On Friday, April 12, Samford University’s Brock School of Business announced its faculty award recipients during its 60th annual Scholarship and Awards Ceremony. Each year, the school recognizes faculty members for excellence in the areas of teaching, research and scholarship, and service to the school. The awardees are selected by their faculty colleagues.
 
“The best measure of a great business school is the quality of the faculty, and we are blessed in Brock School of Business to have faculty members who possess the highest possible professional education together with a passion for the mission of Samford University,” said Dean Chad Carson.
 
The 2024 faculty award recipients are:

Kate McCombs, assistant professor of management, was awarded the A. Gerow Hodges Research Award for her noteworthy scholarship.
 
During her first three years at Samford, Kate McCombs has had eight research publications in journals such as the Journal of Managerial Psychology, Leadership, the Journal of Occupation and Organizational Psychology and the Journal of Vocational Behaviour, among others. She has also presented at seven national and regional conferences. Much of her work has been on political and distance leadership of presidential candidates, exploring perceived charisma, narcissism, ethical leadership, and variety of contexts to understand leader selection. Further, her true passion and upcoming research focuses on leadership with a specific focus on individual differences, leader identity, power of self-leadership, other self-concept variables, leader development outcomes and occupational health outcomes.

Undergraduate teaching is at the heart of everything we do. Each year, the Brock School of Business faculty select one member they feel has excelled in providing an exceptional classroom experience for our undergraduate students. This year, the faculty chose to recognize Kathryn Boyd, instructor of business, with this award.
 
In the last three years, Boyd has taught almost 800 prebusiness students, strategized with other faculty members developing curriculum for courses, and implemented new learning activities in her course work. Boyd primarily teaches BUSA 100 (World of Business) and BUSA 200 (Business Communications), consistently receiving high evaluation scores. Students often positively comment on her ability to bring real life work experience and personal examples from her time in corporate America into the classroom, as well as her enthusiasm for the subject matter and genuine interest in seeing her students learn and grow. 

Service is an expectation of all fulltime faculty members, but some go beyond normal requirements to make a tremendous difference for the school. Each year, Brock School of Business faculty members recognize one of their colleagues whose service to the school, university and community, and their academic discipline, greatly exceeds expectations.
 
The 2024 recipient of the Larron C. Harper Service Award is associate professor Clif Eason. Eason serves as the coordinator of the Brock School School of Business professional sales concentration. In that capacity, he coaches the Professional Sales Team, which competes in four to six national and international sales competitions each academic year. The team regularly earns a spot in the finals of these competitions, and it produced individual student champions in 2022 and 2023. In addition to his work with the sales program, Eason chairs the school’s Learning Assessment Committee, serves on another school committee plus two university faculty senate committees, and is the faculty adviser to three student organizations on campus. Outside of Samford, Eason serves the community through his work on several nonprofit boards and ministries.

The Robert W. (Bill) Service Graduate Teaching Award recognizes a Brock School of Business faculty member for excellence in teaching at the graduate level. This year, the faculty chose to recognize Nathan Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of sports business, with this award.  
 
Kirkpatrick teaches MNGT 535 (HR and Organization Management), SPRT 580 (The Business of College Sports), SPRT 575 (Fan Experience and Analytic-Based Engagement) and co-teaches SPRT 585 (Career Preparation in Sports Business) with professor Darin White. He ably teaches a wide variety of MBA courses for Brock School of Business and enjoys helping a diverse group of MBA students in these courses. He consistently earns strong student evaluations, and students appreciate his willingness to help, serve and assist them in their learning journeys.