Moore Impact: The Darla Moore School of Business Podcast

S2 E3 Athletes Share what Sports taught them about business

• Host: Dr. Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor, Management Department, Moore School of Business
• Guest: Lisa W. Burgess, Class of ‘99, MBA ‘01, Senior Relationship Manager, Commercial Banking, Regions Bank
• Guest: Briana Reckling, Class of ‘22, Associate Sales Representative, Smith & Nephew Sports Medicine

On Thursday, February 6, 2025, the Moore School will host Business of the Game at Williams Brice Stadium in part to introduce a number of Moore School student athletes to potential employers. The organizing committee included a who’s-who of Gamecock athletics including Grayson Greiner, baseball, class of 2015, and Ryan Succop, football, class of 2009. The event was previewed in this episode of Moore Impact when panelists Lisa Burgess and Briana Reckling talked about the skills they learned in competition that have helped them in their business careers. 

Topics include:

• Both Bri and Lisa’s journeys from student athlete to career professionals
• Critical skills learned in competitive athletics and how they’ve applied them in their roles
• Most important lessons learned from athletics and how those lessons have manifested in careers
• What student athletes have to offer as potential candidates for employers
• What it’s like to transition from student athlete to independent professional

To learn more about Business of the Game click here.

To learn more about the Moore School’s Alumni network click here.

To learn more about the Moore School of Business click here.

Photo credit: Gamecock Athletics link here

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

S2 E2 Bringing Businesses into the School

• Host: Dr. Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor, Management Department,Darla Moore School of Business 
• Guest: Jamie Peebles, Employer Relations Manager at the Darla Moore School of Business Office of Career Management

The Moore School’s Office of Career Management focuses on the critical metric of job placement and assists our constituents in several critical ways. In this episode, Jamie Peebles, Employer Relations Manager, talks about the way OCM identifies right-fit companies to partner with and encourages those firms to participate in a variety of activities.

Among the OCM activities:

• Topic panels - an assembly of employers with a job-function commonality such as the upcoming financial crimes panel
• Partner focus days - in conjunction with the South Carolina Manufacturers’ Alliance for Manufacturing Day at the Moore School
• Business Expo - employers fill the Convention Center and meet students to begin conversations that may lead to interviews, internships, and even jobs.

Jamie is a lifelong Gamecock whose grandfather worked in the physics department, he’s an alum of Carolina who was glad to come back seven years ago and help students get connected with potential employers. If you’re a business who wants to get connected with the Moore School through OCM, email Jamie at [email protected].

To learn more about the Office of Career Management at the Moore School of Business click here.

To learn more about the Moore School click here.

Episode photo credit: Photo by Polina Zimmerman on Pexels.com

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

The Long-term Impacts on Students of Teacher Incentive Pay Programs

• Host
  • Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor
• Guest:
  • Dr. Orgul Ozturk, Department Chair, Economics

Dr. Orgul Demet Ozturk is the department chair and professor of economics in the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Her academic research interests are in applied microeconomics fields, specifically labor economics and health economics. Ozturk has written articles on the effects of labor market regulations and minimum wages on female employment, effectiveness of supported employment programs for developmentally disabled, the relationship between occupation choice and welfare independence, and the effects of maternal employment and welfare use on children’s cognitive outcomes. 

Her latest published work is in collaboration with scholars Sarah R. Cohodes of University of Michigan and Ozkan Eren of University of California Riverside. It examines the long term outcomes of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), introduced in South Carolina in 2007. The program is a national model of teacher performance pay, which embeds incentives for teacher performance alongside professional development, the potential for career advancement, observations of teacher performance, and test-score based accountability.

The goal of TAP is to improve overall education outcomes. Some differentiators between TAP and other monetary-incentive programs include:

1. Teachers’ bonus allocation hinges on both their own students’ achievement gains as well as the school’s overall achievement growth,
2. Bonuses are substantial and sufficiently differentiated to cause changes in the behavior of educators, and
3. Teachers have the opportunity to earn bonuses based on their observed performance in the classroom and the resulting performance of their students. 

Where can I read more about the study and its significant findings?

The National Council on Teacher Quality reports findings in their blog post titled, “What are the long-term effects of teacher performance pay on student outcomes?” The Fordham Institute reported on the paper with a post titled, “Look beyond test scores to gauge the impact of teacher performance pay.” and NewsNationNow.com reported on the effect of federal grants to fund these state-level implementations of TAP in “Performance Pay for Teachers Could Have Long-term Benefits.”

The conversation also includes discussion around the role of the Economic Policy Center (EPiC) at the Moore School in informing policy makers as to the efficacy of the programs they enact. 

