Enrolling in Penn State's master of project management program will give you access to some of the leading researchers in the project management field.
Headed by Dr. Jeffrey K. Pinto, an internationally recognized scholar in the field of project management, the faculty for the project management program are all seasoned veterans of the business world. Using their research and consulting experiences, they provide practical and innovative insights into business operations. You'll have many opportunities to interact with your instructors through both your online courses and your residency experiences.
Jeffrey K. Pinto, Ph.D.—Lead Faculty Member
Dr. Pinto holds the Andrew Morrow and Elizabeth Lee Black Chair in Management of Technology in the Black School of Business at Penn State Erie. His major research focus has been in the areas of project management, information system implementation, and the diffusion of innovations in organizations. In addition to his faculty appointment at Penn State, Dr. Pinto holds the title of research scientist with the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) through the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering at the University of Maine.
Dr. Pinto is the author or editor of 16 books and more than 100 scientific papers that have appeared in a variety of academic and practitioner journals, books, conference proceedings, and technical reports. He has published widely in such journals as Management Science, Sloan Management Review, International Journal of Project Management, Journal of Management, Interfaces, Journal of Management Studies, Applied Psychological Measurement, Project Management Journal, and the Journal of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. He is also a frequent presenter at national and international conferences and has served as keynote speaker and as a member of organizing committees for a number of international conferences. Dr. Pinto served as editor of the Project Management Journal from 1990 to 1996. He is departmental editor for project management with IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and sits on the editorial review boards or serves as an ad hoc reviewer for a number of other professional journals, including the International Journal of Project Management, Journal of Management Studies, and Project Management Journal.
Diane H. Parente, Ph.D.
Dr. Parente received a bachelor's degree in physics from Wilson College, an MBA (accounting and management majors) from Canisius College, and a doctorate from the University at Buffalo (management systems and operations strategy). She taught at SUNY Fredonia, the University at Buffalo, and the University of Mississippi before coming to Penn State Erie.
Dr. Parente has a great deal of industry experience in information systems, manufacturing, logistics and transportation, sales administration, new business development, marketing management, international business management, and strategic management. During this period she worked at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels in the organization, including services, discrete, and process manufacturing. She has been involved in projects and the integration of the projects into the organization at all levels, and has been responsible for approximately forty projects of various sizes at any given time.
Margaret A. Thoms, Ph.D.
Dr. Thoms earned her doctorate at Ohio State University, specializing in organizational behavior and human resources management in the Fisher College of Business. She is currently an associate professor of management and the director of the MBA program at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, where she has been a faculty member in the School of Business since 1994. Her research interests include leadership vision, time orientation, leadership development, and self-managed work teams.
Dr. Thoms received the Walter F. Ulmer Jr. Applied Research Award from the Center for Creative Leadership in 1995 and the Project Management Institute's Paper of the Year Award in 1999. She has published numerous articles in scholarly journals. In 1998 she co-authored Project Leadership: From Theory to Practice; in 2003 she published Driven by Time: Time Orientation and Leadership. She served as visiting professor of project management in the School of Business and Economics at Umeå University in Umeå, Sweden, in the spring of 2002. In addition to her academic experience, Dr. Thoms has sixteen years of management experience, including project team assignments.
Ray Venkataraman, Ph.D.
Dr. Venkataraman is an associate professor of operations management in the School of Business at Penn State Erie. He received his Ph.D. in management science at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Madras, India, an MBA in information systems, and a master's degree in accounting from DePaul University, Chicago. Dr. Venkataraman has published in The International Journal of Production Research, Omega, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Production Planning and Control, The International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, and other journals. His current research interests are in the areas of manufacturing planning and control systems, supply chain management, and project management. Dr. Venkataraman is also a member of The Decision Sciences Institute, Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), and American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). He has served on the editorial review board of POM Journal.
William H. Volz, J.D.
Dr. Volz earned a bachelor's degree with high honors at the Honors College at Michigan State University. Following service in the U.S. Army during the war in Vietnam, he continued his graduate studies. He holds master's degrees from the University of Michigan and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and a law degree from Wayne State University. He is currently a professor of business law at Wayne State University. Dr. Volz writes, lectures, and teaches courses about the legal environment of project management.
Dr. Volz is the author of a book on trial procedure and numerous articles on business ethics, international business, commercial law, and taxation. His writings on punitive damages have been quoted by the U.S. Supreme Court and a state supreme court. His work in international business and commercial law has been cited in more than forty academic and professional publications. Dr. Volz was honored by Wayne State University with the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2007 and the Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Faculty Service in 2006. While an academic, he has maintained a small legal practice, essentially limited to negotiating the sale and lease of commercial real estate.
