By A.J. Kaufman, Managing Editor
Through its mission to educate, innovate, collaborate and inspire, the ETSU College of Business and Technology (CBAT) prepares students to meet today’s challenges and take advantage of tomorrow’s opportunities. Faculty bring that same mission to life through teaching, research and work with community partners. Together, those efforts help our region advance economic and social prosperity.
“This is accomplished by collaborating with external partners and equipping individuals to achieve personal and professional success,” Dana Harrison, ETSU associate dean of Research and Creative Activities and associate professor of Marketing, told the Business Journal. “We pursue this mission through an integrated approach that combines curriculum, scholarship, creative activities and community engagement.”
Harrison says CBAT’s impact is focused on three areas:
- Workforce Development and Leadership: preparing students and professionals to excel in evolving industries and leadership roles.
- Economic Development and Entrepreneurship: fostering innovation, supporting new ventures and strengthening the regional economy.
- Community-Engaged Learning: connecting education with service to address societal challenges and enrich the community.
Those priorities can be seen in the work students and faculty are doing across the region. Recently, Marketing Department students helped the community by using AI to support Hurricane Helene-impacted small businesses reopen.
“Our CEL projects aren’t single events but reflect the mission and goals of the College of Business and Technology,” Harrison explained, noting ETSU faculty and students are embedded within the region where they are “using their expertise to make a difference.”
She says ETSU faculty support organizations rebuilding after the catastrophic floods, use the VITA program to assist with filing free tax returns and hold important regional events, like the annual Supply Chain and Technology Summit each fall and Appalachian Highlands Economic Forum in the spring.
The college’s work reaches beyond traditional business settings. They have also collaborated with the Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital in Knoxville to create training simulations for nurses and medical professionals. Others are preserving stories of people in the Appalachian Highlands through archival work, while programs such as iBucs helps students introduce their ideas to investors.
Faculty work spans a wide range of issues, including healthcare economics, software development, digital and financial literacy, and interdisciplinary work involving neurodivergence, speech-language pathology and marketing communication.
That expertise is shared beyond campus as well.
They have delivered presentations to regional entities on a supply chain roadmap for regional manufacturers and presented on rural connectivity research to the State of Tennessee.
What ties all this work together is collaboration. CBAT is eager to work with the community to help solve the region’s challenges.
That involvement includes evening gatherings around the Tri-Cities.
You can visit with CBAT faculty in action at Bucs and Brews at Tennessee Hills Brewstillery not far from the Johnson City campus, where this fall, intriguing topics range from current foreign affairs, including a recent talk on the Strait of Hormuz’s evolution and importance to global trade, to working at the White House Historical Association and high-performing teams in elite sporting environments. Most events last just over an hour.
Leaders say that the projects may look very different, but the goal is the same. CBAT students and faculty desire to work in ways that strengthen the region and the communities they serve.
