Honor society inducts members, recognizes faculty

Each spring, an honor society at the Hull College of Business recognizes outstanding students, faculty and an alumn.

The honors ceremony for the college’s chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma, originally set for March, was canceled this year because of the spread of COVID-19. The honorees were announced through social media instead.

The Beta Gamma Sigma chapter inducted 23 undergraduate students and 12 graduate students in 2020.

Beta Gamma Sigma, founded in 1913, is the scholastic honor society dedicated to principles and ideals essential to a worthy life as well as to a commendable business career. The chapter at Hull was established in 2006. More than 400 have been inducted into the society so far.

• Graduate inductees: Jeffrey Butler, William Collins, Stephen Covington, Jeffrey Jacobs, Heather Kimball, Anna Lavarnway, Juan Molina Firpi, Matthew Noelke, Santosh Patel, Jordan Red, Russell Scaggs, Marcellus Wilson

• Undergraduate inductees: Robert Apfel, Tia Askew, Alysia Badua, Perry Barinowski, Jordan Birdsong, Kevin Corenstein Rezepka, Donald Dahlin, Teresa Diez Moliner, Lauren Goodenough, Austin Gray, Michael Gross, Brooke Hayes, Brendan Hunter , Jonathan Kitchens, Linda Lundqvist, Skyler McGregor, Keosha Moss, Briana Newton, Kyle Oldenkamp, Queenesha Opapeju, Jachua Polcyn, Joshua Seiden, Mitchell Smeak, Matthew Worm

Student membership in the society is based off grade point average and an invitation is made to those in the top 10% of their class. 

Professor of the year

Dr. Jim Grayson was named named Professor of the Year for 2020. Each year, the class of inductees vote to honor a faculty member who is passionate about the success of Hull students and their future careers. 

“It does not surprise me that our best students (Beta Gamma Sigma inductees) selected Dr. Grayson as our Professor of the Year,” said Hull College Dean Dr. Richard Franza

Grayson was also selected for the honor in 2015.

“Dr. Grayson embodies the Hull College goal of providing an excellent mix of business theory with practical application. He provides his students a great learning environment where they get to tackle real-world applications in Supply Chain Management and Analytics. We are lucky to have Dr. Grayson at the Hull College,” Franza said.

He has been a member of the society since 1990.

Honorary inductee

This year’s honorary inductee into the chapter is Alan Griffin, president of Augusta healthcare management firm MCBS.

“Mr. Griffin’s selection for this honor is long overdue. As an AU/Hull alumnus, Mr. Griffin has been both a successful businessman as a CEO and a stalwart of the Augusta community,” Franza said. “His impact is felt throughout the CSRA, but particularly at AU and the Hull College through his consistently strong commitment and support.”

Griffin has been in the healthcare business for over 32 years. He was raised in Augusta and received his BBA and MBA from Augusta College in the 1980s.

Faculty inductee

The chapter selected Qihua Qiu as its faculty inductee for 2020. She is an assistant professor of economics for the college focusing her instruction and research on health economics, healthcare finance, public policy, applied econometrics, and environmental economics. Qiu obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from Georgia State University in 2017.

“Dr. Qiu is a well-deserving honoree!” Franza said. “In her first year at the Hull College, she has already made a significant impact with high quality published research, excellent teaching, and enhancing the increasingly strong connection between the Hull College and AU’s Health Sciences to improve the business of health care and public health.”