varied topics, and one is under option and in development for production in late 2012.  Finally, Jim has been a teaching in the USD Master of Science in Supply Chain Management program since 2006, co-authored a paper entitled “Leadership Barriers to Effective Supply Chain Management” for presentation at Conference 2006, an international symposium held at the University of San Diego and has presented at other supply chain-related conferences and events.

Michael Essig
Michael holds the Chair for Materials Management & Distribution at Bundeswehr University Munich and is Co-Director of the Institute for Information Management and Logistics. He earned his diploma degree in business administration („Diplom-Kaufmann“) at the University of Passau in 1993. Subsequently, Michael started working as a lecturer and research fellow at the Department for Business-to-Business Marketing and Supply Management at the University of Stuttgart. In 1998, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Stuttgart. After finishing his habilitation degree at Stuttgart University (2002), Michael joined Bundeswehr University Munich as a full time professor.

In addition to his professorship in Munich, he works as a guest professor for several universities including the University of St. Gallen. Michael’s main research interests are strategic supply management, supply networks, public procurement, and economic theory, with a strong emphasis on new institutional economics. He has worked on several research projects, e.g. on purchasing consortia, international comparison of best practices in supply, and benchmarking of the purchasing function. This includes a research fellowship at the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS) at Arizona State University in Tempe/USA. Michael has had several books and articles published in the field of purchasing and supply and has been a speaker at national and international conferences in this area. Additionally, he has consulting experience with leading companies in the automotive and electronics industries. Michael has received several awards for his research, including the Hans Övelgönne Scientific Award from the German National Purchasing Association (Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik/BME), a best paper award on e-procurement at the 2000 International IPSERA Conference in Sweden and several doctoral grants for conference presentations from the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM, now Institute for Supply Management/ISM) and IPSERA. He acts as a reviewer of the “Journal of Supply Chain Management”, the “European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management”, “Supply Chain Management: An International Journal” and for the Research College of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS).

Michael is director of the Research Center for Law and Management at Bundeswehr University Munich and Distinguished Faculty Member of the Public Procurement Research Center at Florida Atlantic University. He is an appointed member of the Scientific Committee of the German Purchasing Association and of the Scientific Board of the Austrian Ministry of Defence. In 2010, Michael was elected as Vice President for Research at Bundeswehr University Munich.

John D. Hanson
John is Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of San Diego.  John received a B.A.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto and for many years was licensed as a professional engineer.  He received an M.B.A. from Michigan State University and subsequently a Ph.D. in Operations Management from the same institution, where he was a Masco doctoral scholar.  He retains an affiliation with Michigan State University as a faculty advisor on their award-winning executive leadership program in Operations Management. 

Prior to entering academia, John worked for over twenty years in the Automotive industry and held management positions with AlliedSignal (now Honeywell), Siemens, Dura Automotive and Eaton Corp.  His fields of expertise have been corporate strategy and advanced technology planning.  He has worked extensively in Europe and Asia and holds several patents on automotive technology. 

At the University of San Diego, John’s research interests are focused on issues of knowledge management in the supply chain.  In developing supply chain courses for the School of Business Administration and for the executive programs of the Supply Chain Management Institute, he likes to keep the emphasis on “how business works.”  

Raymond Hummell
Ray has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Diego since 1998.  At the University of San Diego, he currently teaches Supply Chain Management to undergraduate students and Strategic Cost Management to undergraduate and graduate students.  Other areas of expertise and teaching include Supply Management, Financial and Managerial Accounting, and Micro and Macroeconomics.

Ray's more recent work experience outside of academia includes a professional internship at Harley Davidson and controller positions at Western Pacific Foods and Differential Seismology.  While at Harley Davidson, Ray developed the company’s worldwide commodity strategy for seats and saddlebags, a $50,000,000 annual spend.  The strategy was designed to be a template for the remaining 70+ "commodities" that make up a motorcycle.

Ray’s research and consulting interests are in accounting systems and cost management in the supply chain.  Ray's mentor was David N. Burt, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus and founder of the Supply Chain Management Institute.  Together, they consulted in supply management with corporations including Whirlpool and Avery-Dennison.  In addition to teaching, Ray currently assists undergraduate supply chain management students prepare for and secure challenging and well-paid internships and employment in southern California.  Ray earned an MBA from the University of San Diego in 1995 and he has a B.A. in Economics from Pomona College in Claremont, California.

