Meet the Staff

Dr. Fidelis M. Ikem, Ph.D
Dean of the College of Business At Albany State Unversity.

Dr. Ikem spent  four years at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two and a half years at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (KU) and 14 years at Virginia State University (VSU). At WSSU, he served as professor of Quantitative Business and Dean of the School of Graduate studies & Research & the Chief Research Officer. At (KU), he served as Interim and Associate Dean of their College of Business. During his tenure at VSU he served as the Chair of the Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences For 11 years. He has also served as the Director of the Department of Defense Center for Science Mathematics and Engineering Education at VSU. Prior to VSU, he taught in the Department of Management at Norfolk State University, in Norfolk Virginia from 1987 to 1991.

His industry experience includes a stint as a technician and programmer at the Denver Research Center of Marathon Oil Company in Littleton, Colorado

Dr. Ikem has been involved in more than  five million dollars in funded grants either as the sole principal investigator or as a member of the grant team. He has published numerous referred articles and proceedings in a variety of professional and academic journals to include Operations Research, Socio-Economical Planning Sciences, International Journal of Management and Decisions  Making, Journal of Computer Information Systems  and International of Services an Standards among others.

Dr. Ikem holds a B.S.in Mathematical Sciences from Metropolitan State College of Denver , an M.S. Mathematical Sciences from Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina and an M.S, and Ph. D degress in Operation Research from Case Western Research University in Cleveland, Ohio. He participated in further studies at the 1989 AACSB Information Systems Faculty Development Institute at the University of Minnesota , St.Paul MN and the 2001 Metroportals: e-government & e-learning executive education program at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

Dr. Juan Jaramillio, Ph.D
Assitant Professor at Albany State University

Dr Juan Jaramillio is an assistant professor at Albany State University. He holds a Ph.D in Industrial Engineering  from West Virginia University. Dr. Jaramillio has been employed in industry and academia.He previously worked for five years as a production manager at Colcerámica S.A, the third-largest ceramics producer in the Americas. His duties included the development and implementation of quality and optimization projects involving predictive process control and statistics process control. He has worked with undergraduate and masters students in the field of industrial engineering and business administration. His published re search spans the fields of quality management, operations management, logistics, and supply chain management. He has been published in different journals such as Computer & Operations Research and the International Journal of Production Research among others. He has also presented in the Institute of Operation Research (INFORMS) and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) annual conferences.

Wallace Rich, MAM, MSM, MBA, C.P.M.
Operations Manager and Interim Executive Director at Albany State University’s Center for Advanced Logistics Management (CALM).

Mr. Rich has extensive experience in procurement and contracting in both government and commercial manufacturing environments. His experience includes production planning, materials management, quality control, logistics, inventory control, shipping and receiving, government acquisitions and contract administration. He has worked as a senior buyer at BAE Systems, a prime contractor of the Department of Defense and Savannah River Site for the Department of Energy.  

Mr. Rich earned a master's of business administration at Brenau University and a master’s degree in management, leadership and organizational effectiveness at Troy University and a master’s degree in procurement and acquisition management from Webster University. He holds a certified purchasing manager "C.P.M. designation ; also will receive a graduate certificate in government contracting at Webster University in the second quarter of 2013. He received an undergraduate degree in management and information systems at Kennesaw State University.