Faculty, field, and technical advisors are an integral part of the SMART Program. They provide teams with niche expertise and advice, helping students to conduct effective and relevant research and to produce successful deliverables. We thank our 2022 SMART advisors:

Faculty Advisors

Fridah Mubichi-Kut

Professor of Practice, Applied Economics and Policy, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management​​
Teams: E&E Green Farms, The CARL Group, Apiculture Information Networks, Dopoto Beekeeping and Marketing Cooperative Society, Olesamara Collection
Fridah is a Professor of Practice at the Dyson School and SC Johnson College of Business and directs the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program. Her current research interests are focused on the development of engaged learning curricula as well as, the role social-economic development policies play in the promotion of life science innovations in Africa. As project lead, Fridah is actively engaged in project design and development of the African incubator and apiary projects. As program director and faculty lead, she is also responsible for curricula and project development of all SMART projects.

Ralph Christy

Professor, Applied Economics and Policy, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management​​​
Team: The Humble Store​, ESG Travel and Tourism
Dr. Christy is a professor of emerging markets and Director of the Emerging Markets Program at Cornell University, where he teaches and conducts food marketing research on the economic performance of markets and distribution systems. He has advised industry leaders and public policy makers on food marketing strategies, economic development, and the organization of the global food economy. His recent research calls attention to the role of creating an enabling environment for accelerating agro-industries’ contributions to economic growth and development.

Lin Fu

Research Fellow, Emerging Markets Program, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management ​​
Team: ESG in Travel and Tourism, StuyHealth​
Lin Fu is a research fellow with the Emerging Markets Program and the director of the Cornell-Walmart Foundation China Food Safety Research Project. She was previously a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her research interests include political economy, economic development, entrepreneurship, and food and agricultural policy. She has been a consultant on projects for various organizations, including the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Asian Productivity Organization, and Control Risks. Prior to Cornell, she worked for a number of years in finance and project management consulting. Lin holds graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Cornell University.

Christina McDowell

Senior Lecturer, Marketing and Management Communication, Nolan School of Hotel Administration​​​
Team: Olesamara Collection​
Dr. McDowell is a senior lecturer of marketing and management communication at Cornell University, in the SC Johnson College of Business Peter and Stephan Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Her research interests start with communicative engagement and emphasizes actively investigating social, civic, economic, and moral problems in the areas of corporate communication, integrated marketing communication (IMC) as well as communication ethics by people and organizations. She has professional experience teaching business/corporate communication and marketing related courses, serving in academic administration roles, delivering professional presentation and workshops in industry, and working in an integrated communication agency setting.

Scott McArt

Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture & Life sciences​​​
Team: Mapping Apiculture information networks​
Professor McArt’s research focuses on the impact of pesticides, pathogens, and habitat on honey bees and wild bees. He is particularly interested in scientific research that can inform management decisions by beekeepers, growers and the public. He also writes a monthly column in the American Bee Journal, and is a member of the New York State Beekeeper Tech Team, which works directly with NYS beekeepers to improve honey bee health, reduce colony losses, and increase profitability of the state’s beekeeping industry.

Martina Occelli

Postdoctoral Associate, Agricultural Economics & Global Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences​
Team: E&E Green Farms | Rwanda
Martina Occelli has expertise in participatory breeding approaches, with a focus on eliciting farmers’ local ecological knowledge and perceptions. Before joining Global Development, Martina was a postdoctoral research fellow in Agricultural Economics at the Institute of Life Sciences of the Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, IT). Since 2021, she is also an official affiliate of EMbeDS (Economics and Management in the era of Data Science) at Sant’ Anna.

Ed Mabaya

Research Professor & Director, Humphrey Fellowship Program, Department of Global Development​​​
Team: E&E Green Farms
Dr. Ed Mabaya is a scholar and a development practitioner with more than two decades of experience working on development, agribusiness value chains and food security issues with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Research Professor in the Department of Global Development where his teaching, research and outreach work focuses on economic development in Africa. He also serves as Director of the Humphrey Fellowship Program, a Fulbright exchange program that provides accomplished professionals from countries with emerging economies an international enrichment opportunity in leadership and public service at Cornell.

Alex Susskind

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, SC Johnson College of Business & Nolan​​​
Team: Mapping Apiculture information networks​
Alex M. Susskind joined the faculty at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration in 1998. He is a Professor of Food and Beverage Management and the Director of the Cornell Institute of Food and Beverage Management. Professor Susskind is currently serving as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the School. Professor Susskind earned his Ph.D. in Communication from Michigan State University with a specialization in organizational communication and his MBA with a concentration in personnel and human relations. Alex earned his undergraduate degree at Purdue University in Restaurant, Hotel, and Institutional Management and is also a trained chef with a degree in Culinary Arts from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Prior to starting his career in Academia, Alex worked as a chef and restaurant operator for both independent and multi-unit restaurant companies in the Northeastern and Southeastern United States.

Iwan Azis

Professor, Applied Economics and Policy, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management​​
Team: The Humble Store​
Dr. Iwan is a Professor of Emerging Markets within the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and was the Director of Graduate Studies, Regional Science program (2005-2010), Cornell University where he has taught since 1992. Prior to that, he was the Chair of the Department of Economics and the Director of the Inter-University Center for Economics at the University of Indonesia. Iwan has served as a consultant to several governments and organizations in Asia and taught as a visiting professor in Japan, Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia. He previously served as the appointed Head of the Office of Regional Economic Integration at the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), during which he became the Interim Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trust
Fund-Credit Guarantee Investment Facility (CGIF), and member of the International Policy Advisory Group. He is currently advising the Indonesian Central Bank and the Deposit Insurance Corporation, and a member of the International Advisory Panel of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AlIB).

Reza Moghimi

Lecturer, Operations Technology and Information Management, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management​
Team: ESG in Travel and Tourism​
Reza Moghimi is a lecturer in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. He teaches spreadsheet modeling for management and economics, and programming and data management for business analytics. His research interests are in the area of financial performance evaluation with Artificial Intelligence. Moghimi presents his research at INFORMS and IISE.

Han Kim

Executive in Residence, Emerging Markets Program, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management​
Team: ESG in Travel and Tourism​
Han Kim brings more than 25 years of global leadership in business and technology strategy development with a focus on driving innovation and growth. Han is currently the founder and CEO of a start-up venture with a synergistic business model and a digital platform solution that helps to solve the biggest challenges in the hospitality industry. At Samsung, Han was the Vice President of leading Global Strategy Expansion in Digital Innovation Solutions and Smart Cities. Prior to Samsung, Han held various strategic leadership positions with Cisco, IBM, Deloitte & Touche, and KPMG Peat Marwick’s management consulting organizations. At Cisco, Han was one of the key leaders responsible for driving the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute,  a strategic business incubator. Within 4 years, the start-up program was launched in over 28 countries, focusing on growth and innovation and making an impact on the economic and social prosperity of over 18,000 SMEs in emerging market countries. Han received both his Bachelor of Science and Masters degrees in Engineering from Cornell University.