Mailing Address
The University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Drive, Box #5176
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001

Gulf Park Campus
730 East Beach Blvd
Long Beach, MS 39560

Chair
Catherine Price, Ph.D.
Professor
313 Joseph Greene Hall
601.266.5008
catherine.price@usm.edu

Administrative Assistant
Carolyn Soniat
313 Joseph Greene Hall
601.266.6762
carolyn.soniat@usm.edu

Faculty

• Cheri Becker
• Babu George
• Evelyn Kwan Green
• Marsha Lay
• Catherine Price

Cheri Becker, Ph.D. Associate Professor USM Gulf Coast Campus Business Complex 228.214.3378 cheri.becker@usm.edu Website:

Education
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Ph.D., Bachelor's)

Professional Honors and Achievements
Dr. Becker has more than 12 years of teaching experience in hospitality education, including several at Washington State University's Swiss Center Campus in Brig, Switzerland, University of South Carolina, Kansas State University and Virginia Tech. Becker also has considerable managerial experience in the hospitality industry, having worked in restaurants, hotels, country clubs and institutional food service operations. She is a member of the Mississippi Tourism Association where she serves as V.P. for education.

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Babu George , Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
314-E Joseph Greene Hall
601.266.6511
babu.george@usm.edu
Website:

Education
Mahatma Uandhi University, Kerala, India; B.S.( Electronics)
Pondicherry University, India; M.T.A. (Tourism)
GOA University, India, Ph.D. (Management Studies)

Academic and Professional Interests
E-tourism and tourism strategies

Professional Honors and Achievements
Babu P George joined the Department of Casino, Hospitality, Tourism Management, College of Business, of the University of Southern Mississippi as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2007. Previously, he was a lecturer at the School of Management of Pondicherry University, India, and the Faculty of Management Studies, Goa University, India, for about six years. In addition, he had been a visiting faculty to various higher educational institutions since 2001.

Dr. George has contributed to approximately 12 reputed academic journals like Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, Tourism Management, European Journal of Tourism Research, ASEAN Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, Tourism: An International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration,International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, Journal of Tourism Studies, Journal of Travel and Tourism Research, Tourism Review, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Heritage. George has authored three books entitled “Tourism Marketing”, “Holidays, Holiday Attachment, and Customer Loyalty in Tourism” and “International Tourism: Geography and Developmental Perspectives”. He is also the editor of three books, titled "Knowlege Management Practices", “Advancements in Tourism Theory and Practice” and “Tourists and Tourism”. These are in addition to the occasional contributions made by him in the popular press. Curently, Dr. George is the Managing Editor of Journal of Tourism: An International Research Journal of Travel and Tourism.

Dr. George was a recipient of the Universities Grants Commission India Junior and Senior Research Fellowships. He was also chosen for the Best Young Faculty Award by Amity Foundation, New Delhi in 2007.

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Evelyn Kwan Green, M.B.A., M.S. Instructor USM Gulf Coast Campus Business Complex 228.214.5401 evelyn.green@usm.edu http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w304223 Website:

Education
The University of Southern Mississippi

B.S. in Hotel & Restaurant Administration (Summa Cum Laude)
M.B.A. with a marketing emphasis
M.S. Instructional Technology
Doctoral student in Human Capital Development

Academic and Professional Interests
Human capital development, online education, casino management, international development, tourism, and campus recreation marketing.

Professional Honors and Achievements
Originally, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Evelyn Kwan Green has twenty-one years work experience in higher learning to include instructional media administration, faculty online instruction development, casino and tourism management instruction, start-up implementation, staff training, campus recreation marketing, website development, noncredit learning, and grants information and management.  Evelyn Green received the National Service Award from the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association for her contribution to the field of recreational sports marketing.  In April 2007, she received the department's The Cutting Edge award for innovative teaching. Ms. Green was also a recipient of the University of Southern Mississippi 's Staff Excellence award.

