Ukraine RPCV Michael Wood named head of business at Southwestern
Wood named head of business at Southwestern
By Courier Staff
Winfield, Kansas - Michael Wood has been named chairman of the Division of Business at Southwestern College.
Wood holds a bachelor‘s degree and a Master of Business Administration degree in operations management, organizational behavior and industrial technology from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls. He also has a diploma in theological studies from the University of the South-Sewanee in Sewanee, Tenn.
He has started and developed businesses and has been on both sides of the economic development table. Wood also served as a consultant for advanced business development in the U.S. Peace Corps and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine from 2001 to 2002. He was involved in community development, business consulting and teaching at a university there. Prior to that, Wood spent time training in Turkmenistan up until the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Wood served as a consultant for advanced business development in the U.S. Peace Corps and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine from 2001 to 2002.
Wood taught management, finance and economics classes, at both graduate and undergraduate levels, during the 2002-2003 school year and is looking forward to heading the business division.
“We can do things that no one else can because of our size and the focus of our faculty,” Wood says. “We can individually tailor a program for a student who has a particular career goal in mind – combining business and leadership, business and nursing, business and music or whatever the student likes, and focusing on developing entrepreneurial attitudes and skills among our students.”
Wood, along with accounting professor and MBA director Karen Schoenebeck, has been instrumental in increasing Southwestern students' internship experience outside of the college. Southwestern's relationship with General Electric Aircraft Engines, for example, has led to valuable professional internships that Wood would like to see expand to other businesses.
“We want to develop closer ties with the community and help the small- to medium-size businesses not only in Winfield but all of Cowley County,” Wood says.
Five full-time and several adjunct faculty, all with significant business experience, are part of the business division.
“Students can leave college with knowledge, and that is good,” Wood says, “but leaving with knowledge and knowing how to use this knowledge makes our graduates much more valuable.”
