Alex Barelka has been named chairperson of the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods. He began his assignment July 1.
Barelka will be responsible for:
- Providing leadership to the department in strategic planning
- Working with the department’s centers and institutes
- Maintaining the image and reputation of the department
- Developing and supporting faculty
- Facilitating curricular initiatives
- Overseeing initiatives to attract, cultivate, and retain students
- Maintaining relationships with the department’s stakeholders
- Working with the department and the College of Business (COB) leadership team on Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) initiatives
Barelka brings extensive leadership experience, outstanding collaboration and communication skills, and a very strong scholarly research record to the department, the College of Business, and to Illinois State University. His strong background in strategic planning will be an asset to the department and the college. In addition, his successful history in securing major grants will benefit the department and the college in many ways.
Barelka has been a professor at Wright State University and the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio. He is also a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and holds a Ph.D. in management (minor in information systems) from Michigan State University. Previously, he was a technical advisor and chief of behavioral studies in the Air Force Research Laboratory and deployed to Afghanistan, where he was awarded a Bronze Star and worked for the senior U.S. and NATO commander.
His research interests include trust/suspicion, leadership, team performance, social networking, influence tactics, and IT-based learning. He has published in several top journals including the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, and the Journal of Business Psychology. His research has been funded by several national agencies and the results presented at multiple national conferences.
Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., Barelka worked for over 10 years as an IT and research and development (R&D) program manager for space-related systems in the Air Force and several national agencies.
