Connect and innovate with an elite information systems program
Newrez LLC office in Fort Washington, PA is hosting a series of in-person events this October for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we’re looking for enthusiastic IT/MIS students to volunteer and help facilitate these events.
This volunteering event will be eligible for PRO points!
The MIS Department is pleased to announce the following three new faculty promotions.
Sezgin Ayabakan earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Professor Ayabakan joined Temple University as an Assistant Professor in 2017. He obtained his Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of Texas at Dallas and holds MS and BS degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Florida and Bilkent University, respectively. His broader research interests focus on the impact of health information technology initiatives on the cost and quality of healthcare services. His papers are published in leading academic journals such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
JaeHwuen Jung (Jae) earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Professor Jung joined Temple University as an Assistant Professor. He has received a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and holds an M.S. in Management Engineering and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Jae worked for 6.5 years as an IT application architect, serving in many capacities relating to project management, IT systems integration, and legacy systems migration before joining the Ph.D. program. The unifying theme of Jae’s research is to causally examine the impact of new technology channels, digital platforms, and technology-enabled features on user behavior and firms’ outcomes.
Marie-Christine Martin was promoted to Associate Professor. Professor Martin started as an adjunct in 2015 and accepted a full-time teaching position in 2017, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses specializing in her areas of expertise including product management, Strategic management of IT and consulting. She is the Academic Director for the ITACS Master program in China (ITACS Beijing National Accounting Institute) and the Data Science course coordinator.
Professor Martin was previously a Technology and Services executive with 20+ years of experience working at three of the largest global IT providers, IBM, HP and Oracle. Her experience spans North America, Asia and Europe. Her last role was Vice President of Operations for the Oracle North America consulting group. Professor Martin holds an MBA from the University of Montreal, HEC, as well as a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Temple AIS, the MIS Student Professional Organization, was selected as a Distinguished Student Chapter for 2023. The Distinguished Student Chapter Award is the second-highest honor given to an AIS student chapter. It is given to chapters “that have excelled in most of the areas of emphasis: professional development, membership, careers in IS, community service, fundraising, and communications.”
Temple AIS will be recognized at the 2024 AIS Student Chapter Leadership Conference on March 29, 2024 in Logan, Utah.
This is the fourth win in four consecutive years for the Temple AIS chapter! The last two years Temple AIS also won Distinguished Chapter for 2021 & 2022, and the year before that, the organization won Student Chapter of the Year for 2020, the highest honor awarded to an AIS Student Chapter.
Learn more about the AIS Student Chapter Leadership awards and past winners.
Temple MIS faculty are again among the most prolific in the world in 2022, according to the Association for Information Systems’ List of High-Quality Journals, specifically MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, the Journal of Management Information Systems, and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems.
Temple faculty published in those four journals 21 times in 2022. Four Temple MIS faculty were featured in the list: Jason Thatcher, Milton F. Stauffer professor, was #4 in the world; Detmar Straub, professor and research fellow for the Institute for Business and Information Technology (IBIT), was #7; Min-Seok Pang, associate professor and Milton F. Stauffer Research Fellow, was #27. Sunil Wattal, professor and associate dean of research and doctoral programs, was also #27.
“I’m proud to see Temple University once again top this list,” says Wattal. “The strong research culture in the MIS Department and throughout Fox is part of who we are.”
Pang, who studies strategic IT management in the public sector, remarks, “It’s exciting to be part of a group so engaged with research.”
Temple was also the most frequently published institution in those four journals during the last three years, with 54 publications from 2020 to 2022. During that time, Thatcher was #1 in the world, Pang was #19 in the world, and Straub was #27 in the world.
“The MIS Department and Fox School support and value research,” says Straub, who studies cyber security, technology innovation, and research methods, “This allows the faculty to thrive.”
