Dr. John B. Knight
Dr. John B. Knight came to IPFW in 1992 and is Professor in the Hospitality and Tourism Management Program. He has taught at Chapman University in San Diego, California, at the University of Hawaii as a visiting associate professor, and at Cornell University at the graduate level as an associate professor in the School of Hotel Administration. Dr. Knight has run resorts on both Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard and assisted in the opening of the Oakwood Inn and Conference Center on Lake Wawasee in Syracuse, Indiana. He is the author of nine texts on hospitality management and is a well known speaker. He and his wife Whitney have two sons and one daughter.
Dr. John C. Niser
Dr. John Niser came to IPFW in August of 2008 and is chair of Consumer & Family Sciences. His professional experience started in international hotel management giving him a solid practical operational knowledge of the field of Hospitality Management. He followed this experience with formal studies in Psychology at Geneva (Switzerland) University and earned a doctoral degree focused on Craft Based Learning (Anglia Ruskin University, UK.)
Living in Switzerland he had the opportunity to put into practice his “double Background” and work in a key position to develop the Swiss Hotel Association Hotel Management School “Les Roches” in a process leading to US regional accreditation as a degree granting institution. Les Roches was the first Swiss school to be granted NEASC membership. In this position I was also responsible for the implementation of the first degree program in hotel management offered in Switzerland and for the successful opening of a branch campus in Spain. For this school he started recruiting in China, South East Asia and the Middle East and gained invaluable experience regarding matching curriculum with industry expectations and students career aspirations.
In 1999 he was appointed Directeur Général of Glion Institute of Higher Education and in 2002 SHA HMS Les Roches (Switzerland) was added to his responsibilities when both schools came under one ownership. In this position he had a total responsibility for both institutions reporting to the board. These schools are recognized as two out of three of the leading Swiss hotel schools. He developed the schools into thriving profitable operations from 1999 to 2005. Adding post graduate studies, programs in business, sports management and a graduate program, allowed these school to grow both in quality and profitability. The performance of these institutions stand as a witness to his capacity in leadership, political and public relations as well as designing, marketing and managing educational programs that reached the right balance between financial and educational objectives to spur growth.
He left Switzerland in 2005, to take a position as Associate Professor (tenure track) and Senator (University Senate) at UNH in the Wittmore School of Business hospitality department. He returned to Switzerland for 6 months to lead a start up business. The business is now on the road and he has handed it over to a management team. He returned to the US working for an Italian education corporation for whom he developed a University Park close to Milan as well as Hotel Management programs for the E-Campus university. At the same time he took the position of president of SITMA Group who manage the SwissEducation International Hotel and Restaurant Academies.
He is a Swiss and British citizen, born in London. His hobbies are long distance running and sailing with interests in history and philosophy. He is married with three children; two sons and one daughter.
Martha A. Coussement, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Consumer and Family Sciences Department. She has been on the University of Alabama faculty for 9 years, as well as faculty at Pensacola State College (Florida) and Faulkner State community College (Orange Beach, AL). She has extensive hospitality industry experience both with Holiday Inns and Hilton, Inc., and was hired to open the Gatlinburg, TN Convention Center. Her main research focus is on technology and electronic distribution channels. She actively works with numerous industry personnel in the state of Indiana in the application of technology within the aforementioned subject areas. She is also involved in ICHRIE (International Council of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Educators) both at the state and national levels as well as PAII (the national association of bed and breakfast owner/operators).
Her hobbies are traveling and sailing with her husband Dr. Sylvere H. Coussement. She also enjoys playing with her two Welsh terriers, Morgan and Bryce.
Linda Johnston Lolkus
Linda Johnston Lolkus is Associate Professor of Foods and Nutrition, and Interim Chair of the Department of Consumer and Family Sciences. She joined our faculty in a full-time position in 2001 after teaching at IPFW part-time for many years. She has extensive experience as an educator with involvement in curriculum development, classroom, assessment techniques, and research on teaching effectiveness. Professor Lolkus enjoys past and current involvement in diverse areas including the importance of nutrition in dentistry and athletics, and work encompassing nutrition needs of pregnant women, to young children, to seniors. She is actively involved on campus promoting effective teaching via her role on the advisory board for the Center for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT). Professor Lolkus received the 2005 Friends of the University Outstanding Teaching Award. She is the mother of one daughter and one son.
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