Evelyn served as the project director for a five-year, $1.78 million, U.S. Department of Education, Title III-A Strengthening Institution grant on classroom technology acquisition and faculty development in technology integration in the teaching and learning environment, awarded to Southern Miss. She was on the startup implementation team for the opening of the university’s Payne Center, a $7.3m campus recreation, fitness, and wellness complex. A nationally recognized pioneer in campus recreation marketing, Evelyn coauthored the marketing chapter in the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association’s (NIRSA) Campus Recreation: Essentials for the Professional.  In addition to national presentations and publications, Evelyn developed and presented in NIRSA’s inaugural campus recreation marketing symposium. Evelyn developed a web-based WebCT Online Tutorial: A Faculty Guide to Basic Online Course Development and Maintenance as her instructional technology capstone project.  

Evelyn developed and implemented the department’s first online casino management course.  She created and adopted the iPASS* instructional method to facilitate successful online courses that are widely popular with students and industry professionals. This method is internationally recognized as best practice in e-learning by the Association for the Advancement in Education (AACE). Her paper, Virtual Technology: Value beyond Instruction, has been accepted for presentation in October 2009, at the E-LEARN 2009: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, in Vancouver, Canada.  Evelyn will be spearheading the development and launch of the Southern Miss’ online graduate and undergraduate certificate programs in casino management. 

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Marsha Lay, J.D. Instructor 311-A Joseph Greene Hall 601.266.5100 marsha.lay@usm.edu

Education
B.S.  Hospitality Management, University of Southern Mississippi
J.D. Mississippi College School of Law

Professional Honors and Achievements
Marsha Lay joined the Department of Casino, Hospitality, Tourism Management, College of Business, University of Southern Mississippi as a Visiting Instructor in August, 2008.  Mrs. Lay is an active member of the Mississippi Bar Association, where she has served as a member of the Women in the Profession Committee.  In 2006 was a speaker on the Evelyn Gandy lecture series. Prior to completing her J.D., Marsha formed and operated Marsh Company, a food and floral catering business. She has studied various cooking techniques at the Viking Cooking Schools in Franklin, TN and Greenwood, MS; and completed a course in service excellence at the Caesar Ritz Institute Hotelier', LeBouveret, Switzerland.

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Catherine Price, Ph.D. Professor 313 Joseph Greene Hall 601.266.5008 catherine.price@usm.edu Website:

Specialty Field
Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management

Education
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Ph.D.), University of Northern Colorado (M.A.), Mississippi University for Women (B.A.)

Academic and Professional Interests
A Southern Miss faculty member since 1993, Dr. Price's activities include articles and professional papers in a variety of tourism publications and and meetings. She also has given numerous professional lectures to such organizations as the Institute Hotelier Cesar Ritz and the Washington State University Swiss Center in Switzerland, Travel and Tourism Research Association and the Mississippi Hotel and Motel Association.

Professional Honors and Achievements
Catherine H. Price, a native Mississippian, is in her sixteenth year with the University of Southern Mississippi serving as interim chair and professor of the Casino, Hospitality & Tourism Management Department. She has taught a wide range of subjects including convention management, marketing, finance, human resources management.

While working on her Ph.D. at Virginia Tech, Dr. Price was assigned to the Office of the Vice President, Charles Steiger (now President of Virginia Tech) to work on a variety of projects associated with the renovation of the Hotel Roanoke which had been given to Virginia Tech by Norfolk Southern Railroad. During this same period, Dr. Price developed and conducted numerous one-day workshops for the Professional Convention Management Association on basic and advanced meeting management practices. In collaboration with PCMA and ITT Sheraton Corporation, she wrote A Guide for Meeting Planning distributed as a marketing piece for the Sheraton Corporation.

Prior to pursuing a Ph.D. and while living in Denver, Dr. Price owned the meeting consulting firm, Price & Associates. Her clients including professional associations and corporations that hired her company to manage their seminars, annual conventions, fundraisers, trade shows, incentive travel, and special events. This company was in business for approximately ten years. Clients included the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, American Indian Science & Engineering Society, Council of Energy Resource Tribes, Association of Women in Business, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, B.F. Goodrich, Anheuser-Busch, Coors, and the University of Denver. During this time, she wrote a major book, The AMA Guide for Meeting and Event Planners, published by the American Management Association. For the AMA to place its name on a book, the book must meet very high standards. Dr. Price has earned a national reputation as an author for industry publications and as a speaker for nationla and international programs. She received the national award of "Educator of the Year" by the Professional Convention Management Association in 1997.

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