BYU Marriott Welcomes New Faculty

PROVO, Utah – Sep 24, 2021 – The Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business welcomes nine new professors this fall. 

“We are thrilled to welcome these new faculty members to BYU Marriott," says Brigitte Madrian, dean of BYU Marriott. “They bring invaluable insight, experience, and background to their new positions, and we look forward to the significant contributions they will make to the educational experience BYU Marriott offers its students. Our faculty are exceptional scholars, dedicated teachers, and lifelong role models, and these new professors are outstanding additions to a group of educators that are committed to teaching at the leading edge of business rooted in faith and values." 

BJ Allen, an assistant professor with the Department of Marketing and Global Supply Chain, is excited to teach at a university where he can focus on helping students become better through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Allen received his bachelor’s degree in business management from BYU and his PhD in marketing from University of Texas at San Antonio. His research focuses on new product innovation, crowdsourcing, and open innovation and has been published in notable journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Journal of Cultural Economics. “My goal is to teach applicable skills that enable students to find reliable jobs and succeed in their careers,” he says.  

Rebekah (Bekki) Brau, assistant professor of global supply chain management, is thrilled to be working at BYU Marriott. Brau received her PhD in supply chain management from the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. She has presented her research to companies such as Walmart International and Plug and Play Tech Center. Brau is an active participant in several professional organizations including the Council of Supply Chain Management (CSCMP). She received first place for CSCMP’s Best Practical Application during the 2018 Academic Research Symposium for her research on the value creation of analytics in supply chains and the integration of human judgement. “The lesson I hope my students learn this semester is three-fold: learn to love God, to love others including themselves, and to become lifelong learners,” Brau says.  

Travis Dyer is an assistant professor in the School of Accountancy. Dyer completed his PhD in accounting at the University of North Carolina and earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accounting at BYU Marriott. His research focuses on disclosure choices and information retrieval choices made by capital market participants. Dyer’s research has been published in several journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Financial Reporting, and Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory. Dyer looks forward to witnessing the potential that students have both professionally and spiritually. “I love learning, and I hope to instill that love in my students,” he says. “I want my students to recognize that failure is part of the learning process and that picking themselves back up is the most important step in that process.” 

Justin Giboney joins BYU Marriott as an associate professor in the Department of Information Systems. He received his PhD in management information systems from the University of Arizona. Giboney has written 37 articles about information security, decision support, and deception detection published in outlets such as MIS Quarterly, Computers & Security, and Computers in Human Behavior. He has investigated eight National Science Foundation-funded grants on information security, deception, and forensics technologies. “I hope students learn the power of self-directed lifelong learning this year,” Giboney says.  

Dan Heist joins BYU Marriott as an assistant professor with the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Penn State University, his master’s degree in philanthropic studies from Indiana University, and his PhD in social welfare from the University of Pennsylvania. Heist’s research focuses on charitable giving, philanthropy, and volunteering. “I hope to teach my students that God has a specific purpose for each of them,” he says. “Their mission at BYU is to progress in their discovery and fulfillment of that purpose.” Heist is a leading expert on donor-advised fund research and is the cofounder of the Donor-Advised Fund Research Collaborative. “I am excited to work in a place where staff, students, and faculty treat each other like family,” he says.  

Camilla J. Hodge is an assistant professor of experience design and management. After earning her master’s degree from BYU in youth and family recreation, Hodge received her PhD in parks, recreation, and tourism from North Carolina State University. Hodge previously worked at Penn State University and the University of Utah, where she was a finalist for one of the University of Utah’s highest teaching honors, the Early Career Teaching Award. Her research focuses on designing experiences that foster connection between individuals and within organizations. “I hope to instill in my students a lifelong love of learning and an immovable testimony of the reality of their divine identity,” she says. “I want to help students understand the importance of intentionally designed experiences in their earthly and eternal progression.” 

Clay Posey is an incoming associate professor in the Department of Information Systems. As a Mississippi native, he earned his bachelor’s degree in business information systems from Mississippi State University and his master’s degree from Jackson State University. During his time as a doctoral student at Louisiana Tech University, his dissertation on employees’ protective security behaviors received full financial support from the US Department of Defense. Posey’s research on organizational cybersecurity and analytics domains has been featured in several notable publications, such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Journal of Business Ethics. “My colleagues are stellar academicians, and I hope we can share our experiences and expertise as well as work together to focus on the development of each student,” he says. 

McKenzie Rees is an assistant professor in the Department of Management. She joins BYU Marriott from Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business, where she was an assistant professor. “I am excited to find greater purpose in my teaching and research by being in an environment that fosters the values of the gospel and the Church,” she says. “I hope my students learn that genuine interest in people and love toward others can give them more joy and success in their careers than anything else.” Rees’s research focuses on what drives unintentional ethical and unethical behavior, particularly in situations in which competition is salient. After receiving her PhD from the University of Utah, her research led her to focus on how individuals can better exercise ethical leadership to speak out about behavior in the workplace.  

Ian Wright, an assistant teaching professor of finance, feels excited to share his knowledge at BYU Marriott. “I hope my students learn to confidently think through, discuss, and solve problems they have never encountered before,” he says. Wright earned his PhD in economics from Stanford University, where he studied theoretical and empirical work in financial markets. During his PhD program, Wright was a research assistant to the Working Group on Economic Policy at the Hoover Institution. After his time as vice president in the asset allocation research group at Goldman Sachs in London, Wright became a quantitative investor at BlackRock in London. He has received several awards for his teaching, and his research has been featured in publications such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.