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Topic: Hospitality / Events and Tourism

Inna Soifer

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Inna Soifer, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of event and meeting management in the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include global meetings and events; conventions, exhibitions industry; event technology; incentive travel; venue management and destination management.

Prior to joining MSU Denver, Soifer taught at the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management for the University of Memphis and was a graduate instructor at the University of Mississippi. She is a certified hospitality educator with over a decade of experience in the global hospitality industry, including as a project manager for one of Russia’s leading meeting and event agencies. Soifer’s primary research area is in business and trade events. Her recent studies examined value creation in corporate events and customer adoption of event technology.

Soifer received her Ph.D. in nutrition and hospitality management with a minor in applied statistics from the University of Mississippi in 2021.

Smita Singh

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Smita Singh, M.A., is a assistant professor in the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She teaches courses in Event Planning, Special Events Production, Talent Leadership, Event planning for the Professionals as well as Human Resource Management. She also serves as a board member for the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, which collaborates with other professionals and industry experts for conducting events and exhibitions.

Prior to coming to MSU Denver, Singh worked at Iowa State University in the College of Human Sciences where she developed an experiential learning environment for classrooms by using real world case studies that included hotels, restaurants, events and other hospitality landscapes. In addition, she also served as an adjunct faculty member for the Institute of Professional Studies in India teaching Risk and Tourism Management.

She worked as an event manager for the Jaypee Group where she planned and organized major tradeshows and conferences within and outside India, coordinated pricing and ticketing strategies as well as managed the finical and business aspects to effectively run events with vendors and clients. Smita also organized and participated in national conferences in Western and Eastern India as well as events in Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok and Sharjah. She helped organize the Formula 1 international race in India and developed the communication and marketing strategy for the event.

Smita is passionate about working with events around community involvement. She worked with Sankalp, a student organization and a non‐profit organization to create awareness and help economically struggling people achieve sustainable development, organized charitable events like Daawat, a fundraising dinner to showcase and raise money for various chosen NGO‐supplied project proposals and helped create a fundraising campaign for oxygen concentrators to combat COVID‐19 in India.`

Smita is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program for hospitality management at Iowa State University. She received her master’s in business administration in 2009 and bachelor’s in engineering from Jaypee College of Business in India 2007.

Eric Olson

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Eric D. Olson, Ph.D., is the chair of the Rita and Navin Dimond Department of Hotel Management, School of Hospitality, Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include customer service, customer experience, service failure and recovery, LBGTQ tourism and events, events and festivals, hospitality and event management education.

Olson has over 20 years of hospitality, tourism, event and higher education experience. He has published extensively in top academic journals such as Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research and Journal of Convention and Event Tourism.

Olson received his Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida, MBA from the Stetson University, and a BBA in marketing from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. His academic career includes appointments at Iowa State University, and his industry experience includes working at The Walt Disney World Resort.

Jackson Lamb

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Jackson Lamb, MBA, is an emeritus professor in the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include food insecurity, food waste, food rescue and food redistribution.

Lamb is a consummate professional in the hospitality industry who migrated into education fifteen year ago to make a difference in the future of students studying culinary arts and hospitality management. He takes particular interest in the effects of volunteerism on culinary skill competencies, customer service concerns in private club environments, global cuisine and hunger-related issues.

Lamb serves as a liaison between MSU Denver and the greater Denver and restaurant management communities and has built relationships in every sector of the food service industry, locally and nationally. He is a board member of We Don’t Waste, Food Bank of the Rockies, Colorado Restaurant Association and American Culinary Federation, Colorado Chefs Association. Lamb was honored as the 2016 Chef Educator of the Year by the Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education.

He received a master’s in business administration from Colorado State University and an associate of applied science in hotel restaurant administration from State University of New York at Delhi.

Carol Krugman Maller

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Prior to joining the faculty at MSU Denver, Professor Krugman worked in the global arena for 30 years in a variety of corporate marketing and meeting/event planning positions, as well as owning and managing her own meeting management company specializing in international medical/pharmaceutical meetings and conventions. She is retired as chair of the Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Events at MSU Denver.

She is regarded as one of the meeting industry’s top experts in cross-cultural planning, global meeting operations, and risk management. Professor Krugman has successfully implemented programs throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East, as well as in the US and Canada. She has lived in France, Mexico and Brazil and is fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese, with a working knowledge of Italian.

Named one of “The 25 Most Influential People in the Meeting Industry“ by Meeting News in 2004, Professor Krugman has written numerous articles for meeting and event industry publications and has co-authored two books: Mexico: A Planning and Information Guide, published by Meeting Professionals International and Global Meetings and Exhibitions, a textbook on international meeting planning published by John Wiley and Sons.

Professor Krugman received her BA from Goucher College and MEd from The Johns Hopkins University. She obtained the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 1996 and the advanced Certification in Meetings Management (CMM) in 1998. Professional memberships include Meeting Professionals International, the Professional Convention Management Association, the International Medical Meeting Professionals Association, the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, and the International Council on Hotel Restaurant Institutional Education. She serves on a variety of committees and task forces for meeting and event industry associations.

Shellie Kark

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Shellie Kark, B.A., is the program manager of the Meeting and Events Incentive Program for the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. In addition, Kark serves on the Culinary Council of Sterling Rice Group where she innovates and creates new product lines for the food and beverage industry. She is also the co-founder of KitchenCUE™, a series of technique-based videos that teach the fundamentals of food preparation and presentation through a simple, step-based approach. The KitchenCUE™ methodology has been utilized as a foundation for the development of an array of culinary programs spanning across diverse populations and has national recognition in a variety of publications, including O Magazine.

Prior to working at MSU Denver, Kark was a culinary professor at Johnson and Wales University Denver Campus and worked to establish the Cook Street School of Fine Cooking, where she was the Chef de Cuisine. She has spoken at the American Personal Chef Association annual summit, routinely develops and tests recipes for published cookbooks and consults with health and wellness organizations around nutritious, cooking and eating.

Kark received her bachelor’s in finance and accounting from Simmons University and procured her license as a CPA working for Arthur Andersen & Co. She graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and has worked in a number of renowned restaurants including La Folie in San Francisco, Seattle’s Dahlia Lounge and The Palace Kitchen.

Lincoln Davie

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Lincoln Davie, Ph.D., is an associate professor of outdoor recreation and Tourism Management in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

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