Art for this episode borrowed from this link.

To learn more about Centers at the Darla Moore School, click here.

To learn more about the Darla Moore School of Business, click here.

This has been Moore Impact; when you learn more you know more and when you know more you do more. Thanks for listening.

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

Connections that Matter: The Moore School Mentor Program

• Host
  • Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor, Management
• Guest
  • Corey Mikels, Director of Alumni Engagement

The extensive Moore School Alumni Network is seeded in undergrad and leveraged by the Office of Career Management (see episode 19) but it’s primary care giver is the Office of Alumni Engagement and in this episode, we talk with Director of Alumni Engagement Corey Mikels whose affection for the Moore School and its alumni community is innate and expressive. Corey oversees the mentorship program, a differentiator for undergrads and graduate students alike.

Topics include:

• The people and roles in the Office of Alumni Engagement
• Alumni meet-up road trips
• Core cities - concentration of alumni, hiring partner companies, visit twice a year
• Alumni mentor network - how it works, who is eligible, how it got started
• Moore School Mentor Program began in February 2020 and has its legs in virtual interactions
• Six week program offered once in the fall and once in the spring
• Weekly resources are offered for conversation starters and topics to prompt the interactions
• How to get started with the program and engage as a participant

To learn more about the Moore School Mentor Program click here

To connect with Corey Mikels click here

To learn more about the Moore School click here

When you learn Moore, you know more and when you know more, you do more. Thanks for listening.

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

The Moore School’s Bridge to Careers is OCM and Kacie Ingram is a guide

• Host
  • Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor, Management
• Guest
  • Kacie Ingram, Senior Career Coach at the Darla Moore Office of Career Management

The Office of Career Management at the Moore School is a strategic competitive advantage for our students. As 10-year career coach Kacie Ingram shares, if you name a career “need”, OCM can meet it. Kacie is also a Carolina alumna with experience in corporate retail who found a passion for coaching and, specifically, career coaching. Through the OCM and the Moore School’s supplemental classes (BADM 301), Kacie and her colleagues are setting Moore School students up for success from resume to interview to onboarding and first career choices.

Topics include:

• Kacie’s background as alumna of the Retail merchandising program, teaching sections of University 101 the Moore School program for Freshmen and BADM 301 for sophomores
• OCM advantages for Moore School students: Each student has a career coach based on major, they each get 1 on 1 attention from assigned career coach
• Professional development in the classroom: personal brand, networking, exercises and practicing the skills they need to market themselves
• Use of technology to simulate and practice interview techniques, AI-generated feedback to help the students prepare
• OCM activities (classes and coaching) cover skillsets like: Communication - written and verbal; Problem solving - assignments and activities to challenge them to solve problems that may be encountered in the workplace; Personal introductions, elevator pitches, what they have to offer to the other students in the class
• U101 is smaller classes, get to know one another and establish some initial relationships in the business school, but also on campus
• Business Expo: always happens in the first 8 weeks of the semester, BADM prepares them in the class to be ready for the Business Expo experience; 131 companies at the last one, and 1700+ students attended
• OCM is the bridge to campus between the students, alumni, and companies.

To learn more about the Office of Career Management at the Moore School of Business click here.

To learn more about Kacie Ingram click here.

To learn more about the Moore School click here.

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

The Founder Mentality in Caroline Crowder’s Start Up Experience

• Host
  • Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor
• Guest
  • Caroline Crowder, Moore School alumna and Director of the Boyd Innovation Center powered by GrowCo

If you’re doing entrepreneurship in Columbia, you’re going to hear Caroline Crowder’s name. She’s been hanging around startups since undergrad and after achieving her graduate degree and gaining hands-on experience in Singapore, she was tapped to lead the Boyd Foundation’s investment in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Columbia.

Topics include:

• Undergrad at the Moore School, never intended to work with startups
• The Boyd Center doesn’t pick favorites, the incubator model isn’t what we’re doing at BIC
• Being mission driven as a non profit participant is amazing
• Masters in International business - how do we affect tech startups and scale them globally
• The BIC introduced its government and university agnostic model in Columbia
• Founder mentality for Caroline’s career path
• Third Thursday - blending the tech and arts community together for these collaborative events,our creative minds bring balance to the community
• Tulsa, OK - a comparable city to Columbia and while different, also quite similar in demographics and economic indicators; what was the recipe they used to produce a strong investment community
• Start up communities are complex ecosystems, new ideas and connections and insights are great but we can’t just replicate those things here
• We’ve tried a bunch of things that have failed and that’s okay
• The vision for Columbia: we support tech start ups with scalable growth potential
• What we’re really trying to do here is inspire new founders  we have a ramps and pathways to bring people into founderhood, make the possibility look realizable
• We support researchers, inventors, everybody who has a new idea has the opportunity to participate in our programming

To learn more about the “BIC” and its upcoming events, click here.

