Jones College All★Stars

All of our faculty, staff, and students contribute to our college’s success, and here we highlight a few exceptional individuals.

DEANA RAFFO

CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

After studies in psychology and education, MTSU Management Professor Deana Raffo became interested in leadership development and now concentrates her research and teaching in that area. Not too long ago, she even ended up studying the style of entertainment and entrepreneurial icon Dolly Parton, a native of the hills of east Tennessee (see page 27).

“I had been considering writing a paper on Dolly for some time, and I was lucky enough to find a kindred spirit in one of my M.B.A. students, Heather Heath,” Raffo said. “Together, we created a popular media case study on Dolly’s leadership style, using the theoretical framework of authentic leadership to inform our analysis.

“We curated a range of teaching tools, including videos, podcasts, popular press pieces, and assignment ideas for leadership educators.”

Deana Raffo

Raffo’s current research projects focus on leadership credibility, and she also heads up the Leadership minor and the weeklong, interdisciplinary Institute of Leadership Excellence intensive program each summer for students across campus.

“Leadership plays a crucial role in driving positive change, not just within our workplaces but in our communities and above,” Raffo said. “It empowers individuals to make a meaningful impact. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership.

“Effective leadership requires a deep understanding of ourselves and the unique strengths, interests, and passions that others bring in various contexts.”

Named the Jones College of Business’ Kathy and Bill Jones Outstanding Faculty Award winner recently, Raffo was named chair of the Department of Management after serving as interim chair in 2022–23. After earning her bachelor’s from Marshall University, Raffo came to MTSU for graduate school and never left, discovering “that the best job in the world is the ability to stay in college forever.”

I BELIEVE THAT THE BEST WAY TO CULTIVATE A LOVE OF LEARNING IN OTHERS IS TO MODEL IT OURSELVES.

She not only earned two master’s degrees and an Ed.S. at MTSU before completing her Ed.D., but also met husband Greg at Kirksey Old Main 25 years ago. In addition to spending time with friends and family—including sons Lucas, a college student, and Gabriel, a high schooler—Raffo enjoys reading, kayaking, and walking on the greenway with her dog.

At work, Raffo helps connect students with campus organizations or business internships and assists faculty members in identifying research that could involve business or community partners. Sometimes, there are so many interesting ideas and initiatives that Raffo wishes she didn’t have to say no to some.

She has presented more than 25 papers, published articles in journals like Gender in Management and Journal of Managerial Issues, and contributed to the book Leading with Spirit, Presence, and Authenticity.

Raffo believes Jones College’s range of real-world learning projects, professional development offerings, and connections to industry help empower students to succeed.

“I believe that the best way to cultivate a love of learning in others is to model it ourselves, which is why I’m always reading about new ideas and perspectives from both my colleagues and students,” she added. “In my research, I am constantly seeking new knowledge and insights that will inform my teaching.”

And that means even looking at the leadership skills of legends like Dolly.

KENNETH GEORGE

LECTURER, DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

When business consultant Kenneth George applied for an MTSU lecturer position in 2018, the hiring committee asked him to discuss the opening to his cover letter:

“I believe it is the primary mission of education to help people become happy and productive. Sometimes we focus so much on the ‘productive’ that we forget to reinforce the ‘happy.’ Business leaders who are positive and earnest in making the workplace a center for creativity, who embrace the humanity of their staff, who look for ways to develop their employees, they are the model for success.”

Now George (B.B.A., ’83; M.B.A., ’00) begins each of his business classes by writing “happy” on the whiteboard.

Kenneth George

“We may write a lot of other things on the board during class, but when we leave, we erase everything but the ‘happy,’ ” George said. “This has become a mantra that we embrace.”

And when speaking on happiness at MTSU’s Bridge Leadership Conference and Presidium, he had buttons made with the word “Happy” under a Groucho-style icon—the one used on the Connection Point button for MTSU’s annual comedy show attendees. With glasses and bushy eyebrows and mustache, that image “greatly resembles me,” he quipped.

George had taught some community college classes before returning to his alma mater to earn his M.B.A. while working as a contract manager/negotiator at IBM and later Hewlett Packard. (He admits to not giving his “best effort” as an undergraduate.)

“My customers were some of the largest companies in the world, and MTSU prepared me to be effective working with them,” he said.

WE MAY WRITE A LOT OF OTHER THINGS ON THE BOARD DURING CLASS, BUT WHEN WE LEAVE, WE ERASE EVERYTHING BUT THE “HAPPY.”

Now, having spent 25 years in the business world, George helps dispel a “false narrative” for Jones College students that “contracts have an adversarial nature.”

