Smith celebrates outstanding contributions to research and teaching

Kingston, Ont. – Impactful research and exceptional teaching help shape the Smith experience every day. Together, they advance knowledge and contribute to meaningful change in business and society. Smith School of Business' annual Research Excellence Awards, and new alumni established Teaching Excellence Awards celebrate the individuals whose work contributes to that impact.

Last month, the school recognized eight faculty and two students for their outstanding achievements in research and teaching. Their accomplishments reflect the dedication and innovation that define the Smith community.

Celebrating Research Excellence

A highlight of the academic year, the Research Excellence Awards showcase the scholarly achievements of Smith faculty and rising researchers, celebrating both groundbreaking research and the mentorship that helps develop tomorrow’s academic leaders.

“Research excellence is not measured solely by publications or citations. It's reflected in curiosity, perseverance, creativity and courage—courage to pursue important questions,” said Interim Dean Lynnette Purda. “[Our faculty and graduate students] challenge conventional thinking, and they address some of the most important questions that are facing organizations, economies and society. Their work informs public policy, it influences business practice, it advances understanding and it creates impact that goes far beyond the walls of our classrooms.”

This year, five faculty and two graduate students were recognized with Research Excellence Awards:

• Vedat Verter, Professor and Smith Chair of Management Analytics. Verter was presented with this year’s Award for Research Excellence. His work lies at the intersection of operations research and social impact, investigating topics spanning socially responsible supply chains to the application of AI in healthcare delivery. Verter’s research has been cited more than 8,600 times on Google Scholar, and his contributions to the profession of operational research earned him the 2025 CORS Award of Merit.
  
  
• Paula López-Peña, Assistant Professor of Business Economics. López-Peña was recognized with the New Researcher Award for her work exploring how vulnerability shapes economic outcomes in complex regions such as Bangladesh and Myanmar, and its impact on policy and humanitarian response. López-Peña believes questions about firms and economic growth are inseparable from the well-being of those who work within them.
  
  
• Ekin Ok, Assistant Professor of Marketing. Ok received the New Researcher Award for her dedicated investigation and dissemination of insights into how identity and social influences shape consumer behaviour and decision-making processes. What causes a person to take up a vigilante identity? Does white guilt influence consumer behaviour? These are some questions she explores in her work.
  
  
• Peter Dacin, Professor & Kraft Professor of Marketing. Dacin was recognized through student nominations with the Smith Graduate Teaching Excellence Award. Dacin teaches introductory and advanced statistics on the MSc and PhD programs. His students credited him as a kind, patient and considerate professor whose content and instruction will leave a lasting impression.
  
  
• Goce Andrevski, Associate Professor & Distinguished Research & Teaching Fellow of Strategy. Andrevski was honoured with the Smith Graduate Research Supervision Award. His students described him as a generous mentor invested in their success and well-being. Andrevski remembers how hard the PhD journey can be, academically and personally. He credits his own PhD mentor for shaping his approach to graduate supervision.
  
  
• Rajesh Kumar, MSc’25, who is in the first year of his PhD, received the New PhD Student Research Excellence Award. Kumar’s research explores the rapidly-growing grief tech market, specifically the impact of ‘griefbots’ or ‘deathbots’—AI systems that simulate individuals who have died—on the grieving process. His MSc thesis on this topic has been developed into a lead-authored manuscript under review at Information Systems Research, an FT 50 journal. He has also been invited onto a paper under second-round revision at MIS Quarterly, another FT 50.
  
  
• Kaylee Somerville, MSc’22, who was recognized with the New PhD Student Research Excellence Award in 2024, was the recipient of this year’s PhD Student Research Excellence Award. Now in her fourth year of study, Somerville’s research broadly focuses on how leaders can create more productive and healthy workplaces. She recently co-authored an FT 50 paper on the ‘Love of the Job’ scale, and her most recent work investigates how leaders perceive and treat individuals on fixed-term contracts.

Celebrating Teaching Excellence

This year’s celebration also saw the addition of three new Teaching Excellence Awards, established and generously funded by two Smith Commerce alumni: Mike Murray and Heather Hackney, both BCom’96.

The pair, who met and got married at Queen’s, have a deep connection to the university and know first-hand the lasting impact that excellent teaching can have. “We have both had the incredible fortune of having some amazing teachers over our lives … We feel strongly that great teaching should be encouraged, celebrated and rewarded,” said Murray.

The three awards—Emerging Excellence in Teaching, Innovation in Teaching, and Educational Leadership—are named in honour of Murray’s father, a retired Western University professor who dedicated his career to advancing the research and practice of teaching at the university level, and who encouraged his son to attend Queen’s.

“Creating this award in my dad’s honour was a no-brainer,” Murray said. “His work has always been grounded in a belief that teaching matters deeply … The creation of a teaching award in his name is not just a recognition of past accomplishments; it is a commitment to the future. It ensures the values that he championed—clarity, effectiveness, and the genuine dedication to students—will continue to be recognized and carried forward.”

The recipients of the inaugural H.G. Murray Leadership and Excellence in Teaching Awards are:

• Erica Pimentel, Assistant Professor of Accounting, was recognized with the Emerging Leadership in Teaching Award. Pimentel approaches teaching as a scholarly and applied pursuit, with a focus on generating meaningful and measurable improvements in student capability, confidence and professional readiness. Pimentel’s colleagues note her talent for making concepts accessible and engaging and having a direct impact on student outcomes.
  
  
• Blair Robertson, Lecturer of Finance, was presented with the Innovation in Teaching Award for his work creating and facilitating the Investment Banking and Buyside Prep Program. This weekly co-curricular and experiential learning offering incorporates alumni and corporate experiences to empower undergraduate students—particularly those from underrepresented groups—with the confidence and skills to reach their career goals. To date, 1,800 students have participated in the program.
  
  
• Kathryn Brohman, Associate Professor & E. Marie Shantz Fellow of Digital Technology, received the Educational Leadership Award for her commitment to curricular improvement and developing creative and effective ways to enrich the academic experience and adapt to emerging educational trends. Brohman has contributed to the design of several interdisciplinary courses and programs (including the Master of Digital Product Management), as well as immersive exercises that strengthen the connection between academic programs and professional practice.

“Everyone who has been a faculty member at Smith for some time will have heard us talk about balance. And although it's not a particularly glamorous term, we always think about faculty at Smith as being not only exceptional researchers, but people who value what happens in our classroom,” remarked Interim Dean Purda. “This is a good reminder of the importance of acknowledging and recognizing the hard work that we all do on both fronts.”