To learn more about Caroline Crowder, click here.

To learn more about the Moore School, click here.

This has been Moore Impact. When you learn more, you know more, and when you know more, you do more. Thanks for listening.

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

EPIC: the Newest Center at Darla Moore

• Host
  • Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor
• Guest:
  • Dr. Orgul Ozturk, Department Chair, Economics

Orgul Demet Ozturk is the department chair and professor of economics in the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Her academic research interests are in applied microeconomics fields, specifically labor economics and health economics. Ozturk has written articles on the effects of labor market regulations and minimum wages on female employment, effectiveness of supported employment programs for developmentally disabled, the relationship between occupation choice and welfare independence, and the effects of maternal employment and welfare use on children’s cognitive outcomes. 

Her latest undertaking is “EPIC” or the Economic Policy Innovation Center, an opportunity to move research into implementation. First discussed on Episode 9 with Dr. Ozturk’s colleague Dr. Jason DeBacker, EPIC launched in fall 2024 with a specific purpose. Dr. Orgul explains.

Conversation topics include:

• Dr.Ozturk’s intermediate micro theory course - how decisions are made from an economist’s perspective, how the best decisions take place, and how people choose the best options for themselves
• Options for economics majors — so many; economics is about skills and a way of thinking about things; what do graduates from economics do? Grad school is an option, research and consulting also options
• Research in economics - mostly policy research: labor, health, and education
• Dr. Ozturk works mostly with South Carolina data for example, the impact of education policy on short term education outcomes and long term life outcomes. For example, looking at the Teacher Advancement Program - TAP - studying the South Carolina version and comparing it to other programs for outcomes and efficacy: Does the program achieve the goal? Incentivize teachers? Get better outcomes for their students? In South Carolina, the program is working quite well.
• A lot of academic work doesn’t translate into policy impact - this one is an exception
• It got attention from national media and some groups in DC to get more funding for these programs. A lot of efforts to retain teachers and keep U.S. education at the top of the world’s economy
• Research can be a long slow process. We see the need in SC for policy work to be translated: work 80-page papers into usable formats - events, white papers, a newsletter, to constantly communicate our research across the state.Whenever someone is trying to understand the pros and cons of a program, or determine how it will fare in SC, we want to be the analysts who figure out the answers to those questions.

To learn more about Centers at the Darla Moore School, click here.

To learn more about the Darla Moore School of Business, click here.

This has been Moore Impact; when you learn more you know more and when you know more you do more. Thanks for listening.

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

Host:

• Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor, Management

Guest:

• Dr. Sanjay Ahire, Michael J. Mungo Distinguished Professor, Co-Director, Operations and Supply Chain Center

The operations and supply chain undergrad program at the Moore School retained its No. 3 Gartner ranking, and moved up to No. 5 in graduate ranking in 2024. This marks the first Top 5 ranking for the graduate program. The ranking comes two months after the management science department was awarded the industry-renowned UPS George D. Smith Prize from INFORMS, the largest professional association for the decision and data sciences.

Dr. Sanjay L. Ahire is a Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina (USC). Dr. Ahire holds a Ph.D. in management science from the University of Alabama (1992). He also holds a master’s degree in management studies (1985) and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering (1982), both from the University of Bombay (India). Dr. Ahire is the Co-Director of the USC-Operations and Supply Chain Center. He heads the unique industry-validated Sonoco-USC Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification initiative that has graduated more than 1,600 students with this valuable certification before graduation. Dr. Ahire has been at the Darla Moore School since 2006 and was named the Carolina Trustees Professor of the Year in 2023.

Dr. Ahire came from University of Dayton where he’d created a program similar to this and launched our program in 2007. In the 2024 Gartner rankings, we’re ranked #3 in Undergraduate Supply Chain Programs and ranked in the Top 5 for our graduate program. Many of the brightest students major in international business, where we’re #1 for the 26th year in a row and IB requires a secondary major. Operations and Supply Chain Management has become a good go-to. But over the years, people are applying and coming specifically for the Operations and Supply Chain Management major. The pandemic really brought the field to the front of people’s consciousness and that’s become more interesting. The attraction to the field is that it’s what creates value for organizations. 

