Faculty – Doctoral

Degrees

PhD, Capella University
MS, Walsh College

Biography

Before coming to Walsh College, Dr. Richards spent more than 20 years in healthcare information technology as a programmer, systems analyst, project manager, and finally a multinational program manager. She has held multiple positions in various levels of management. She has a Ph.D. in Organizations and Management and wrote her doctoral dissertation on transformational leadership. For more than 20 years, Dr. Richards has taught at the undergraduate,  graduate, and doctoral level. In her present position, she is a full-time Professor, Director of the Walsh Doctoral Programs, and Faculty Chair for Marketing and Management.  Her research interests include leadership, management, process efficiency, and innovation.

Degrees

DSc, Capitol Technology University
MS, Ferris State University
BS, Ferris State University

Licenses and Certifications

CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional

Biography

Dr. Dave Schippers brings decades of industry experience in information technology, cybersecurity, and project management to Walsh. In industry, he has worked on large core system designs, quality assurance testing and system implementations, impacting regional, national and international business operations nearing a billion dollars. From a technology support perspective, Dr. Schippers has been responsible for technology operations team, ensuring system operations in environments responsible for over $300 million in sales. As a technology leader, he directed a technology group and security operations, supporting 25 sites, three operations and thousands of users in a technologically diverse infrastructure. His leadership includes implementing over $8 million in technology bonds, acquiring federal USF funding, designing and implementing physical and video security systems, and engineering new security alert system components. He also consults as a professional investigator and cybersecurity professional, offering digital investigation and information security services.

Dr. Schippers began teaching as an adjunct instructor in 2013 with Ferris State University’s Information Security and Intelligence program, teaching forensics, advanced forensics, cybersecurity and geographic information systems courses. At Walsh, he has instilled in-depth hands on labs to technical courses. He was the architect of Walsh’s Advanced Team-Based Attack/Defend Techniques. Walsh’s Technology Advisory Board members hailed the class as a unique opportunity for students in Michigan to advance their cybersecurity skills. Also, Dr. Schippers created and designed Walsh’s Bachelor of Science Information Technology Automotive Cybersecurity concentration, setting Walsh as the first institution in the nation with an automotive cybersecurity program.

Dr. Schippers research and investigation experience includes digital image forensics with a focus on GPS data and GPS accuracy. He participated in and designed a multi-agency functional system test of emergency response/notification software for GPS accuracy and reliability. His GPS and image forensics work prompted a webinar for a global forensics company and a speaking engagement for their global forensics conference. Dr. Schippers has spoken frequently on GPS, cybersecurity, digital forensics, image forensics and technology leadership at local, regional, national and international conferences. In September 2018, he spoke at the Auto ISAC international automotive cybersecurity conference on talent generation in automotive cybersecurity and cybersecurity. He is also active in cybersecurity research and industry technology initiatives in the region.

Dr. Schippers has published the following:

Refereed Journal Articles
Journal Article (Published)
Barrios, R. M., Schippers, D., Heiden, C. M., Pappas, G. (2019). A cybersecurity strategy for Industry 4.0. SPIE DEFENSE + COMMERCIAL SENSING, VOLUME 11009

Journal Article (Published)
Barrios, R., Schippers, D., Heiden, C. M. (2019). A cybersecurity strategy for Industry 4.0. SPIE, 11009(11009OD).

Along with other intellectual contributions as:

Magazine/Trade Publication (Published)
Schippers, D. A. (2012). How To – The Black Bag Acquisition Part 1 (1st ed., vol. 1, pp. 16-19). eForensics Magazine Computer.

Magazine/Trade Publication (Published)
Schippers, D. A. (2012). How To – The Black Bag Acquisition Part 2 (1st ed., vol. 1, pp. 20-23). eForensics Magazine Computer.

Degrees

PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BA, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Biography

Dr. Jen O’Meara is a writer and freelance web developer with an unusual professional and educational background. She has a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature, specializing in 16th and 17th Century British literature but focusing in particular on 17th Century texts related to natural philosophy and natural philosophers. Her blend of savvy in both humanities and science makes O’Meara a versatile educator. She teaches courses at Walsh in both Communications and Business Information Technology.

