Richard Fabri received his Bachelor of Physical Education from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, a Master’s in Sport Administration from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership from the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. He has spent the past several years working at the University of Maine at Machias as the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Director of the Center for Lifelong Learning. As the Director of Athletics, Richard was named the NAIA Region X Athletic Director of the Year, served on Region X’s executive board and several NAIA national committees.
Richard has also worked at Centers, LLC. at DePaul University, Northeastern University, and the University of Rio Grande where he has had the opportunity to develop several new recreation programs, departments and facilities. He has also had the opportunity to be a subject matter expert and faculty member for the American Council on Exercise. He has spent many years coaching high school and middle school basketball, baseball, and softball. Richard currently resides in East Machias, Maine with his wife and two children.
Having spent over fifteen years working in the business of recreation and athletics, I firmly believe in providing students both a theoretical and experiential experience. I believe in creating a non-threatening environment that encourages the free flowing exchange of ideas and information. Learning is an interactive process guided by the student’s natural curiosity.
Dr. Tom Fitzpatrick completed his Doctorate of Business Administration specializing in International Business and Strategic Management at Southern New Hampshire University. His Masters in International Business is from the American Graduate School of International Management or also known as Thunderbird and his Bachelor of Arts is in Political Science and History from Concordia University of Montreal, Loyola Campus.
Dr. Fitzpatrick has worked, lived or visited some dozen or more countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In 2010 and 2011 he led over 30 students on a travel study course to China visiting Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong as part of a course he created called Business and Culture in China. Dr. Fitzpatrick has over 20 years of experience in teaching and industry and has taught at Arizona State University, Rivier College, Plymouth State University, Champlain College, Saint Anselm College, University System of NH and Southern New Hampshire University. He has extensive experience in sales, sales management, marketing strategy, public relations and community economic development.
Dr. Fitzpatrick is an active scholar presenting papers at international and national conferences annually and publishing consistently in peer reviewed national and international journals. He is a proponent of micro finance and has made over 200 loans through KIVA to entrepreneurs in 40 countries and his students have made over 500.
Dr. Fitzpatrick also believes in the use of business skills sets in the solving of social issues and seeks to employ social entrepreneurship as a vehicle for making the world a better place. He and his students have financed the building of a school for girls in Afghanistan, a well in India for the Dalit, purchase of land for a school in Uganda and a Liberty Garden that provides 6000lbs of food to the NH Food Bank and garden plots for 50 refugees in Manchester, NH.
Dr. Fitzpatrick has joined the Husson team as the Director of the School of Business and Management, Executive Director of On-line and Distance Education and as an Associate Professor of Business.
I believe that as a teacher it is my role to serve as a content expert in my field and deliver educational experiences to students that "build a bridge to relevance" to the real world. In my classes I provide students with the theoretical foundations but then seek to find an experiential activity that allows them to apply those concepts to a practical problem or opportunity. The educational technology of today allows us to "blow the walls out the classroom" and bring the world to the students. My students in the past have worked with a large restaurant in an Apprentice style competition, raised funds to build a school in Afghanistan, dug a well in India for the Dalit, made micro-loans to over 500 entrepreneurs in 50 countries and a community garden for a Food bank. I believe in the transformational power of the free market and social entrepreneurship to solve problems using business skill sets and I communicate that and implement that in my business classes. I have the best job in the world, I am a teacher.
Forster-Holt, Nancy, Ph.D., M.B.A., C.M.A.
Executive Director, Entrepreneurship and Executive Development
Professor Forster-Holt holds a Ph.D. and an M.B.A. from the University of Maine, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University. At the University of Maine, she developed and taught courses on small business management and accounting for the School of Business and the Foster innovation center, and she was a research associate with the Center on Aging. She joined the Husson faculty in the summer of 2011.
A Certified Management Accountant, she serves on the Small Business Committee of the Institute of Management Accountants where her area of interest is the impact of banking reform on community banks and their small business constituents. She completed coursework and exams at UNC Greensboro leading to the Registered Financial Gerontologist certification. At the Babson College Entrepreneuship conference, she presented research to international audiences on entrepreneurial exit, or “endrepreneurship” a termed she has coined. She serves on the Key Contact network of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, most recently on the issue of healthcare reform. Locally, she is the treasurer of the Orono high school hockey boosters, and served as team manager for the PVHC squirts. At UMaine, she served on the Business and sustainability committee of the School of Business, as a judge for capstone case presentations, and as a thesis committee member for several Honors College candidates.
Prior to earning her doctorate, she gathered substantial work experience in both large and small business including executive management at a large credit union, public accounting audit, and tax at the Big Four firm of Ernst & Young, sales and marketing for national accounts, SBA counseling, and consulting. Her work in asset liability management (A.L.M.) garnered national C.F.O. best practices awards and inclusion of the credit union in a national A.L.M. pilot program by the N.C.U.A.
She is also the co-owner of Shaw & Tenney, a manufacturing company that recently won MTI grants for innovations in manufacturing and commercialization of wood products. For over 150 years, Shaw & Tenney has produced the world’s finest oars, paddles, masts, spars and flagpoles.
Originally from Albany, N.Y. She has lived and worked in NYC, Sacramento, California and Bangor. She is married to Steve, and they have three children. They live in Orono.
Most successful people know failure, but they also know resilience. Resilience does not measure how many times you fell but whether you got up. The headlines are grabbed by some exciting extremes of entrepreneurship, but the rules of business have not changed – it takes an idea, a ton of hard work, a ruthlessly honest assessment of the market for your product or service.
As a student of business, recognize that it is a profession, that it is history in the making. It is our job to inspire in you a passion for learning about your profession and seek lifelong learning in your field. Challenge yourself to read professional journals and seek information that is relevant and reflects the latest data. Make "Inc.com" your homepage and be regularly delighted and inspired by small business owners who are innovators. What will your contribution be?