VSB Welcomes New Faculty Members for the 2020-2021 Academic Year

Rishtee Batra, PhD: Dr. Batra joins VSB’s Marketing & Business Law Department as an assistant teaching professor. She received her PhD in Marketing from Boston University and joins Villanova after being a faculty member at the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University. Dr. Batra’s research focuses on cross-national differences in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stakeholder management. She also spent several years in the Asia-Pacific region, where she developed expertise with consumer behavior and market entry in emerging markets.

Mark Olson ’10 VSB, ’15 MBA, ’16 MSF: Previously a visiting professor, Olson now joins VSB’s Finance & Real Estate Department as an instructor. Olson earned his BS, MBA, and MSF from Villanova, and taught undergraduate Principles of Finance and Fixed Income classes to VSB students, as well as the MBA Corporate Finance course. Olson served as a Graduate Research Fellow, analyzing new stock issuances, and collecting information for REIT 10-K and 10-Q’s.

Shelly Rathee, PhD: Joining the Marketing & Business Law Department as an assistant professor, Dr. Rathee earned her PhD from the University of Utah where she received the Doctoral Teaching Excellence Award. Her areas of expertise include Business Analytics, Pro-social Behavior, Numerosity and Magnitude Perception and Consumer Perception. She served as a reviewer for the Society for Consumer Psychology Annual Conference and has a degree in Management in Fashion Business from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Delhi. Dr. Rathee joins VSB from the University of Utah.

Luke Watson, PhD: Dr. Watson is joining the Accounting & Information Systems Department as an assistant professor. He received BBA and MS degrees in accountancy from the University of Notre Dame and earned his PhD from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Watson taught at Drexel University and is an ad hoc reviewer of 20 academic journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics and The Accounting Review. He served as the Accounting Research Workshop Co-Coordinator at Drexel University and has won numerous awards.

Julie R. Becher, PhD: Graduating from The Pennsylvania State University with her PhD in Economics, Dr. Becher is joining VSB’s Economics Department as a visiting assistant teaching professor from her most recent position at Haverford College and as a research associate for HIV/AIDS prevention at the Perelman School of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. She will teach Introduction to Econometrics for the fall semester.

Matthew E. Brach ’93 VSB, DBA: Dr. Brach earned his BS in Accounting from VSB, an MBA from University of Maryland where he was James E. Dingman Entrepreneur Scholar, and his DBA from Temple University. He has previously held teaching appointments at VSB and The Catholic University of America. He is a member of the American Finance Association and worked as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship. He joins the Finance & Real Estate Department as a visiting instructor and brings many years of experience as a consultant in private equity and real estate. He will teach Principles of Finance this fall.

Xiyue (Cynthia) Cao, PhD: Dr. Cao earned her BS in Economics and International Trade from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, and her MA and PhD in Economics from Temple University where she previously taught. She is joining VSB’s Economics Department as a visiting instructor teaching Introduction to Microeconomics.

Yanan Chen, PhD: Earning her BA in Economics from Chongqing University in China and her PhD from SUNY Binghamton, Dr. Chen joins the department of Economics as a visiting assistant teaching professor from her most recent position at West Chester University. She will teach Introduction to Microeconomics this fall.

Timothy B. McCulloch ’14 MBA: McCulloch earned his MBA from VSB in 2014 and served as a VSB business fellow in 2019. Since 2018, he has been an adjunct professor and now joins VSB as a visiting instructor in the Marketing & Business Law Department. He brings with him several years of corporate experience as the founder of Corporate Partnership Strategies, LLC where he offers brand marketing, sales training, and corporate partnership consulting services.  McCulloch will help lead the Professional Selling Society by providing real-world sales training strategies. This fall, McCulloch will be teaching Competitive Effectiveness, Marketing for Social Impact and Professional Selling.

Renya Reed Wasson, PhD: Dr. Wasson earned her PhD and MA in Economics from Brown University and returns to VSB’s Economics Department as a visiting assistant teaching professor. She had previously taught statistics and economics courses at VSB between 1992 - 2012. Dr. Wasson most recently served as the senior manager of strategic objectives at the Camden City School District in New Jersey. This fall, she will teach Introduction to Econometrics and Introduction to Macroeconomics.