“Once students understand that the purpose of a contract is to protect each party and serve each party’s interests, it allows for a healthy, meaningful business relationship to be documented,” he said. Named last year’s Outstanding Dale Carnegie Trainer at MTSU, George says that course reinforces the concept of “REALLY listening in a meaningful way and understanding the mutual benefits of strong relationships.” The unique partnership also gives students an extra boost to prepare for the Midstate’s booming business market, he says, helping students “to not just compete, but to thrive here.”

Since 2012, George also co-manages the Pickers Creek Winery in Lewisburg that his brother and sister-in-law started on the family farm. George’s youngest son is an MTSU senior Communication major, and another son is an engineer in Nebraska. George has four stepchildren too and “bunches of grandchildren.” He loves to read and connects with students over great books.

Additionally, he finds it important to “pay your rent” by being active in the community, serving on local boards and committees.

But George also finds his “happy” by helping students succeed and being around supportive “esteemed” colleagues.

“The students here at MTSU make every day joyful,” he said. “Their energy, their enthusiasm, it is like jet fuel for your soul. . . . They are an integral part of a future that is going to be better.”

MELISSA HAWKINS

GRADUATION ANALYST, JONES COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

As a military spouse, Melissa Hawkins transferred to MTSU following her freshman year of college in her home state of Georgia. After two children and four more duty stations—two in North Carolina, in Arizona, and in Japan—she joined the University staff when her husband retired from the U.S. Marine Corps 20 years later and the couple decided to return to the area.

“Over the years as we have moved around, we have been blessed to meet the most wonderful friends,” Hawkins said. “Many of those friends have really become our family. We’ve met these friends either at workplaces or in church.

“I believe that having lived in different places afforded me opportunities to move outside of my familiar comfort zones and allowed for being able to learn from and get along with diverse groups of people.”

Melissa Hawkins

As a graduation analyst for MTSU’s Jones College of Business since 2018, Hawkins now works alongside academic advisors to ensure students are on track to complete their coursework.

Before earning her own Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1992, she loaded up with 21 hours her final semester, anticipating her husband’s transfer at the typical three-year mark—only to find out their move was delayed a few months.

Hawkins managed to survive that extra load but now faces a challenging end to each term, “losing sleep” worrying that no graduating student is left off the Commencement list.

“It’s a privilege to have a part in helping students graduate,” she said. “That’s what I am here for . . . to be a help. I always want to be helpful in some way so that both co-workers and students look to me as someone they can count on and trust.”

IT’S A PRIVILEGE TO HAVE A PART IN HELPING STUDENTS GRADUATE.

During the past three decades, Hawkins has had jobs ranging from bank teller—at three duty stations including in Okinawa, Japan—to fifth-grade teacher. All her positions allowed her to learn new skills and grow as a person while helping people, she said.

Starting this fall, Hawkins is embarking on a master’s program in Strategic Leadership at MTSU. She also makes clay earrings and enjoys traveling, sewing, journaling, and reading (especially murder mysteries and romance novels).

Hawkins and husband Dwayne lead a small group at World Outreach Church, are visiting Israel with a church group soon, and love doing puzzles, game nights, and progressive dinners with their adult daughters, Kapriona (Kapy) and Micadia (Kadie), and their significant others.

Starting out as a secretary in Student Life in August 2005, Hawkins moved to administrative assistant for the Graduate Studies dean prior to her current position. Now she serves in an auditing role to make sure the advising team is accurate on remaining requirements, and she alerts students nearing graduation if they’re lacking a course or short of a GPA requirement, etc.

“We do not want students to feel like they must navigate the demands of college alone,” Hawkins said. “We genuinely want to help and want each student to be successful.”

DANIELLE SWARTZ

ACADEMIC ADVISOR, JONES COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

Danielle Swartz had been serving seniors of a much older age group, as well as adults with disabilities, when she decided to pursue a master’s in higher education. She soon fell into a new career as an academic advisor. It was fitting—as an undergraduate transfer on a new campus years earlier, she had felt isolated until she met an advisor who made a difference.

Now, Swartz has been assisting MTSU students for more than five years in the Jones College of Business advising center. She even became a Dale Carnegie Certified Trainer after earning an award in the immersion course herself and now teaches soft skills to business students.

“I love meeting with each student,” Swartz said. “I love learning about them, what they want to be when they grow up, and I love being a supportive person in their lives.

“I believe in their dreams and abilities, and it’s important to me to help connect them to resources, faculty members, programs, anything to help them be successful.”

