Dr. Mario Mighty is an assistant professor of Geography at the University of North Alabama. A true geographer, he has earned all his tertiary degrees in Geography. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica and completed his Masters and Ph. D. at the University of Florida. A native of Jamaica, he has a strong interest in sustainable agriculture, geographic information systems (GIS), economic development and the impacts of globalization on small island developing states. These interests express themselves through his work on enhancing the economic sustainability of agriculture in small islands and exploring the role of GIS in enhancing long term decision making. Dr. Mighty has presented at several regional, national and international conferences and has a growing publication record on a number of topics related to his research interests.
Dr. J. Douglas (Doug) Barrett has a Ph. D. in Statistics with a minor in Management Science from the University of Alabama, 1995. He has served as a UNA faculty member since 1997, taught as a professor of Quantitative Methods since 2004, and is the current Department Chair of the Department of Economics and Finance. He currently is a member of the Graduate Faculty of the University of Alabama. Dr. Barrett is an active member of the American Economic Association and a senior member of the American Society for Quality. His publications have appeared in numerous academic journals, including Technometrics, IIE Transactions, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Communications in Statistics: Stochastic Models, Journal of Sports Economics, and Public Finance Review. He has served on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Business Cases and Applications, the Journal of Financial and Economic Practice, and the Journal of Business, Industry, and Economics. Dr. Barrett is a founding member, first President, and a board member of the Society of Business, Industry, and Economics.
Dr. Gary Padgett has earned a Ph. D. in Curriculum and Instruction and his research interests involve multicultural education, educational technology, social justice, and the history of education. He has worked in magnet schools, Title I schools, renaissance schools, and in tribal education systems. He is proud to have served as a Title I liaison and as a Title VII teacher representative. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Secondary Education at the University of North Alabama.
Dr. Robert Sroufe is the Murrin Chair of Global Competitiveness and Professor of Sustainability, Operations and Supply Chain Management in the MBA Sustainability program at the Donahue School. He earned a Ph. D. from Michigan State University in Operations Management, and MBA in Materials and Logistics Management and Purchasing; along with Bachelor of Science and Associate Degrees in Environmental Law/Criminal Justice, Natural Resource Technology, and Water Quality Technology respectively. His work has been published in a number of journals, including the Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, the European Journal of Operations Research, Journal of Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Production Research, the Production and Inventory Management Journal, Greener Management International, and Business Strategy and the Environment, while also publishing books on Developing Sustainable Supply Chains to Drive Value: Management Issues, Insights, and Tools; and Strategic Corporate Environmental Management Systems.
Dr. Mark Puckett is a Professor of Geology at the University of North Alabama and served as the first Director of the UNA Center for Sustainability Studies. After 11 years at UNA, he is moving to the Department of Geography and Geology at the University of Southern Mississippi as chair this summer, 2016. He received a B.S. (biology and geology, 1983) from the University of Southern Mississippi, M.S. (geology, 1988) from Mississippi State University, and Ph. D. (geology, 1992) from the University of Alabama. He won the W. Storrs Cole award from the Geological Society of America (1999) for research in micropaleontology. He specializes in a group of small crustaceans called ostracodes, which have many uses. One of the main focuses has been to relate the distribution of these fossils to plate tectonic movements, particularly of the Caribbean region. He has named and described nearly 50 new species of ostracodes. His publications include several monographs, more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and many abstracts.
Simon Bevis is a graduate student of Geospatial Science at the University of North Alabama. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Birmingham-Southern College before founding a vegetable farm and farmers’ market in Jacksonville, Alabama, and an urban farm with the Tallahassee Sustainability Group. He has served on the board of the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network, the Farmers Fresh Food Network in Georgia, and Bread and Roses Food Co-op in Tallahassee. He is an avid naturalist, traveller, musician and teacher.