High-impact practices (HIPs) benefits from study abroad country agent: a multi-method multi-perspective approach

Dr Mary Kay Kay Rickard is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Georgia College and State University. She has a DBA in Marketing from Kennesaw State University. Dr Rickard has 16 years of teaching experience and is currently teaching undergraduate professional selling, sales management and marketing. She is the Faculty Advisor for the Sales Team. She has also developed and conducted marketing study abroad programs for 10 years visiting China, England, Spain, Hungary and Prague. Her research primarily focuses on sales, franchising and higher education. Dr Rickard’s previous industry experience is in wholesale and retail fashion and travel and she has owned two service industry businesses.

Doreen Sams (Dee) earned her PhD, in Marketing from the University of South Florida. She is currently the Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors Coordinator at Georgia College and State University. Sams taught masters-level International Business and undergraduate-level marketing research and digital analytics from August 2005 until October 2021. Since 2005, she supervised over 300 undergraduate marketing research projects for community partners across the country; several of the research projects have been presented at conferences and/or published in academic journals. She developed and conducted marketing study abroad programs in Spain since 2012 until 2018. She served in two administrative roles at the university in addition to serving as a marketing professor. She served from 2008 to 2021 as the Course Lead for the Georgia WebMBA (International Business course) as well since 2012 served as the University Coordinator for Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors. Her personal academic research spans arts, education, environmental issues, services marketing, societal marketing, brand communities, public policy, sustainability, pedagogy, interdisciplinary and international issues. She has presented at 60+ academic and practitioner conferences across multiple countries and states. Since joining GC, she published 22 peer-reviewed journal articles. She is the coauthor of the “Mentored Undergraduate Research Handbook” first and second editions that have been downloaded over 1,200 times across the globe and published to book chapters. She serves on the editorial review boards for multiple journals and conferences and has served as the Editor for a special edition of the Journal of Transformative Learning and an Associated Editor for a new journal in 2020 “Undergraduate Research”.

Jeniffer Sams is an Art Historian. She is an accomplished professional with broad-based experience within the academic and business sectors. Sams has assisted with several study abroad transformative learning experiences in Spain. Background demonstrates success managing operational and administrative functions combined with a track-record of excellence providing art instruction at the collegiate level as well as the K-12 level. She routinely volunteers at the Ruth Hartley Mosley Women's Center in Macon Georgia where she teaches under-resourced students Eco art. She frequently leads the development and implementation of environmental art programs and initiatives to drive interest and foster a love for the arts and the environment. She has a distinguished history serving as a member and advisor on several boards and committees. She is also adept in building relationships with internal and external partners within business, academia and the community-at-large.