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Women Faculty Honored for Excellence in Community Partnerships

Dr. Amy Gregory and Dr. Cynthia Mejia of UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management were recognized at a special Women Faculty Partnership Celebration on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at the Burnett Honors College.

The UCF Center for Success of Women Faculty and LIFE @ UCF honored 30 female faculty members for their engagement in a successful partnership with a community organization. Each honoree received an “Excellence in Community Partnership Award.”

Dr. Gregory’s project with Resort Condominiums International (RCI), titled “Emerging Market Business Opportunities,” assembled a Timeshare Advisory Board comprised of top timeshare companies to capitalize on Orlando’s prominence as a vacation destination and encourage collaborative projects. The 2013 Fall Immersive learning Project invited Rosen College graduate students to address a $1.4 billion emerging secondary market trend for RCI, the leading provider of vacation exchange products and services. Participating students received scholarships and presented several viable business solutions to RCI.

Dr. Mejia’s project with Sysco Central Florida, Inc., titled “Instructional Video Interviews of Key Personnel in Sysco Central Florida Operations,” emerged from the need to expose undergraduate hospitality majors to supply chain management. Class sizes and instructional delivery methods made physical tours of the local Sysco facility impossible, but through an effective collaboration between Dr. Mejia, Sysco and Video@CDL, a division of the Center for Distributed Learning at UCF, they produced a series of video interviews with key Sysco personnel that will be available to Rosen College faculty and students in the future.