The TCU Experience

Dr. Ann Bluntzer is currently an Associate Professor of Professional Practice for TCU’s Neeley School of Business. She teaches in the department of Management and Leadership, primarily focusing on curriculum in transformational leadership, business ethics and the non-profit management space. She also teaches and advises for Neeley’s Energy MBA Program.

She currently serves on the TCU Energy Institute Board and Neeley’s Energy MBA Advisory Board. Dr. Bluntzer has taught leadership and management courses to various higher education institutions for over 20 years to include: University of South Carolina, Texas A&M University, University of Jakarta, Austin Business College, and Warsaw University of Life Sciences. She is President and Founder of The Agrarian, a strategic consulting business that specializes in land/real estate conservation and development, with notable clients such as The Nature Conservancy, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Education, United States Agency for International Development, United States Marine Corps, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has also served in executive leadership positions with various nonprofit organizations globally. Dr. Bluntzer began her career serving in the Foreign Agriculture Service, for the United States Department of Agriculture and State. Some of her assignments included: Poland, Lithuania, Indonesia, and Australia.

Dr. Bluntzer holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership Management and Education Administration from the University of South Carolina, and a Master of Education in Leadership & International Studies and Bachelor’s in Agricultural Development from Texas A&M University.

Dr. Browning is an internationally recognized researcher, educator, and consultant.  He is a Professor of Operations Management in the Neeley School of Business at TCU, where he conducts research on managing complex projects (integrating managerial and engineering perspectives) and teaches MBA courses on project management, operations management, risk management, and process improvement.  A sought-after speaker, he has trained and advised several organizations, including BNSF Railway, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Seagate, Siemens, Southern California Edison, and the U.S. Navy. He is also the co-author of a book on the Design Structure Matrix (DSM).  He has given over 200 academic and industry presentations and workshops in 17 countries.

He earned a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Abilene Christian University before two Master’s degrees and a Ph.D. from MIT.

Dr. Carter is a highly respected expert in strategy, strategic leadership and corporate reputation and is executive director of the TCU Executive MBA program, ranked 12th in the world by The Economist. She is a contributing columnist to the Dallas Business Journal and her research on organizational performance and leadership has been published in key academic journals. She received the Citation of Excellence Award for her research on the relationship of top management, organizational and environmental factors on corporate reputation management. She has consulted for leading companies such as GameStop, Lea+ Elliott and SaladMaster on strategic vision and strategy development. She has worked with nonprofit organizations including Catholic Charities, YWCA of Fort Worth and Safe Haven on strategic planning and social enterprise strategies. Dr. Carter received her BS in accounting from the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana, and MBA and PhD in Strategic Management from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Carter teaches strategy courses at the EMBA, MBA and undergraduate levels at TCU, and has been honored with the EMBA Faculty Award for Outstanding Leadership Development twice. She was recently awarded TCU’s university-wide Dean’s Teaching Award.

Dr. Kenneth Chapman Jr., is a member of the instructional faculty at Texas Christian University’s M.J. Neeley School of Business. Dr. Chapman has held notable administration positions at Oklahoma State University, The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Baptist University, and Dallas College. His unique perspective of the higher education landscape sets him apart as he focuses on business inclusiveness, transformational servant leadership, and organization change management. Dr. Chapman has done diversity consulting work with various types of organizations across industries. Chapman earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations: mass communication from the University of Central Oklahoma (2007), a master’s of education from the University of Oklahoma (2012), and a doctorate of philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Oklahoma (2018).

Janice Cobb has been teaching at the TCU Neeley School of Business since 1997. She teaches a broad range of classes to TCU undergraduate students, TCU MBA student and various levels of managers.

Janice requires students to practice critical thinking in all courses she teaches. She has extensively studied the critical thinking process and recently published a dissertation on how to use the critical thinking process to make supportable accounting decisions and has taught this method through custom programs with organizations like JTaylor, an accounting, consulting and assurance company.

Prior to coming to TCU, she managed cost reimbursable contracts at Lockheed Corporation, worked as an auditor for a large public accounting firm, served as compliance officer and controller for a fast-growing hedge fund, and served as corporate controller of a public company and chief financial officer of a privately held distribution company. 