As an undergraduate, Swartz traveled coast to coast to attend the University of North Carolina–Greensboro. But after a year she returned home to Oregon to earn her bachelor’s in Social Service at Portland State University.

“I felt alone in navigating my new school,” Swartz recalled.

Then she found Laura Marsh, an extremely helpful advisor who knew her stuff. “I was intrigued by what she did, but I . . . had my senior blinders on to entertain changing my major.”

After college, Swartz lived in Mexico two months to hone her fluency in Spanish. During six years as a case manager with the Agency on Aging and Disabilities in Vancouver, Washington, she realized she loved serving the community—and kept meeting people with higher ed experience.

I LOVE MEETING WITH EACH STUDENT. . . . AND I LOVE BEING A SUPPORTIVE PERSON IN THEIR LIVES.

So she completed a master’s in Educational Leadership and Policy at PSU, then moved crosscountry to become a Nashville State Community College admissions counselor in 2016.

A year later, she joined MTSU’s Jones College.

“I love being on a college campus. I love the energy of the students, staff, and faculty. So many fresh ideas, research, the desire to learn and grow,” she said. Away from work, Swartz enjoys exploring the outdoors and talking Star Wars with her 6-year-old son. She also appreciates good food and coffee, gardening, and spending time with friends. Her biggest challenge as an advisor is sharing enough information in 30 minutes.

“We talk about so much more than which classes to take,” she said. “We talk about finding the balance between school, work, family, self-care. I am constantly encouraging students to get involved with IGNITE, talk with professors, go to tutoring, do an internship or two, study abroad, etc.”

Swartz has now instructed the Carnegie course eight semesters.

“I get to know students in such a different way,” she said. “I watch them grow, prove to themselves they can be strong and brave, and be proud of what they have accomplished. . . . They make me optimistic for the future.”

MARITZA OCEGUERA

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION MAJOR

Undecided about her major entering college, Murfreesboro native Maritza Oceguera chose MTSU because her hometown university offered affordability and so many program options that were highly ranked nationally. With the help of the Career Development Center and MTSU’s Instagram page, she came across a video about the Management program and ended up a Management major and Business Administration minor.

A May 2023 graduate, she also has served as one of MTSU’s Blue Elite student ambassadors assisting with special events and tours on campus.

“The reason I chose Business Management is because I have always loved working behind the scenes of events,” Oceguera said. “I love organizing and planning the details involved in executing an event.”

Hoping to eventually land in the media and entertainment industry, she works with the MTSU football team’s recruiting office and will stay on as a graduate assistant.

“I help with the planning and execution aspect of recruiting events,” Oceguera said. “I also inform the recruits and their families about important MTSU information and guide them on campus/ facility tours.”

She decided to apply to the Blue Elites after serving as a CUSTOMS student orientation assistant.

“I am a first-generation college student, so I know how it feels being unfamiliar with how the process of applying to college is,” Oceguera said. “After every tour, I feel very helpful and happy that I was able to help a family out with any questions.”

At nearby Riverdale High School, she was active in numerous organizations and as an officer for student government, Future Farmers of America, and the National Honor Society. At MTSU, she became involved in Greek life and served on committees including for Distinguished Lectures.

Oceguera was initiated into the business college’s Beta Sigma Gamma Honor Society and the Lambda Sigma Honor Society, is secretary of the Order of Omega Honor Society, has been on the dean’s list 2019–22, and earned the Bob and Ethel Stroop Bowling, David Patrick Richardson, and Archer-Johnstone scholarships.

AFTER EVERY TOUR, I FEEL VERY HELPFUL AND HAPPY THAT I WAS ABLE TO HELP A FAMILY OUT WITH ANY QUESTIONS.

“MTSU has an amazing financial aid program and offered me the most financial aid to make college affordable,” she said.

Oceguera believes that Jones College’s 15 undergraduate degree programs, 15 minors, and ranking in the top 1.4% of all business schools in the world help students find their path and succeed in that journey.

“They have helped me achieve my goals by offering many useful resources like IGNITE events, where I learned many beneficial skills I could use in my daily life, and offering experiential learning courses,” she said. “I also love the ability to develop close connections with my professors who have become mentors.”

Further, MTSU’s exclusive partnership integrating the Dale Carnegie Course helps students learn to effectively communicate, resolve arguments, and build human connections, she notes.

Outside of school, Oceguera enjoys painting, building theatrical props, making montage videos, and “going on last-minute trips and adventures.”

Not surprisingly, she loves hanging out with family and friends, meeting new people, and “walking around campus and bumping into friends and catching up with them.”