Drexel LeBow Ph.D. Students Honored

Two Ph.D. students have recently been honored for their exceptional work at Drexel LeBow. Fifth-year Marketing Ph.D. candidate, Monique Bell, has won Drexel University’s 2013 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation award, and Thomas Zylkin, an Economics Ph.D. student, has been recognized with Drexel’s 2013 Graduate Teaching Excellence Award.

Bell was awarded for her work on “Self-Enhancement and Self-Transcendence Organizational Values’ Effects on Corporate Reputation and Customer Satisfaction.” She is the only recipient of this award within the social science discipline. Hyokjin Kwak, Ph.D. marketing coordinator, and Pravin Nath, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing, serve as Bell’s co-advisors.

Bell’s dissertation also won the 2012 Melvin and Patricia Stith Marketing Dissertation Grant ($10,000) and the 2012 Research Day Best Business Presentation ($500). She is joining California State University at Fresno this fall as an assistant professor of marketing.

This is the second consecutive year that LeBow’s marketing department has received the prestigious Doctoral Dissertation award. Marina Puzakova (Oregon State University) received the award last year for the first time in the LeBow College of Business.

Zylkin has been recognized for both his teaching and research. Currently, Zylkin, who has an anticipated graduation date of 2014, is conducting research in international trade with Costas Syropoulos, Trustee Professor of International Economics at LeBow, who is recognized internationally for his work.

According to Christopher Laincz, Ph.D., director of the Ph.D. Program at LeBow, “Tom Zylkin has performed so well, that the Economics Department has asked him to teach an advanced special topics course to our undergraduates in the next academic year. That says a lot about the quality of Tom’s work and his dedication to teaching.”