Robert Judge
Robert holds undergraduate degrees in biology and botany, an MBA and an MS in Information Systems. He received his Ph.D. in Information Systems and Technology from Claremont Graduate University. Robert was previously a CFPIM (although he allowed his certification to expire). His career spans the semiconductor, aerospace, consumer electronics, and Internet Service industries at mid-management and executive levels. His functional responsibilities have included Materiel, Manufacturing, Information Systems, Marketing, Project Management and Customer Support.

Robert began his career working for Intel and was responsible for the project management to build their 7th factory and then established and managed its Information Services Department. From the Semiconductor Industry, he moved to a career managing the development of the Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems for Rohr Aerospace (now Goodrich). Robert has also worked in the electronic consumer products industry and was the program manager and then senior product manager (Conexant) for the development of the demodulation technology which made Dish TV and DirecTV possible and then led a team to develop the technology for digital cable products (cable modems and cable set-top boxes).

Throughout the last 15+ years of his career, Robert has served both San Diego State University and the University of San Diego as an adjunct professor teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Operations, Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems, Project Management and Information Systems. His current research interests lie in understanding inter-organizational Knowledge Management Systems in Supply Chains and how they influence innovation and the flow of knowledge.

Diane Pattison
Diane joined the USD faculty in 1986.  Currently serving as a professor of Accountancy and the chair of the Accountancy Institute at USD, her major contribution to the School of Business Administration has been the development of a strong interactive relationship between the professional accounting community and the accounting area. In addition, she has enhanced the undergraduate accountancy program both through effective teaching and by encouraging growth and understanding through advising both the Accounting Society and Beta Alpha Psi.

Diane has published many articles in Management Accounting, presented papers at a variety of conferences, won the best paper award at 1995 Western Decision Sciences Conference and the Lybrand Silver Medal for an article in Management Accounting. She has served on a variety of University committees including the Faculty Senate, ARRT Committee. Honors Convocation, and Graduate Studies Committee. In the past, she has served in many different capacities including Institute of Management Accountants-San Diego Chapter President, Board of Directors of Financial Executives Institute, and Regional Director for National Beta Alpha Psi, the Accounting Honorary Fraternity. In 1995, she was recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as one of the "San Diego Women Who Mean Business". In 1993, she was recognized as an Outstanding Faculty Advisor for Beta Alpha Psi at the national level.

Camille Schuster
Camille is currently a Full Professor of Marketing and Management at California State University San Marcos and President of Global Collaborations, Inc. She has also taught at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Arizona State University, Xavier University, Thunderbird School of Management, and Indiana University Northwest. 

Camille’s most current book was co-authored with Michael Copeland, retired human resources manager with Procter & Gamble, Global Business Practices: Adapting for Success. They also wrote Global Business: Planning for Sales and Negotiations. Camille co-authored a book entitled, The Consumer . . . Or Else!, with Don Dufek, retired senior vice president and officer of The Kroger Company. The Rise of Consumer Power: Adopting the Right Marketing Communication Strategies, was published in Singapore. She has authored over 30 articles in professional and academic publications. 

Camille is President of Global Collaborations and has conducted seminars and worked with over 60 companies in more than 20 countries around the world. She received her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

Ron Steffel
Ron (Steffel and Associates) retired after a diversified 38-year career at Motorola, Inc.  In his most recent position as Director of Concept to Manufacturing Process redesign, he was responsible for standardizing the product design processes and standardizing transfer of product design information to internal and external manufacturing facilities for all Motorola's equipment businesses.  Within his scope were printed circuit design standards, a new common part numbering system and part syntax standards for the corporation, as well as, bills of material, and product data management standards.  Particular emphasis was on the collaboration and sharing of product knowledge across multiple development and manufacturing organizations located around the globe.

Previous experience includes defining enterprise systems to improve cycle time and reduce cost from customer order entry to the delivery of product to the customer and installation. This incorporated the development of consistent policies over multiple supply management organizations.  Additional experience was in managing two offshore, high volume, materials procurement organizations with short lead times and high inventory turns. In his career with Motorola, he has been responsible for the development and production standards of mixed make to stock and make to order products both domestically and offshore.  These products include domestically designed and off shore produced products for U.S. consumption, the design and export of equipment from the U.S., as well as the design of product for international markets supplied from multiple offshore factories.

Ron received a BEE from Ohio State University, a MBA from the University of Chicago, and a DBA from Nova Southeastern University.