Hello! I am a professor for the best major (MIS) and best department (MISe) in the Carson College of Business (CCOB). I claim the MIS major to be the preeminent major because I have seen thousands of students lift themselves up with technical and business skill and receive job offers before they graduate. When I attend spring commencement I can usually count over 40 students that have solid job placements.
I am honored to serve Washington State, the northwest region and the larger community by lifting up business students, infusing them with technical problem solving skills, and helping to transform them into corporate-ready graduates. Using the lens of app development, data management, data analysis, and data visualization I am perhaps the most technologically advanced professor in the history of the CCOB. While I transfer a great deal of technical skills to students, the overall focus is leveraging technology to solve business problems. We digitize business processes, and automate the data management, analysis, and visualization processes.
I enjoy lighting up student’s enthusiasm for technology, and instilling in them the calmness required to excel. I am lucky to spend my career seeing real transformative growth in students. Incoming students have high hopes but lack advanced skills and perspective and I help them transform into business professionals that turn the wheels of commerce at some of the best firms in America.
I have been teaching database, analytics, and web development courses at WSU since 2001, and have always put student learning as my top priority. While my students do suffer do the the pace and complexity of the content, by their graduation they become protected in that they have marketable skills, perspective and experience.
At my core I am a developer of business solutions, and I continue to teach the only web development course in the Carson College of Business. We use ASP.NET/ADO.NET and SQL Server databases – all industry standard tools.
I also teach data management, analytics and data visualization courses. I have been teaching business reporting, data warehousing, dashboarding and T-SQL at WSU since 2005 using SSRS, Tableau, T-SQL, SQL Server Management Studio, SSAS, and SSIS. By focusing on this free Microsoft technology stack you can gain corporate positions as a report writer, business analyst, data base administrator, data, business or functional analyst, data modeler, ETL designer, and project manager.
I provided input into the re-branding of the Pullman MBA pivoting to focus on business analytics. In the summer of 2013 I was asked to create two analytics courses for the Pullman MBA . In the summer of 2014 I was asked to serve as the academic director and architect of the Pullman MBA. I am truly humbled to provide this service to our college, students, and regional business partners. It is my job to listen to the hiring needs and skills-based needs of regional recruiters then to shape MBA curricula, and inspire students to reach for the skills necessary, to master the technology that the current workplace needs, and to discover and develop their inner leader. At my core I see it my purpose to lift students up, personally and professionally, and connect them with the recruiters for regional businesses.
In my tenure as MBA director, we have placed many graduates of the Pullman MBA in to great analyst positions. Recent innovations in the MBA program are the adoption and usage of SAS Enterprise Guide, SSIS and SSAS for data transformation and cube generation, Google analytics, and Azure Cloud Systems.
During my tenure as MBA director, we continued the Pullman MBA’s long tradition of community and regional service. We currently have projects to improve the efficiency of many WSU internal processes including the Office of Commercialization, Finance Department, Transportation Department, Facility Operations and the Bookie. We are very proud to have projects with the Pullman Regional Hospital to improve the efficiency of internal processes and ultimately the quality of healthcare. We have government–related research projects with the Department of Transportation, and Small Business Development Center. We completed industry projects with Neal Analytics, Expeditors International, Home Depot, Hacker Agency, and Microsoft. These projects are critical to provide perspective and experience for the MBA students, however the real winners are the companies and departments that have chosen to sponsor the research. Thank you sponsors.
I welcome your participation in the MIS major as a new student, alumni, or recruiter. There is no better feeling that helping a fellow MIS@WSU Coug receive a job interview and placement. I welcome your sponsorship of student projects, your ideas for curriculum innovation, and your interest in the graduates of our programs. The students are well trained and ready for corporate positions.
I hope to connect with you to build our academic programs and to strengthen regional businesses.
GO COUGS!
Mauricio Featherman, Ph.D.
featherman@wsu.edu, 509.335.4445