Practical learning

As one of the newest members of the School of Business faculty, Amir Moadab, Ph.D., is dedicated to giving his students the skills they need to find solutions for businesses and beyond.

Moadab is excited to get into the classroom and start teaching both the Prescriptive Analytics and Introduction to Business Analytics classes, as, like with his research, he enjoys classes where he can share practical and helpful knowledge with his audience.

As a child, Amir Moadab, Ph.D., lived through an earthquake growing up in Iran that influenced his future path as a business scholar, researcher, and professor.

"At that time, something just clicked in my head and said, 'What's going on? Where is the paramedic? Where is this and that?,'" Moadab said. "I had absolutely no idea at the time that I'm going to be a humanitarian logistics and disaster management researcher, but I knew that it was in my heart at that moment."

Those thoughts stayed with him throughout his bachelor's and first graduate degree program, and a move to Pullman, Wash., where he pursued a second master's and a doctorate degree at Washington State University.

It was during his time at Washington State, when Moadab had to choose his area of expertise, that he decided to focus on finding solutions.

Earthquakes and natural disasters will always happen, he said, and all those who are affected by them deserve help and assistance. Researching and focusing on how to make these situations easier felt like a natural fit.

"I always wanted people to feel better about their situation, to say, 'Oh someone heard us, someone finally thought about us,'" he said. "That's something that can solve people's issues, that's the whole point of my research, my teaching, my being here, is to serve people."

While the link between disaster management and business analytics may not seem obvious, as Moadab prepares to begin his first semester as an assistant professor at La Salle University's School of Business in the Business Systems and Analytics Program, he intends to show how his classes how the two can work together, and how the skills his students will gain can be applied to any field.

"If I teach Excel to a student, he or she can either choose to analyze some financial data, or analyze some disaster data, or different types of things," he said. "One misunderstanding is business analytics is just about business, while it's about everything. It's about anything that has a problem in it, anything that you can propose a solution for. This is about learning tools, learning critical thinking, learning brainstorming, teamwork, and different soft skills to handle a situation."

Moadab is excited to get into the classroom and start teaching both the Prescriptive Analytics and Introduction to Business Analytics classes, as, like with his research, he enjoys classes where he can share practical and helpful knowledge with his audience.

"I like using real data for practical purposes," he said. "Data visualization is very interesting to me because with that you can first find a problem with the data and work on it, propose a solution for that. Essentially, anything that is practical is interesting for me."

Being in the classroom also fulfills one of Moadab's motivations for becoming a teacher: constantly hearing new perspectives.

"I always enjoy learning from younger people," he said. "Essentially, being a teacher is not solely about teaching, it's about learning as well. I hate to be static and isolate my brain, so I like being in a dynamic place, getting ideas, giving ideas, and teaching gives that to me."

The students are one of the things he most looks forward to about starting his tenure at 20th and Olney.

"I'm very interested in seeing how they think, how they participate, how they collaborate," he said, as well as the opportunity to work at an institution that has a very practical curriculum geared towards setting Explorers up to be the next generation of leaders.

That was one of the draws to La Salle, he said, as well as the renowned faculty that he'll be teaching alongside.

As someone who spends his free time outdoors, Moadab also wants to get to know the area around the University, and find out everything it has to offer.

Moadab, who enjoys hiking, photography, climbing, and has always described himself as an explorer, had a link to La Salle before he even knew it.

"I didn't know the mascot of La Salle was the Explorer," he said. "I realized when I accepted the offer and my friend said, 'now you're an Explorer,' I said 'how did you know that?' Because one of my characteristics is to explore, and he said, 'it's the mascot!'"

-Naomi Thomas