Professor for Fairmont State’s College of Business and Aviation wins 2 Prestigious Awards from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs

Dr. Rebecca Giorcelli, Professor of Information Systems Management, has been honored with the Teaching Excellence Award and the Best of Regions Excellence Award for Region 2 of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).

The Teaching Excellence Award is bestowed upon educators who demonstrate outstanding teaching prowess in their academic area of expertise, and the Best of Regions Excellence Award is awarded to ACBSP members who give exceptional presentations that address the annual ACBSP Conference theme. This year's theme was exploring emerging partnerships for student success.

Founded in 1988, the ACBSP is a global business education accrediting body and the first organization to offer accreditation to all levels of collegiate business educational degree programs from associate to doctoral. ACBSP assesses whether business programs offer a rigorous educational experience and commitment to continuous quality improvement.

"Being chosen as the ACBSP's Teaching Excellence Award and Region 2 Best of Regions Excellence Award recipient is an honor. Being an educator is not just a job, it's a passion," said Giorcelli. "I have continuously strived to keep the CoBA's undergraduate and graduate curriculum cutting edge, so our students can become skilled and successful professionals."

At the 2024 ACBSP Conference in Miami, FL, Giorcelli gave her award-winning presentation titled A Collaborative Capstone Experience in Information Systems Managementand received a crystal medallion to commemorate her as a Teaching Excellence Award winner. As a regional winner, Giorcelli is now in contention to win the international category for both awards.

Giorcelli joined Fairmont State University in 2005 as an Assistant Professor and worked in a variety of positions within CoBA. These have include: Faculty Advisor for Delta Mu Delta, International Honor Society in Business (2006 - present), Information Systems Management Program Coordinator (2010 - 2013), Associate Professor (2010-2016), Director of Assessment (2013-present), Professor (2016 - present), Associate Dean (2015-2018), Chair of Marketing and Management Studies (2018 - 2022), and Interim Dean (2022-2024). She has also taught as a faculty member for the WV Governor's Honors Academy summer program since 2014.

Giorcelli earned her Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctorate in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University (WVU). She was the first female WVU graduate to earn a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering. She is certified as a program evaluator for the ACBSP and is also a Certified Expert in Cyber Investigations through the McAfee Institute. She holds multiple certificates related to data analytics.

Prior to joining the faculty at Fairmont State, Giorcelli gained over 10 years of experience in research and development in the field. She held positions as a Research Engineer in the Division of Safety Research at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (1995-2001) and a Senior Scientist and Operations Research Branch Supervisor at the Institute for Scientific Research, Inc. (2001-2005).

As a tenured professor, Giorcelli actively serves undergraduate and graduate students. She teaches the undergraduate Project Management capstone courses for the Information Systems Management program as well as several graduate courses for the MBA program. She was one of the first faculty members in the Fairmont State School of Business, now the College of Business and Aviation, to work through the Learning Technologies Center to design and teach online undergraduate courses. She worked to design and deliver the Student Projects with Applications in Concept Engineering (SPACE) course, a multi-disciplinary class funded by NASA to expose students to science and technology concepts. Most recently, she developed the Data Analytics concentration and played a key role in establishing the new online Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Risk Management program, in which she teaches the Big Data Analytics course.

Since arriving at Fairmont State, Giorcelli has been awarded more than $540,000 in research grant funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission Title II program. Shortly after joining Fairmont State, she completed an NSF faculty fellowship and served as the Principal Investigator for the NSF-funded Advancing Computing Curricula and Expanding Learning Experiences through Re-engineered and Accelerated Technology Education (ACCELERATE) project. Over the years, she has served as the principal investigator for multiple research projects and published and presented in many professional forums.

Giorcelli is a founding member of the Undergraduate Research Advisory Council and regularly participated as a research reviewer for the Undergraduate Research program, the NASA Space Grant Scholars Program, and the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program. Her research students have been selected to present at the Fairmont State Celebration of Student Scholarship event, Fredonia International Business Analytics conference, WV GIS Conference, Science, Technology, and Research (STaR) Symposium, annual Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol in Charleston, WV, and Posters on the Hill at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

During her time at Fairmont State, Giorcelli has received multiple teaching and recognition awards. These have included the Regional Service and Engagement/Economic Development (RSEED) Grant Award (2013-14), WV Campus Compact Community LINK Promising Newcomer Award (2013), Fairmont State Foundation Fellowship Award (2011-12), Fairmont State University Harold & Roselyn Strait Teaching Award (2010-11), and the Fairmont State University Faculty Recognition Award (2009-10).

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