Six UHV faculty members earn promotions
A group of six University of Houston-Victoria faculty members will have new job titles this fall after the UH System Board of Regents approved their promotions in academic rank.
The assistant professors who will be promoted to associate professors and receive tenure are:
- Wei-Chih “Danny” Chiang, School of Business Administration
- Massomeh Hajilee, School of Business Administration
- Mark Ward, School of Arts & Sciences
The associate professors who will be promoted to the rank of professors are:
- Yixi Ning, School of Business Administration
- Yun Wan, School of Arts & Sciences
In addition, Jesica McCue will be promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer. All of the promotions will take effect Sept. 1.
“These faculty members have built up a long list of impressive accomplishments in classroom and labs, which benefit our students, our institution and our community,” said Don Smith, UHV interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. “It’s satisfying to see them being rewarded with promotions to higher academic ranks.”
Faculty members hired as assistant professors at UHV have five years to apply for promotion and tenure. Associate professors may be considered for promotion to professor after six years, although distinguished achievements can warrant earlier consideration.
The promotion review process, which takes almost a year to complete, begins with evaluations by the school deans. Their recommendations are sent to the university’s promotion and tenure committee for evaluation. The committee’s recommendations go to the provost, and his recommendations go up the chain to the university president, UH System chancellor and the UH System Board of Regents.
Chiang has taught accounting classes at UHV since 2010. In 2013, he was named the UHV School of Business Administration Partnership Professor of Accounting. Chiang’s research interests focus primarily in the area of tax accounting. He has received a research award at the International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines and a best paper award at the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences.
Hajilee teaches several of UHV’s economics courses. In 2011, she was awarded a summer research grant to examine open economy macroeconomic mechanisms. One year later, Hajilee was named the business school’s Partnership Professor of Economics and received a research award from Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Hajilee has served on various UHV committees and is the chapter advisor for the Beta Gamma Sigma international business honor society.
When he joined the UHV faculty in 2010, Ward’s main assignment was organizing the core freshman course in public speaking. Since then, Ward has accumulated a long list of accomplishments, including writing a book on Nazi bureaucratic documents and a book about the advantages of digital publishing methods. Ward’s primary research focuses on organizational and religious communication. An article by Ward about religious radio won the 2014 Religious Communication Association outstanding scholarly article of the year award.
Ning teaches graduate courses in financial management and financial modeling as well as undergraduate business finance classes. He has taught at UHV for 12 years. Ning’s research interests include corporate finance, corporate governance, investments, venture capital and international finance. He has presented his research at various national and international business and finance conferences, and has been published in several prestigious journals.
Wan is director of UHV’s graduate computer information systems program and director of UHV’s Bachelor of Applied Arts & Sciences program. He also has served on the UHV Faculty Senate and was editor of a 2009 online comparison shopping reference book. He has published many papers in the field of ecommerce. Wan grew up in China and has helped establish partnerships between UHV and Chinese universities.
McCue teaches biology courses and is the UHV Pre-Health Student Association faculty advisor. She recently was presented the 2015-2016 Enron Teaching Excellence Award. In the past year, she began a Biology Rocks competition to give students a chance to present research. Additionally, McCue has invited several guest speakers from the medical and scientific community to enlighten, inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in science.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
