{"id":2834,"date":"2016-02-25T10:06:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T16:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/?p=2834"},"modified":"2016-03-24T14:50:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T19:50:02","slug":"blog-spotlight-on-ryan-jessup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/2016\/02\/25\/blog-spotlight-on-ryan-jessup\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Ryan Jessup"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is your educational background? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1997 ACU: BBA in Marketing, Minor in Bible<\/p>\n

2003 ACU: MS in Psychology<\/p>\n

2008 Indiana University: Joint PhD in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science<\/p>\n

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\"Dr.

Dr. Ryan Jessup<\/p><\/div>\n

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What is your work background?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After finishing my undergraduate degree I designed websites for several companies while also serving as a salesman in training for LL Sams, Inc., in Cameron, Texas, a church furniture manufacturer.\u00a0\u00a0 I later became their regional sales manager in Atlanta, Georgia. My dad called me a \u201cpew peddler.\u201d After finishing my PhD, I became a research scientist at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland, followed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. In both locations I used functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and mathematical modeling to understand human neural activity as it engaged in decision making and learning.<\/p>\n

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What do you teach at ACU?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I teach Marketing Research, Consumer Behavior, and Data Mining, as well as occasional courses, including a graduate course on analytics and honors courses on topics such as cognitive science or Christian apologetics.<\/p>\n

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What committees\/other duties do you have at ACU aside from teaching?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I serve on the faculty senate, the COBA AACSB continuing improvement working group, the undergraduate research council, the undergraduate research festival planning committee, and as the chair of the COBA research team and the faculty representative on the ACIMCO board.<\/p>\n

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What drew you to teaching? Why did you want to work with students?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Undergraduates are special. They are bursting with potential, sort of like those little toy cars that you pull back to wind up \u2013 when you let go you never know where they\u2019ll end up. Just like those toy cars, undergrads need to be carefully \u201caimed\u201d so that they fulfill their potential while still maintaining integrity. It is our job to help aim the students, a responsibility I do not take lightly. It can be challenging and humbling because I make my share of mistakes, often causing me to ask \u201cwho am I to \u2018aim\u2019 these students when I am so filled with error?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Outside of teaching, what passions and hobbies do you have?<\/em><\/strong>
\nI very much love my family and getting to spend time with them. It has been a tiring joy to build a family with my beloved wife and watch our kids grow.<\/p>\n

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