Thatcher, who studies workforce issues related to the effective and secure application of technology and is the MIS concentration adviser for the Fox Ph.D. programs, notes the strength of the group, “It’s a great environment for research collaboration. We have productive faculty with varied interests and excellent doctoral students. We also enjoy celebrating each other’s accomplishments.”
Congratulations to this year’s 21 Department of MIS and Institute for Business and Information Technology scholarship recipients!
| Mata Fofana |  |
| Tina Le |  |
| Iman Aaliah Hadba |  |
Ron and Ronda Riddell Endowed Scholarship
| Emily Ahn |  |
| Joshua Lee |  |
| Aashmun Doshi |  |
| Abdalaziz Sawwan |  |
| Zhengkun Ye | 
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| Ethan Chheda |  |
| David Levit | 
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| Rachel Koffel |  |
| Pin-an Chio |  |
| Adam Foster-Baird |  |
| Scott Lafferty |  |
| Kelly Deng |  |
| Deepya Paramata |  |
| Yuxuan Chen |  |
| Carly Krieger |  |
| Tyler Bolling |  |
| Abdul Mukhtar |  |
| Anna Lu |  |
Senior Allyson Yu took a winding path to the MIS Department, as her interests evolved during the pandemic. Yu started out at Temple with a dual major in biology and visual studies in 2019, but she switched to MIS junior year.
Fortunately, all of these disciplines came together to inform Yu’s current work, WebORA, a website that helps organic chemistry students learn by interacting with 3D molecular reactions. Yu presented the project at the peer-reviewed ACM SIGACCESS for Accessibility and Computers conference in October and won first place in the Undergradate Student Research Competition.
The inspiration for the project came from a certificate course Yu took that had a small section about web accessibility. “It really interested me, because I’m very passionate about design thinking and coming up with solutions to help people in their everyday lives,” says Yu.
“Students with disabilities are underrepresented in the STEM fields in higher education. I wanted to create a project that would hopefully bring more awareness to this issue,” she says.
Yu drew from various parts of her studies to inform her work. As a biology major, Yu had worked with Steven Fleming, an organic chemistry professor, to help develop a 3D molecular application.
She also pulled from her MIS courses on user experience and web development. In particular, Yu credits her UX professor Munir Mandviwalla for giving her a framework for usability testing.
Yu’s JavaScript, HTML and CSS skills also enabled her to help the WebORA developer with implementing the accessibility features.
But Yu’s favorite part of the project was her interviews with organic chemistry students as they demoed the prototype she created. “Hearing stories of students in their learning journeys was really eye opening,” says Yu. “Bringing awareness is a big thing—making students feel seen and removing barriers in the curriculum.”
Yu was thrilled when she heard her project was accepted and that she would have the opportunity to talk about it more. “It felt really unreal. And I’m excited,” says Yu.
To support her project, Yu received the Creative Arts Research and Scholarship (CARAS) grant from Temple University.
“Something I’ve learned from this project is that Temple has a lot of resources,” says Yu. “I’m thankful that I go to a school where if a student wants to do something, they’ll have professors who will do their very best to support you.”
Professor Munir Mandviwalla received the Sandra Slaughter Service Award from the Association for Information Systems at the International Conference for Information Systems held in December in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The award recognizes “longstanding members who have provided leadership within the Association, particularly through such activities as participating in the SIGs/chapters/colleges, strengthening the conferences, and participating in AIS-sponsored journals.”
This honor reflects the MIS community’s high esteem for Professor Mandviwalla and his many contributions to the field.
Attending a performance at the Isarphilharmonie music hall in Munich sounds like a lovely way to spend a summer evening. But the concert there on July 17, 2022, had much deeper significance for Stauffer Professor of MIS Jason Thatcher.
“It was amazing,” said Thatcher, recounting how his partner, daughter, friends, and students were among the people in the audience.
Thatcher’s community had turned out to see him receive the prestigious TUM Ambassadorship from the Technical University of Munich on stage, along with other scholars from around the world.
TUM is well-known as one of the top universities in the European Union. The TUM Ambassador is an interdisciplinary award given annually in Munich.
