SUNY Canton Management Faculty Member Wins National Award from Accrediting Agency

SUNY Canton Professor Charles R. Fenner, Ph.D., recently won the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE) 2023 Business Faculty of the Year Award.

Fenner, who has taught in the college's Management program since 2006, received the accolade at the recent IACBE annual conference following a nomination from Distinguished Teaching Professor Maureen P. Maiocco, Ed.D.

"Dr. Fenner's dedication to providing and sustaining high-quality business programs is unsurpassed," Maiocco said. "He ensures SUNY Canton graduates receive the education and experience necessary to lead and succeed."

During his tenure, Fenner developed various courses on campus, online, and in flexible modalities. He has taught International Business Management, Leadership and Change, and Strategic Policies and Issues. He established and coordinated a student-centered Roopreneur initiative, an annual competition that helps students develop innovative solutions to real-world business challenges. By placing second in a national simulation competition among professors, he was able to provide a semester long simulation to business students free of charge.

"Dr. Fenner is a servant leader who has directly impacted students, colleagues, academic programming, curriculum, and college policy," said School of Business and Liberal Arts Dean Kirk K. Jones, Ph.D.

Fenner's business acumen transcends SUNY Canton's lecture halls and online learning spaces. He recently served as the graduate research advisor for Jennifer Sipple. The pair co-authored "The Relationship Between Servant Leadership and Job Satisfaction within the Vaccines Sales Division of a Large U.S.-Based Pharmaceutical Organization.” The publication won a best paper award and was published by the Academy of Business Research. Sipple is the manager of growth enablement and operations for Pfizer.

The business faculty member also worked with John P. Bowler to author "Organizational resiliency: How a midwestern community college managed student success during the Covid-19 pandemic." The work will be published in an upcoming edition of the Journal for Advancing Business Education. Bowler is a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and is a managing partner of the consulting group Bowler Hunt LLC.

Both Sipple and Bowler are doctoral graduates of Franklin University.

Fenner helped the college's business programs earn accreditation from IACBE, which helps ensure that the education provided by SUNY Canton maintains exceptional levels of quality as a premiere educational institution.