Three Faculty Members Honored with 2019 Teaching Excellence Awards

Three Faculty Members Honored with 2019 Teaching Excellence Awards

Three SDSU faculty members from the Fowler College of Business were recently named recipients of the Teaching Excellence Award for 2019 by the members of the college’s Faculty Development Committee. The 2019 award recipients are: 

Dr. Claudiu Dimofte
Since joining the marketing department in the Fowler College of Business in 2011, Dr. Claudiu Dimofte has combined his commitment to research excellence with a passion for educating the school’s graduate students. He teaches the impact of marketing within an organization and society and is the graduate student adviser for the marketing major in the MBA program. 

Dimofte is highly respected among his students, who appreciate his rigorous yet approachable teaching style. He has introduced a global component to the core marketing MBA class in collaboration with a partner university in Europe, and has served on numerous master thesis and doctoral dissertation committees both at SDSU and other academic institutions. In 2014, he was chosen as the “Most Influential Professor” by SDSU’s top MBA marketing student. 

Dr. Aaron Elkins
It was a natural fit for Dr. Aaron Elkins to teach and conduct research at SDSU: He earned his bachelor’s degree from SDSU in 2003 and was honored as that year’s top management information systems (MIS) graduate. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, he returned to the Fowler College of Business as an MIS professor in 2016. Elkins has also established, and currently leads, the college’s artificial intelligence (AI) lab. 

Elkin’s ability to advise and understand students is one of his most valuable attributes according to Dr. Bruce Reinig, the interim Thomas & Evelyn Page Dean of SDSU’s Fowler College of Business. “Aaron understands our mission at SDSU since he was once a community college transfer into the MIS department,” said Reinig.  “He respects our students and challenges them to compete at the highest level.”

Bernhard Schroeder
Bernhard Schroeder is the director of programs at SDSU’s Lavin Entrepreneurship Center and a management lecturer in the Fowler College of Business. Schroeder, who earned his MBA at SDSU in 2007, is the author of four books and has been lecturing and working at the college since 2008. 

Schroeder, whose areas of expertise include entrepreneurship, branding, creativity and marketing strategy, has assisted many SDSU student entrepreneurs with their startups through the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center. He advises students on everything from building a prototype to raising capital. Additionally, he has been the driving force behind SDSU’s Lavin Entrepreneur Program and the VentureStart competition. Schroeder also leads a popular entrepreneurship study abroad program in Rome during SDSU’s winter break and was chosen as the “Most Influential Professor” by SDSU’s top management undergraduate student in 2018. 

Dimofte, Elkins, and Schroeder were chosen by the Faculty Development Committee for having shown outstanding skill in the classroom and for their consistent dedication to their students and to the Fowler College of Business. They will receive their awards during the spring semester of 2020 prior to offering their individual presentations on the “keys to teaching effectiveness.”