For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent honors, awards, accreditations, publications, collaborations and presentations include the following:

Honors

A documentary by Jon Cox, associate professor of art and design, received the Best Documentary Short Film and Best Trailer awards at the Crown Point International Film Festival in March 2025. The film follows journalist Nataliia Ruda, who lost her home and village in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Ruda traveled to Ireland, where she met and interviewed fellow asylum seekers and refugees. The film is part of the larger documentary project Arrivals: What’s Left Behind, What Lies Ahead.

A team of UD sophomores from the Lerner College took first place in the 2025 JPMorgan Chase Innovate for Impact Case Competition. Finance majors Vedika Sekhri, Anna Goldkamp, Josie Zaccoli and economics major Lola Babalola emerged as the top team among 400 applicants nationwide. After progressing through a virtual preliminary round featuring 30 teams, they competed in-person in Columbus, Ohio, as one of 12 finalists. The case competition challenged students to develop innovative solutions to real-world business problems and provided valuable networking with JPMorgan Chase professionals. The experience also positions winners for future internship opportunities with the firm.

Meiying Liu, a UD doctoral student in hospitality analytics at the Lerner College, won the Best Paper Award at the 2025 NENA-ICHRIE Conference. Liu co-authored the award-winning paper with Joanne Yoo, associate professor of hospitality business management, and Tim Webb, associate professor of hospitality business management. This recognition highlights their contribution to the field and strengthens UD’s presence in hospitality research.

Awards

Three faculty members from the Lerner College’s Department of Accounting and MIS–Yu Zhu, assistant professor of MIS; Jared Sharpe, visiting assistant professor of accounting; and MIS, and Xiao Fang, professor of MIS–have been awarded support from the American Fintech Council and UD’s Data Science Institute for their project, Leveraging Large Language Models to Simulate Consumer Behavior for Fintech Product Innovation. Their research explores how fintech companies can use large language models (LLMs) to simulate customer feedback, replacing traditional focus groups. By creating representative customer personas, the team aims to help firms evaluate new products more efficiently and cost-effectively. The project was selected in February 2025 following a competitive proposal process.

Accreditation

The University’s Public Health Program has been accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). The five-year accreditation recognizes that UD’s program, which includes a master of public health in epidemiology in the College of Health Sciences and a master of public health in health policy and management in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, meets the highest standards for public health education. “To be the first accredited public health program in the state of Delaware is an honor,” said Jennifer Horney, professor and director of UD’s public health program. “This accreditation shows that our program meets rigorous national standards. Our graduates are prepared to tackle real-world public health challenges and make a meaningful difference in their communities.”

Collaboration

Starting in fall 2025, Lerner College’s Department of Hospitality and Business Management will launch a new 2+2 program in collaboration with the Beijing Hospitality Institute. This joint program allows BHI students to complete two years at their home institution, followed by two years at UD, earning a bachelor of science degree in hospitality and event experience management with a concentration in hospitality management. The curriculum combines business fundamentals with specialized hospitality courses and hands-on experience at Vita Nova, UD’s student-operated fine-dining restaurant. Graduates will be prepared for global career opportunities and advanced study, including UD’s STEM-designated master’s degree in hospitality and sport business analytics.

Presentations

On March 14, 2025, the University’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics hosted its annual Management Research Summit, titled “Pi in the Sky: Dreaming Big in Management Research.”The event brought together scholars from over 18 institutions across the Mid-Atlantic, making it the largest summit to date. Held at the FinTech Innovation Hub, the daylong summit featured keynote presentations from leading management scholars: Kevin Corley (Imperial College), John Delery (University of Arkansas) and Jennifer Tosti Kharas (Babson College). Topics included qualitative methods, human resource management and meaningful work. The event also included a “rapid research” session, where 16 Ph.D. students had five minutes to present their research and receive feedback from attendees. Conversations throughout the day explored pressing challenges in the field, including the impact of artificial intelligence and bridging the gap between academic research and managerial practice. The summit was organized by Beth Schinoff and Stacy Astrove, assistant professors of management in the Department of Business Administration at Lerner College.

The John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) hosted the 2025 IRRCi Symposium at UD’s Clayton Hall on March 15. The symposium featured the presentation of 12 selected research papers from nearly 100 submissions, focusing on empirical finance research in corporate governance. The $10,000 IRRCi Research Paper Award was shared by two teams: Edwin Hu, Nadya Malenko and Jonathon Zytnick for “Custom Proxy Voting Advice” and Robin Döttling, Doron Levit, Nadya Malenko and Magdalena Rola-Janicka for “Voting on Public Goods: Citizens versus Shareholders.” Remarks were given by Lerner Dean Oliver Yao, Weinberg Center Director Lawrence Cunningham and Laura Field, Donald J. Puglisi Professor of Finance, and Fei Xie, Chaplin Tyler Professor of Finance. Special thanks to Nicole Rich for her coordination. The IRRCi competition, now in its decades-long legacy, has helped foster impactful research, with more than 1,000 submissions to date. Since 2015, the top five papers have garnered more than 1,500 citations.

To submit information for inclusion in For the Record, write to ocm@udel.edu and include “For the Record” in the subject line.