Curricula Vitae in Sport & Entertainment Mgmt

Name	Personal Focus	Summary
Dr. Khalid Ballouli Associate Professor		He currently teaches the undergraduate course of Sport and Entertainment Marketing, as well as the graduate courses of Integrated Marketing Communication and Applied Research in Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management. His research has led to publications appearing in refereed journals such as Sport Marketing Quarterly, International Journal of Sport Management, International Journal of Sport Communication, and Sport Management Education Journal.
Dr. Matthew T Brown Professor	Sport Finance, Sport Business, Stadium and Arena Finance	Dr. Matthew Brown has been at the University of South Carolina since 2005 where he teaches and researches in the areas of sport business and finance. His research has led to publications in journals like the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Marketing Quarterly, Entertainment and Sport Law Journal, the International Journal of Sport Finance, and Sport Management Review.
Tarlan Chahardovali Assistant Professor	improving diversity, identifying structural inequities, policy making and gender equity in sport	Tarlan Chahardovali (Vali) is an assistant professor with the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management and joined the University of South Carolina in the fall of 2022. Her research interests are grounded in improving diversity, identifying structural inequities, policy making and gender equity in sport. Her current line of inquiry focuses on athletes’ labor and demand in sport markets with a special focus on the value of women’s labor / women’s sport and gender pay gap in sport industry.
Matthew Dunn Instructor		Matthew Dunn has logged more than 19 years of independent live event promotion through his own company, Syracuse Shows LLC, but he has also worked in multiple different ventures within the industry across his 20+ years of experience. Dunn has expertise in live event promotion and production, entrepreneurship in the music industry, music industry marketing and promotion (including digital media and social media marketing), record company operations (including both major and independent label).
Andrew Gillentine Professor	sport marketing, professional development, management issues in sport	Dr. Gillentine is recognized as a leading expert in the study of the legal, managerial and marketing aspects of tailgating. His research interests also encompass innovation and entrepreneurship, professional development, and management issues in sport. He is nationally recognized for his expertise in sport management curriculum and program development.This research has resulted over fifty publications, 6 book chapters, 2 books and over 100 national and international presentations.
Mr. John Mark Grady Professor	ADA compliance in sport and entertainment venues, Intellectual property protection in sport	Dr. Grady's research interests focus primarily on the legal aspects of the business of sport. This includes concentrations in the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by the sport and entertainment venue industries as well as intellectual property protection by professional and collegiate sport properties. He is the principal investigator on a funded research study investigating the risk perceptions of international venue managers in accommodating patrons with disabilities.
Paul Thomas Graham Clinical Instructor		After a successful career as tour manager for Hootie and the Blowfish, Paul Graham took over the reins as the tournament director for the band’s Monday after the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am, one of the most popular tournaments in the country. Not long after that began, Graham took a fledgling golf representation business and turned it into a meaningful part of Empire Sports Management’s (ESM) profile.
Keshav Gupta Assistant Professor	consumer behavior and decision making, primarily in the fields of gamification and esports, consumer’s perception of artificial intelligence (AI)	Keshav Gupta serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management at the University of South Carolina. Gupta received his Ph.D. in business administration from the Fox School of Business at Temple University and his B.Tech in electrical and electronics engineering from Delhi Technological University in New Delhi, India.
Yongjin Hwang Assistant Professor		Yongjin Hwang received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Sungkyunkwan University, after which he moved to the United States to become an audio engineer. While working in the recording studio, Flux Studios, in NYC, he completed a master’s degree in music technology at NYU. As a result of his educational experience, he decided to combine the two degree subjects as a doctoral student at UofSC in the Department of Sport and Entertainment, where he serves an assistant professor.
Mr. Todd C. Koesters Associate Professor	Return on Investment/Objectives, Evaluation and Valuation modeling of sports and entertainment sponsorships	Professor Koesters joins USC from Churchill Downs Entertainment Group (CDE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Churchill Downs Inc., where he served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales. His responsibilities included sponsorship sales, brand creation, development and management, strategic planning and ticket sales for all new entertainment events. Research interests include Return on investment/objectives and evaluation and valuation modeling of sports and entertainment sponsorships.