Before joining Walsh College as an Adjunct Associate Professor in 2014, O’Meara served for seven years as the Chief Innovation Officer for an internet start-up. Performing simultaneously the roles of Information Officer, Project Manager, and Social Media Specialist, she facilitated internal and external communications, documented programming requirements and performed quality tests, and created content for blog and social media platforms. O’Meara served prior to that as the Chief Information Officer for a medical billing service, where she educated physicians and administrators about clinical documentation liabilities, compliance strategies, and the credentialing process.

In 2012 O’Meara published whatever.odt, an academic memoir that brings together opposite sources — print and web, humorous and painful, scientific and literary — to place her personal experiences as a genderqueer individual in a larger cultural context.

O’Meara is a prominent member of the local racquetball community. She is a board member of the Racquetball Association of Michigan, and functions as the web and media strategist for 6-time world champion racquetball player Cliff Swain. She has also organized and directed her own sanctioned racquetball tournament, donating the proceeds from the event to a different charity or organization every year.

Degrees

PhD, University of Southern Illinois
MA, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
BA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Biography

Michael Francesco Alioto is adjunct professor of Marketing at Walsh. He teaches courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in marketing research, consumer insights, global research, political science, qualitative methods, and quantitative applications. He also teaches in the DBA and DM doctoral programs where he has responsibilities for the research methods courses.

Alioto is a consultant for Global 1000 companies on the agency side of the business and has worked in the automotive, manufacturing, and telecommunication sectors. He has been involved in product and services development, branding, and marketing studies from both a qualitative and quantitative standpoint. Alioto has specialized in the global and multicultural areas with experience in 20 countries across four continents, as well as working with the applications of behavioral approaches and methods to marketing and marketing research problems.

He is a frequent speaker at American Marketing Association (AMA) and ESOMAR conferences where a number of his works have been published. He contributed to the edited books, ESOMAR: Excellence in International Research (years 2002-2004, where his papers were nominated for the Best Paper Award). Alioto also presented frequently at the ESOMAR Latin American and Qualitative Conferences, as well as at various ESOMAR Congress around the globe. He has also contributed works to various American Marketing Association Conferences and has been published in the AMA Marketing News, Alert Magazine, Survey Magazine, and ESOMAR RW Connect. Alioto is a member of the AMA, ESOMAR, and the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences.

Alioto’s applied and academic research interests include the humanization of marketing research, behavioral economics, non-linear complexity modeling, the psychological framework of the consumer, regime change in Southern Europe and Latin America, European coalition government formation, and globalization.

He specializes in both quantitative and qualitative methods, with a main focus on the comparative method, formal logical theory/game theory, ethnographies/anthropological methods, causal analysis, and theory building.

Degrees

PhD, Wayne State University

MA, Eastern Michigan University

BS, Eastern Michigan University

BS, Eastern Michigan University

Biography

Jenny Tatsak, Ph.D. and Associate Provost, Associate Vice President, Director of Doctoral Programs, Professor of Business Communications at Walsh. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses as well as courses in the doctoral program.

Dr. Tatsak has extensive leadership communication experience as a senior strategist and primary spokesperson for municipal, statewide, regional, and national campaigns. She developed general messaging strategy, direct mail, web content, as well as television and print advertisements to generate support and raise unprecedented dollars.

She developed and enacted crisis communication and image restoration plans and served as a speech writer and media coach for on-camera interviews and debate preparation. She was selected by the non-partisan National Commission on Presidential Debates to study presidential and vice-presidential debates. Her findings led to recommendations used to improve the presidential and vice-presidential debate formats.

Knowing firsthand impact of innovative and audience-relevant communication, Dr. Tatsak designed the first-ever service-learning course in the Department of Communication at Wayne State University and subsequently wrote and was awarded a Michigan Campus Compact Venture Grant that expanded the service-learning partners and opportunities available to Schoolcraft College students and faculty.

Consequently, the National Communication Association invited her to conduct a seminar on best practices for service-learning. She began her career in the Office of Student Affairs at Lawrence Technological University.

