Mary Gowan

Mary Gowan, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR, recently retired as Dean of the Mike Cottrell College of Business and Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of North Georgia. She received her Ph.D. in business administratin with an emphasis in human resources management from the University of Georgia. Dr. Gowan served as dean and professor at the School of Business at James Madison University and at Elon University, and as associate dean for undergraduate programs and associate professor at the George Washington University. She has held faculty appointments in Florida, Texas, and North Carolina, served as a visiting professor at Aalto University in Finland and in an Executive MBA program at LG Electronics headquarters in South Korea. In addition to co-authoring Human Resource Management (6e), she has written other resources for teaching HR and has provided HR, leadership development, and organizational development consulting and executive education programs for numerous public, private, and non-profit organizations, including Lockheed Martin, Harris Teeter, Marriott Vacations, the City of El Paso and the city of Charlotte, NC. Dr. Gowan has served as chair of the Board of Governors for Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society, president of the Southern Business Administration Association, as a member of the board for the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation, and as a board member for the Human Resource Division of the Academy of Management. Her accreditation reviewer work for AACSB includes visits to the U.S., South America, and the Middle East. Dr. Gowan has received numerous awards in recognition of her teaching, scholarship, and service, including the Society for Human Resource Management Educator of the Year Award for the State of Texas. Her research focuses on career transitions and related HR topics and has been published in leading academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal and the Journal of Applied Psychology, as well as practitioner journals including the Journal of Compensation and Benefits.