Dr. Haylee Uecker Mercado Associate Professor		Haylee Uecker Mercado teaches undergraduate courses in Sport Event Management, Sport Facility Management, Managing Part-Time Employees and Facility Operations. Haylee's research interests and activities lie in the areas of facility sustainability (design, Green practices, and corporate social responsibility) and on the Hispanic or Latino Culture; in particular, marketing of sport to the various Hispanic subcultures based on both generation and acculturation levels.
Daniel Baker Morrison Professor Of Practice		Danny Morrison earned his B.A. in mathematics from Wofford College, his M.E. in administration and supervision from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of South Carolina (2000). In addition to serving as president of the Carolina Panthers (2009-2017), Morrison served as director of athletics at Texas Christian University (2005-2009), commissioner of the Southern Conference (2001-2005).
Dr. Mark Nagel Professor	Sport Finance, Management Practices of Sports Organizations, Sport Law (relating to revenue acquisition/management and financial operations)	A native of California, Dr. Nagel became a faculty member in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management (SPTE) at the University of South Carolina in 2006. Prior to joining SPTE, he was the director of the graduate sport management program at Georgia State University.
Susan Nora O'Malley Senior Instructor		Susan O’Malley is the former President of Washington Sports Entertainment and the first female President of a Professional Sports Franchise. At age 29, O'Malley became the first female president of an NBA franchise as well as one of the first women in a major front-office position in major league sports. She is the former president of the NBA's Washington Bullets (now the Wizards) and Washington Sports and Entertainment.
Dr. Tom H. Regan Associate Professor	Economic impact of sports	Thomas Regan is Associate Professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management at the University of South Carolina. His research expertise focuses on the economic impact of sport and entertainment events on regional economies and the financing and feasibility of live entertainment venues.
Dr. Armen Shaomian Associate Professor	Live Entertainment, Music Business, Performing Arts Management	Armen Shaomian's expertise is in the field of performing arts management and the business of live entertainment, including shows, concerts, touring and arts management.
Stephen Shapiro Professor	ticket pricing & consumer behavior as relates to both purchase & charitable contribution decisions, dynamic ticket pricing in sport, consumer behavior within the ticket purchase process, college athletic donor behavior	Dr. Shapiro joined the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management in the fall of 2017. He previously worked for nine years as a faculty member in the sport management program at Old Dominion University. He served as graduate program coordinator from 2012–2017. He received his doctorate in sport administration with a doctoral minor in statistics from the University of Northern Colorado. He earned his MS in management and BA in advertising and public relations from University of Central Fla.
Dr. Richard Michael Southall Professor	NCAA Division-I Revenue Sport, Sport Ethics, Legal Issues in NCAA College Sport, Sport Sociology	Dr. Richard M. Southall came to the University of South Carolina in fall 2013. He teaches and researches in the areas of sport ethics, college sport and research methods. Dr. Southall is also currently involved in developing a sport-management program for Centro Universitário de Brasília (UniCEUB), Brasilia, Brasil.
Steven E. Taylor Senior Instructor	Compliance, Sport and Entertainment Management	Steven Taylor is an Instructor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management and Director of Student Opportunity and Industry Involvement at the University of South Carolina.
Laura Sawyer Truell Clinical Instructor	Event Management, Sponsorship, Sales	Laura Sawyer Truell is an experienced educator with a passion for teaching and prior industry experience with companies including Coca-Cola, Colonial Life, Monster and SCANA Energy. She has expertise in event management and has managed many events including the Olympic Trials (Women’s Marathon), Cartoon Network’s Smash Tennis, and the Denver Bronco’s Stadium Emergency Action Team. She has taught at USC since 2000 and loves being in the classroom above all else.
Dr. Nicholas Watanabe Associate Professor		Nicholas Masafumi Watanabe is an assistant professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Watanabe received his Master of Science in Leisure Studies and his Ph.D. in Recreation, Sport and Tourism from the University of Illinois. Prior to coming to South Carolina, Watanabe served as assistant professor from 2016–2017 and assistant teaching professor from 2010–2016 at the University of Missouri.
Cheng (Grace) Yan Associate Professor		Cheng (Grace) Yan received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and is a new member of the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Yan's research approaches sport management by focusing on the inter-related connections of sport and media, aiming to capture the evolving identities of sport practices. In the past, Yan has adopted critical theoretical frameworks to examine the production and interpretations of media at mega sporting events.