Dr. Tatsak researches persuasive campaigns, organizational communication and rhetoric, and teaching pedagogy. She serves as a presenter, on strategic communication, to professional and community organizations. She presents her research at regional and national conferences.

Her research was recognized by the National Communication Association with two top paper awards. Her research on the impact of positive communication in higher education is included in two books: Positive Communication in Health and Wellness and Communication in the Classroom: A Collection of Great Ideas in Teaching Speech (G.I.F.T.S.). She is a contributor to the London School of Economics’s USAPP-American Politics and Policy blog on issues related to the American political process.

Degrees

PhD, Walden University
MSM, Colorado Technical University
BS, Strayer University

Biography

Dr. Michelle Moore is a professor, researcher, cyber security policy analyst and author in the areas of cyber security doctrine and globally dispersed enterprise governance. With over two decades of experience as a Cyber Security Professional and almost ten years of experience as a professional educator, her work supports both national and international defensive cyber strategies.

Within the field of technology, she specializes in the governance policies, disaster recovery protocols, physical security defenses, and academic matters relating to the protection of critical infrastructure that supports the interests of the nation’s defensive posture in cyberspace. As an educator, Dr. Moore has a broad range of instructional experience on the subjects of business, management, and cyber security at both the undergraduate and graduate levels with various universities.

Throughout her career, Dr. Moore has supported multiple organizations as a government contractor and as a civilian government employee. These include Northrop Grumman, SAIC, Booz Allen Hamilton, the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer, and MCI WorldCom. She currently supports the United States Marine Corps Headquarters Office, where she leads the Contingency Planning and Physical Security efforts for cyberspace and sits on the National Security Agency (NSA) TEMPEST Advisory Group as the primary representative for the Marine Corps.

Biography

James Gerrity has over 20 years of supervisory, human resource development and operations management experience that he brings into discussing quantitative methods and business analytics, as well as coaching approaches involving empathy tactics, engagement, and collaboration to innovate together.

Gerrity has applied quantitative approaches to risk management, as well as improving client service. Just knowing the ins and outs of the financial process isn’t sufficient. Developing and sustaining relationships within an ethical environment, especially through 360 feedback, is critical to succeeding together today.

Gerrity has been active in coaching and developing staff over the past two decades. He has been in various managerial positions with the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and its predecessor firms since 2000, and is FINRA Series 3, 4, 7, 8, 24, 27, 63, and 65 licensed.

Degrees

PhD, Michigan State University
MEd, Saginaw Valley State University
BBA, Saginaw Valley State University

Licenses and Certifications

CPA – Certified Public Accountant

Biography

Maria A. Gistinger, CPA, PhD, teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in the accounting department in the areas of financial accounting, managerial accounting, accounting communications, international accounting, ethics, and governmental and not-for-profit accounting. She serves on the outcomes assessment committee representing the accounting department.

Dr. Gistinger brings her extensive background in public school finance. She has always had a special interest in governmental entities in fiscal distress. Her doctoral dissertation titled, “Michigan Schools Reaction to Budgetary Distress,” focused on ways that public schools were adapting to fiscal crisis. Dr. Gistinger’s research agenda includes qualitative research methods focused on fiscal management in not-for-profit entities.

Outside of Walsh, Dr. Gistinger was most recently the Assistant Superintendent for Finance at Brighton Area Schools. She has held similar positions at Iosco RESA, Birmingham Public Schools, Oak Park Schools and East Lansing Schools. She has also worked in public accounting where she prepared tax returns and financial statements and audited municipalities and school districts as well as other not-for-profit entities.

Dr. Gistinger’s professional memberships and affiliations include being a member of Michigan School Business Officials where she regularly presents to her peers at workshops on school budgeting. She is also a member of the Association of School Business Officials International, and the Livingston County School Business Officials and is the district chair for the annual United Way campaign.

