By Robert Lowery, Public Affairs | Central Washington University
ELLENSBURG, Wash., January 11, 2021 — Central Washington University Professor Anderson Parks assumed his new role as the Kuolt Distinguished Professor of Business on January 1. College of Business (CB) Dean Jeffrey Stinson said the appointment will allow Parks, a management professor based at CWU-Lynnwood, to amplify the impact of his teaching and other activities that connect the college and classroom to industry.
“Professor Parks is a great match for the Kuolt Distinguished Professor in Business,” Stinson continued. “With his wealth of industry experience, his ongoing commitment to sharing that experience in the classroom and with the university community, and his outreach to industry through his ‘Emotional Intelligence for Professionals’ training, he will be a great ambassador for the College of Business and university in this role.”
Parks began teaching following a career in global management with The Coca-Cola Company. After guest lecturing at Bellevue College and teaching at Edmonds Community College, he began leading a marketing and management course at CWU-Lynnwood in 2017.
Parks’s classes are infused with his experience from leading strategic management, marketing, and planning for Coca-Cola’s largest corporate customers across Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim.
“Receiving the Kuolt Distinguished Professor of Business role is a tremendous honor, and I’m very grateful to be in a position to share what I’ve learned in my business career with students and industry,” Parks said. “My passion is to help build self-aware and mindful leaders, and I’m excited to continue that work in a broader and more impactful way.”
Originally established in 1990 as the Milton G. Kuolt II Distinguished Executive-in-Residence Professorship, the honor was renamed in 2007 as the Kuolt Distinguished Professor in Business. It is named after Milt Kuolt II, the founder and former president and chief executive officer of Horizon Air. He also was named a CB Distinguished Alumnus in 2002.
The focus of the professorship is to help CB retain a faculty member with business experience who can connect the college and others at CWU with industry, Stinson noted.
Media contact: Robert Lowery, Public Affairs, 509-963-1487, Robert.Lowery@cwu.edu.
Author: Mario Lotmore