“It was unexpected,” says Thatcher, of his award nomination. TUM faculty and students nominate their colleagues who they believe have made substantial contributions to the academic life of the university.
Thatcher holds a faculty appointment at TUM and has held visiting appointments at the Information Technology University-Copenhagen and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
While at TUM, Thatcher says he’s learned a lot about project management, gathering data, and “looking at research problems through new eyes from my colleagues.”
His research includes work on digital platforms, IT workforce, and digital nudges in partnership with major corporations and government agencies in Germany.
“Absent the TUM relationship, I would never have had a chance to participate in research that examines how digital platforms are changing how firms manage relationships with key stakeholders and business partners,” Thatcher says.
Thatcher also works on technology use and stigma in the United States, including the dangers facing veterans who post about PTSD on social media. His recent findings are scheduled to appear in Personnel Psychology.
“We’re presently extending that work to examine how technology use can further stigmatize people with mental health conditions in Germany,” he says.
According to Thatcher, the Isarphilharmonie concert, meeting TUM President Thomas F. Hofman, and the award dinner were all unforgettable. However, he is perhaps most grateful that the ambassadorship will enrich his academic life by solidifying his working relationships at TUM.
“It was affirming the relationships with my colleagues in Munich that made it special,” Thatcher says.
During her career, Rhea Prabhu (BBA ‘17) has served as a trusted advisor to clients across several different industries, including financial services and life sciences. The throughline in her work is helping organizations leverage innovative and emerging technologies while prioritizing cybersecurity and managing risk.
Depending on the client, that might look like developing a vulnerability management program, or creating executive dashboards to show security risk posture across an enterprise.
Prabhu’s resume includes stints at Grant Thorton and Deloitte. She currently serves as a Cyber Security Senior Associate at Ernst & Young.
At EY, Prabhu creates custom security solutions for her clients’ unique operating environments. And she continues to draw upon the skills she honed and networks she grew during her time at Temple.
“What stuck out to me about many of my classes at Temple was their emphasis on creating solutions to real problems—not just theoretical scenarios,” says Prabhu. They helped me to stretch my creative and technical skills and learn how to interact with clients.”
Prabhu also credits being a part of Temple AIS as a member and officer with helping her develop a community of peers and smoothly transition into the workforce. “The IT fairs, awards, socials, and competitions impressed on me the importance of developing a network in addition to applying myself in class. Many of the connections I made there are cherished relationships to this day,” she says.
How do entertainment executives decide what content to produce? As a Technical Program Manager at the Santa Monica offices of Disney Streaming, 2023 Temple “30 under 30” recipient Ciara Murphy (BBA ‘16) leads the Data Solutions teams to help figure it out. They help determine what you watch on some of your favorite streaming (Disney Plus, Hulu) and linear (ABC, FX) channels.
Murphy’s teams collect data as it relates to content, like Disney Channel shows and The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. “Then we transform the data to make it easy for analysts and business folks to create insight from it,” says Murphy.
After spending a few years at Cigna, Murphy found a great culture fit at Disney with a fun team who challenges and pushes each other—reminiscent of her experience at Temple.
“Working on group projects at Temple was similar to my career experience so far in the way that you have this big idea, then you break it up into more achievable milestones,” says Murphy.
“The curriculum overall really challenged my way of thinking and taught me how to approach problems in different ways,” she says.
Murphy encourages undergrads to get a solid foundation in data and analytics. “Especially in this economy, decisions are very data driven. And having accurate data on customers is super important to operate your day-to-day business,” she says.
Professor Marie-Christine Martin has been awarded the 2022 Fox School Experiential Learning Award, Tier 2, for her course MIS3535: Lead Global Digital Projects. The course was recognized for its semester-long, live client-facing project. Recent clients have included nonprofits such as the Sexual Violence Prevention Association (SVPA), The Reflect Organization, and The Greater Sum Foundation.