She earned a BBA, an MBA, as well as her Doctorate of Higher Education Leadership at TCU.

Rodney D’Souza, an entrepreneurship education, researcher, business owner, and angel fund manager. He joined TCU Neeley as managing director of the institute and the Davis Family Entrepreneur-In-Residence in August 2018. D’Souza was formerly the Fifth Third Bank Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Northern Kentucky University. He was awarded the 2017 Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education and the 2017 University Award for Excellence in Outreach and Engagement, among other honors. He developed and delivered undergraduate courses on entrepreneurial mindset, opportunity recognition, idea valuation, new venture creation, new venture management and business plan writing, as well as a MBA modules on innovation and competitive intelligence. He holds an MBA from Northern Kentucky and PhD from the University of Louisville.

Mark B. Houston (Ph.D. Arizona State, MBA University of Missouri, B.S. Southwest Baptist) is Professor and Eunice and James L. West Chair in Marketing at Texas Christian University (TCU). Mark is also affiliated with ASU’s Center for Services Leadership and the University of Münster (Germany). He is coauthor of Entertainment Science (2019, Springer Nature), and his research on channels, movies, and innovation strategy appears in Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, JMR, JCR, and Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis. Recent awards include the 2019 Louis Stern Award (long-term impact for a 2013 JM paper) and the 2018 Sheth Foundation Award. He is Co-Editor of Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and has served as an AE of JM and Journal of Service Research. Mark is a member of the AMA Board of Directors, was President of the AMA Academic Council (2012-2013), and co-chaired the AMA Summer Conference (2005 and 2017) and the AMA/Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium (2010). An award-winning teacher, Mark has conducted research, consulting, and/or exec ed with firms such as AT&T, Caterpillar, Dell, IBM, Marriott.com, and WellPoint. Prior to re-joining TCU in 2017, Mark served three years as department head at Texas A&M.

Dr. David Preston is a Professor of Information Systems for the Neeley School of Business. Dr. Preston’s research interests include the role and impact of technology executives in the organization, technology strategic alignment, the impact of technology on organizational performance, and business intelligence/analytics. His work has been published in academic journals including: MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and MIS Quarterly Executive. Furthermore, Dr. Preston has served as an Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly and currently serves as a Senior Editor for the Journal of the Association of Information Systems and has also won awards for excellence in MBA teaching. He has over 10 years of industry experience in technology, analytics, and project management positions. Dr. Preston consults and leads executive workshops and seminars in analytics, project management, technology strategy and innovation.

Mr. Roach has 25 years of experience in corporate human resources leading learning and development programs to build leadership capabilities, enhance organizational effectiveness and deliver improved business results. He spent more than 20 years at Verizon leading the organization effectiveness initiative and developing custom leadership and functional development programs. He also spent 15 years leading executive education leadership certificate programs at SMU and five years leading programs for L-3 Link Simulation & Training. He has been honored with several teaching excellence awards and has designed and delivered courses on subjects such as executive presence and communication, authenticity, presentation style, leading in today’s business environment, learning agility, creativity and leadership, retaining top talent, and building and managing the employment relationship. He holds a BA and MS in economics from the University of Illinois.

Tracey Rockett is a Professor of Management Practice at Texas Christian University where she teaches classes and leads workshops on a wide variety of topics including leadership, power & politics, team dynamics, negotiations, culture, and innovation. Her additional areas of specialization include team effectiveness, influence, conflict management, and design thinking.

A dynamic and impactful speaker and facilitator, she has earned multiple awards for her outstanding teaching and is frequently invited to present, conduct workshops, and help leaders think differently about their roles and impact.  She has delivered speeches and workshops across a number of industries and organizations including Ben E. Keith, JPS Hospital, DaVita, Energy Future Holdings, BDO, and DFW Airport.

Her current research focuses on relationship building, familiarity in groups, and the effects of conflict on team processes and performance.  She previously served as an E-trainer for TCU, Neeley Honors Faculty Associate Director, and the TCU Koehler Center Distance Education Fellow. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in International Management Studies from UT Dallas.

