J.R. Thomas is Assistant Professor of Business and Organizational Leadership (BORG) and Coordinator for the BORG major. He holds a B.S from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. Born in Winston-Salem, he taught Business at Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire for 15 years before moving back to North Carolina to join the Brevard College faculty in Fall 2020. Professor Thomas said, “ Despite the challenges of moving and starting at a new college during the pandemic, my first semester turned out to be a good one because of the support system at Brevard College. Everyone was friendly and helpful so it made the transition easy.”
In graduate school, Thomas conducted research with his professors and had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant. He also learned how professors structured their classes with hands-on activities and these experiences informed his teaching. He said, “Being a college professor is mainly about teaching and research and I found that I enjoyed both of those. I liked having that relationship with students, so that’s what steered me towards becoming a college professor.”
In the 1980’s and 1990’s he worked for an investment bank in New York City, NY and as a financial analyst at an oil and gas company in Los Angeles, CA. He didn’t care for New York City, but enjoyed his time in Los Angeles, where he lived on Marina Del Rey, and learned to surf. These career experiences provided examples of practical applications which inform his experiential teaching style. He said, “With finance, I made a decision to move the class into the computer lab to work with the financial functions in Excel and that transformed my teaching approach. That also led to flipping the classroom, where we talk about the conceptual foundation, but they work through the problems in class.”
Professor Thomas’ research interests include ethics in accounting and he contributed to two published articles on the subject. In his role as Coordinator, he is working with the other BORG professors on plans to update the curriculum in order to stay current and ensure that students are prepared to enter the workplace. Some of those updates under consideration include sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and data analytics. Pedagogically, he is interested in addressing the challenges faced by some students who struggle with math. He said, “I think it is important for our students to have confidence in their quantitative skills, so I develop classroom exercises to help them develop those skills and also give them the tools they need to succeed in their career.”
After his parents retired and moved back to Winston-Salem, he decided he would also like to move back to North Carolina to finish out his career. Two different colleagues who had seen the job ad for Brevard College with the experiential approach brought it to his attention because they thought it would be perfect for him and according to Professor Thomas, it turned out to be “a very good connection and fit.” He went on to say, “This is a wonderful community where everyone – students, staff, faculty, and administration are focused on the primary goal of educating students with the experiential learning philosophy. It unites the college in ways I have not seen at other colleges and universities.”