Degrees

DBA, Lawrence Technological University
MA, Central Michigan University
BS, Wayne State University

Degrees

PhD, Pacifica Graduate Institute
MA, Pacifica Graduate Institute
BS, Rochester University

Biography

Drew H. Smith, Ph.D. is the Director of Online Learning at Walsh College in Troy, MI, where he oversees the design, development, and technical support for all of Walsh’s online and hybrid courses. He has a passion for moving higher education forward into a new pedagogical model focused on transformation rather than information.

His occupational interests include academic integrity in the digital age, engaging emotional intelligence in online education, and optimizing assessments around real-world experiences.

Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. in Depth Psychology which focuses on the unconscious and transpersonal aspects of what it means to be human. He is a certified MBTI Steps 1 and 2 consultant and has over 20 years management and leadership experience in the non-profit sector.

Degrees

Ph.D., Wayne State University, E.E.
Ph.D., Northcentral University, Data Science
MBA, Lawrence Technological University

Biography

Dr. Abbas Raftari has been an Adjunct Instructor in the Quantitative Methods department at Walsh since 2022, teaching graduate and doctoral courses. With over 25 years of expertise in General Motors and Ford’s hybrid-electric and autonomous vehicle safety programs, he has spearheaded end-to-end projects to align with the ISO 26262 system functional safety standard. Dr. Raftari has authored multiple patents and scholarly articles in safety-related domains. Specializing in designing systematic frameworks, he has adeptly optimized emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain for bolstering enterprise data security. His scholarly contributions include publications on optimizing new technologies and governance models to enhance organizational data security.

Additionally, Dr. Raftari has been a key player at Ford Motor’s Technical Education – Core Competency division, where he developed, led, and instructed various technical courses for engineering staff. He was an integral part of the blackbelt quality task force at Ford Motor Co.

Degrees

Northcenral University
MS, Michigan State University
BSME, Michigan State University

Biography

Javad Katibai has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Quantitative Methods department at Walsh since 1989 teaching graduate and undergraduate statistics courses and has become full time Assistant Professor in IT and Decision Sciences Department starting Winter, 2020. He has also offered professional seminars at Walsh on topics of Statistics for Business, Budgeting and Forecasting, and Continuous Process Improvement.

Mr. Katibai’s automotive and academic career at General Motors Corporation spans well over three decades as Engineering Group Manager, Vehicle System Engineer, Designing Engineer, and as an instructor teaching “Fundamentals of Statistical Process Control,” “Correlation and Regression Analysis” and “Statistical Methods for Comparison – Hypothesis Testing” training courses. Javad Katibai is a certified Design for Six Sigma, DFSS, Black Belt utilizing application of quality management, including statistics methods, to the design of chassis and powertrain integration systems. He has also acted as course mentor at General Motors Technical Education Distance Learning program proctoring business and engineering courses offered by universities offering degree programs at General Motors.

Degrees

PhD, Walden University
MS, Eastern Michigan University

Degrees

DSc, Capitol Technology University
MS, National University
BS, State University of New York

Licenses and Certifications

PMP – Project Management Professional
CISA – Certified Information Systems Auditor
CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional

Biography

Michael was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. He has been working in various fields of information technology (IT) for over 18 years. He has earned 20 industry recognized professional certifications within the realm of IT, Cybersecurity & Project Management. Michael gained organizational leadership experience from earning the Eagle Scout Award as a teenager, from several leadership development opportunities while active duty in the United States Marine Corps, from graduating the 9 month Executive Leadership Program in January of 2017, and from graduating the 1 year Executive Potential leadership development program in March of 2022. He was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps after 8 years of service. He served in 2nd Battalion 5th Marines and 5th Marine Regiment. Michael deployed in 2010 with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, participating in Operation Tomodachi near Okinawa Japan. He later deployed again in 2012 participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, in Helmand Province Afghanistan.

Dr. Simko has worked as a network administrator, system administrator, cybersecurity architect, Cybersecurity Manager, VOIP engineer and service desk technician. Michael is currently employed as a Director of Communications, overseeing Network Operations, Cybersecurity, Incident Management, Asset Management, Telecom and Service Desk divisions.

When not engaged with work, Michael enjoys spending time with his family, the outdoors, exercise and fitness, designing tech, martial arts & traveling.