Joel Light

About Joel Light

Teaching PhilosophyI believe in life-long learning; it is how I initially started my journey in teaching over 15 years ago. Teaching is a way to continue my education and remain current in business academics. Engaging students with diverse backgrounds and work experience is exhilarating to me, and I find that bringing information to them in several different media enhances the learning process. The human aspect of learning appeals to me more than the memorization of formulae—although understanding them can help us explain the social and personal behaviors that make up business, management, and economics. While I believe creating an environment with known expectations is important, I also am empathetic to students and their situations since I was also an online student while working full time. I believe that my relationship with students does not have to end at the end of the term, and I take great pride that many former students continue our discussions on social media to this day.I engage students in the classroom by asking the second and third question, not allowing them to simply post an answer that may be a generic one. I am very visible in the virtual classroom—I frequently post announcements and responses to discussion threads, in addition to answering emails on a timely basis. I help students teach each other by encouraging dialogue through learner discussions and team assignments. Incorporation of my professional experience as an executive and senior manager in business management, program management, finance, and other disciplines in aerospace brings practicality to the subjects. I believe that teaching is a way to give back and is an important role in society.

Experience

1. Adjunct Professor

   Webster University

   Aug 2004 — Present

   On Ground and online courses taught at the graduate (MBA) and undergraduate levelo Current Economic Analysiso Macroeconomic Analysiso Applied Business Statistics

Education

• Wichita State University

  M.A., Economics

  1989 — 1992

• The University of Kansas

  Bachelors, Economics

  1979 — 1981

• Capella University

  Ph.D., Organization and Management

  2001 — 2004

• Barton Community College

  Associate of Arts (A.A.), Business/Managerial Economics

  1977 — 1979

Skills

• Quality Assurance
• Process Engineering
• Spc
• Value Stream Mapping
• Composites
• Process Improvement
• Lean Manufacturing
• Supply Chain
• Engineering
• Aerospace
• Dmaic
• Operational Excellence
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Supplier Quality
• Quality System
• Six Sigma
• Quality Auditing
• Root Cause Analysis
• Materials Management
• Earned Value Management
• Configuration Management
• Quality Management
• Manufacturing
• Supply Management
• Kaizen
• Iso
• Business Process Improvement
• Tqm
• Sap
• Continuous Improvement
• Change Management
• 5s
• Engineering Management
• Aircraft
• Testing
• Ms Project
• Systems Engineering
• Aviation
• Operations Management