Arlene Ramirez
Sam Houston State University

Arlene has been an Instructional Assistant Professor at the C.N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston, teaching courses in finance, hotel development, hotel operations, and project management and the undergraduate and graduate level.

In 2019 Arlene co-founded Ascend, based in The Woodlands, Texas. The company designs online learning and certification programs that address opportunities for professional growth within organizations. Ascend's approach involves validating the contributions made by employees, assessing their knowledge needs, and developing learning programs that provide opportunities for individuals to apply new concepts within the organization to encourage internal professional growth opportunities.

Arlene is a Past Global President of Hospitality Finance and Technology Professionals, a 4,500+ member and growing international finance and technology hospitality association. Arlene has mentored young professionals, many of which now have leadership roles in the hospitality industry. She serves as the Systems Thinking and Change division representative on the AECT's Graduate Student Advisory Board.

As a doctoral student at Sam Houston State University, her research goal is to identify the employee's needs, expectations, and experiences related to gaining knowledge in the work environment. The research is focused on explaining how these factors impact employee satisfaction and intention to remain with an organization. The service industry, especially hospitality, is the focus of the research; however, the results apply to any industry. Arlene's goal is to help organizations reduce turnover and increase employees' satisfaction and skill level through knowledge management and the innovative use of technology to create a culture of lifelong learning and continual improvement.

Communication is vital for any organization to thrive and grow. In today's world, the use of social media makes this even more critical. However, just being on social media is not sufficient; it's about the messaging. As GSA's social media officer, my plan would be to collaborate with the Communications Officer. Working together we would develop a marketing approach to promoting and engaging members in all that GSA has to offer. Part of this approach would also consist of measuring the reach of all social media posts and determining where our members and prospective members are getting their information. One of my students worked on a project that produced interesting results on what attracts individuals to social media posts. I think some of these would go a long way in expanding the reach of GSA by creating more awareness, participation, and engagement.