Michael Sherrod joined TCU Neeley in 2011 after a successful career of entrepreneurial thinking, innovation and creativity. He began his career in 1976 by starting a magazine publishing company right out of grad school. He transitioned from the print world into the online world in 1985 when he helped manage a video-text news service for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In his career Michael has founded or co-founded 15 companies, including Black Dove Media, DigitalCity.com, AOL Local and Examiner.com. Additionally, he has served in senior management roles and started new companies inside CapCities/ABC, AMR Information Services, AOL, Ancestry.com, and The Anschutz Companies. In 2010, he served as the first Publisher of The Texas Tribune (www.texastribune.org), a non-profit, non-partisan media site covering Texas government, politics, and public policy and is founding board member.

Michael is Chairman of the Board of the Urban Library Council, Past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Kinsey Institute, the world’s leading research institute for sex, gender and reproduction, and a former board member of the Craigslist Foundation. He also serves as board member and advisor to a number of online organizations around the world and is an active Angel investor. Michael is an author and frequent speaker on online, cultural and media issues. Michael holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied in the interdisciplinary Great Books Program, an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia and an MBA from The Neeley School of Business at TCU.

Dr. Abbie Shipp is the M. J. Neeley Professor and Department Chair of the Management & Leadership Department at TCU. She is an award-winning professor, working with undergraduate, graduate, and executive audiences on topics such as adaptive leadership, employee engagement, and leading change. Her research focuses on the psychological and subjective experience of time at work including: the perception of trajectories at work, how individuals react to change, how time is spent on work tasks, and how individuals think about the past/present/future. She has published a two-volume book (“Time and Work”) and is an Associate Editor at Academy of Management Review, the top conceptual journal in management. Prior to joining TCU, Dr. Shipp taught at Texas A&M University, the University of North Carolina, and Oklahoma State University and she was employed by The Boeing Company and TV Guide. Prior consulting engagements include Ernst & Young, Marriott International, AT&T, Halliburton, Texas Transportation Institute, Inspirus, and Working Solutions. She is also a member of the board of directors of United Way of Tarrant County and serves as chair of the strategic planning committee. Dr. Shipp holds an MBA from Oklahoma State University and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary Uhl-Bien is the BNSF Railway Endowed Professor of Leadership in the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University (TCU). Prior to joining Neeley she was the Howard Hawks Chair in Business Ethics and Leadership at the University of Nebraska. She has also been a Visiting Scholar in Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Spain.

Mary’s research focuses on complexity leadership, relational leadership, and followership. She has published multiple books and numerous articles in journals including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, and The Leadership Quarterly. Her work has been funded with a grant from Booz Allen Hamilton, and her research contributions have been recognized with two Decennial Awards and multiple Best Paper Awards. She was noted as the #6 Most Influential Leadership Scholar from 1990-2017 in an analysis by Zhou & Li in The Leadership Quarterly in 2019, and was identified in Poets & Quants as a Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professor in 2018.

Mary is a co-founder of the Network of Leadership Scholars (NLS) in the Academy of Management and was elected as both Division Chair and Representative-at-Large for Organizational Behavior, the largest division in the Academy with over 6000 members. She is active in executive education nationally and internationally, delivering workshops and classes for the Brookings Institute, the Gallup Organization, and universities in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe. She has given keynote presentations around the world and was a regular commentator for CNBC Squawk Box. She participated in a Fulbright-Hays grant to Mexico during the summer of 2003 and trained Russian businesspeople for the American Russian Center and in Magadan, Russia as part of a USAID grant at the University of Alaska Anchorage from 1993-1996. She served as an executive consultant for State Farm Insurance Co. from 1998-2004.

Dr. David Weltman is the Associate Professor of Supply Chain Practice for the Neeley School of Business specializing in applied learning, analysis of teaching methods, business statistical models and distribution of inventory management. He teaches in range of programs including at the undergraduate programs, MBA and EMBA graduate programs. Recently taking on a new course for the Neeley Fellows, David has also participated in the “Leading with Data Analytics” certificate program for TCU Neeley Executive Education as well as presented at the Executive Insights Lunch series for the business community. Prior to his career in academia, he spent 15 years at IBM in consulting and services and in marketing technology solutions.