Topics include:

• What’s the reason students choose this major? 
• The mission: produce graduates who not only know but who have also practiced the operations side of the business.
• Kinds of careers supply chain majors can expect: 1) leading manufacturing firms - companies like 3M and BMW, Tesla; 2) consumer products - J&J, PNG; also high tech firms like Intel, Meta, Google, LinkedIn; 3) leading consulting firms - Accenture, BCG, etc.; retailers and services - WalMart, Target, but also 4) insurance companies and hospital systems, airlines
• The nature of an applied program – we’ve integrated experiential learning through the capstone project that comes at the end of the project – learning 2 competences – the operations side and also the logistics side.
• The Business Process Perspective – look at the existing process and make it better with frameworks they’ve learned to deconstruct a process and then build it back.
• Center projects are faculty driven. More than 360 projects over the last 15 years.
• Sonoco Lean Six Sigma certification for students to earn through the project experience.
• The INFORMS UPS George D. Smith Prize - This award is given to the best program in the world that prepares their students for the application of management science to the supply chain field.
• INFORMS prize event December 5th and 6th: Two-day event inviting the UPS leadership, INFORMS leadership, alumni, and community members.

To learn more about the Operations and Supply Chain Center, click here.

To learn more about the Darla Moore School of Business visit this site.

To be a guest or suggest a topic for our podcast, click here.

Episode photo credit Tom Fisk on Pexels.com

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

Episode 15: Do the Work: The Faber Center’s Speaker Series features Aaron & Candice Hark, USC Alumni Owners of Maxient

• Host:
  • Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor, Management
• Interviewer:
  • Dr. Jeff Savage, Director of the Faber Entrepreneurship Center
  • Caroline Byrd, USC Alum ‘23
• Guests:
  • Aaron & Candice Hark, USC Alumni and founders of Maxient

USC Alumni Aaron and Candice Hark visited the Faber Entrepreneurship Center in the fall semester of 2022 as part of the Faber Speaker Series. Together, they gave the Maxient story. (Original audio from September 26, 2022.)

Maxient is conduct software providing a place to easily manage records of student conduct and well-being. By improving communication and collaboration across colleges and universities, Maxient helps to identify students in need of assistance and coordinate the efforts of departments to provide follow-up.

Aaron and Candice met at Carolina and have continued to support entrepreneurship at the Moore School through sponsorship of the Faber Entrepreneurship Center’s annual Proving Ground contest. In this interview borrowed from the Faber library, Moore Impact listeners are treated to faculty interviewer Dr. Jeff Savage, student interviewer Caroline Byrd, and a live listening audience responding to Candice and Aaron’s candid take on being married, being founders, and finding balance between the two.

Topics include:

• What is conduct software?
• How did Maxint get started?
• How was Maxient funded?
• What was the impact of the Moore School on Maxient?
• What’s it like being married to your co-founder?
• How do the Harks strike a balance between work and home?

The Faber Speaker Series happens every semester on campus at the Moore School. Events are free and open to the public. To see a full line-up of visiting speakers, visit the Faber Center’s website on sc.edu.

To learn more about the Darla Moore School of Business visit this site.

To be a guest or suggest a topic for our podcast, click here.

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore

Episode 14: The Moore School Experience for Scholars & Learners

Host:

• Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor, Management

Guest:

• Dr. Audrey Korsgaard, Senior Associate Dean for Academics and Research, Darla Moore School of Business

M. Audrey Korsgaard is the Senior Associate Dean for Research and Academics, and a professor of management and organizational behavior at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Korsgaard arrived in 1991 and has taught in almost every program in the Moore School: undergraduate, IMBA, PMBA, one year MBA, and the PhD program. She served as Department Chair, Chair of the Faculty Senate, and is currently Senior Associate Dean for Academics and Research. More of her bio here.

Here are the topics of the discussion:

• The role of service in an academic career
• Priorities in the role of Associate Dean: attract and retain the best talent, recognition and reward programs, elevate the research that we’re doing and enable that research to help companies to make better decisions.
• The role of Centers in enhancing curricula and providing students with hands-on experience
• The benefit of the Centers’ connections with corporate partners for skill building and student experience
• Trends in hiring and retention practices for faculty: Helping faculty to find the right path to keep them highly engaged and maximize the contributions they can make to our school, also promoting from within 
• Why should students consider the Moore School? Outstanding faculty of thought leaders
• Why should researchers consider employment at the Moore School? Fantastic colleagues, really outstanding scholars and a culture of collegiality; a lot of resources to enable people to be successful scholars

To learn more about the Darla Moore School of Business visit this site.

To be a guest or suggest a topic for our podcast, click here.

Episode art Photo by Noelle Otto on Pexels.com

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore