{"id":6954,"date":"2022-09-06T13:50:59","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T18:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/?p=6954"},"modified":"2022-09-06T13:50:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T18:50:59","slug":"coba-new-faculty-member-dr-joseph-manga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/2022\/09\/06\/coba-new-faculty-member-dr-joseph-manga\/","title":{"rendered":"COBA New Faculty Member Dr. Joseph Manga"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Written by special contributor Lance Fleming<\/em><\/p>\n

Growing up in Cameroon as the oldest child in a family of five, Dr. Joseph Manga never imagined where his life would take him.<\/p>\n

Four different universities for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral work, as well as tutoring and teaching experience, have all been part of the experience. And this past summer, it led him to Abilene Christian University and the College of Business Administration where he is teaching Management Information Systems.<\/p>\n

Manga now joins the full-time faculty as a tenure-track assistant professor of Information
\nSystems and Management Science. None of this was what Manga expected to be his life\u2019s work
\nwhile living in Cameroon. But as he would come to learn, God had other plans for his life.
\n\u201cAs we know, many may be the plans in a man\u2019s heart, but the Lord determines the end,\u201d he
\ncontinued. \u201cI began with Mathematics, did a little bit of Computer Science, and then moved on
\nto business (MIS). This all worked out because I didn\u2019t just want to be crunching numbers and
\nnot know how to interpret them. So, I developed my love for learning from my personal
\nexperience. As an introvert, I thought that doing something that would keep me from talking to
\npeople would be great. That\u2019s why I\u2019m so passionate about research. That was all my plan. But
\nGod\u2019s plan was to send me to love and talk to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing all of that, it still took a chance conversation with a friend that pointed him toward
\nteaching and meeting the needs of young people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI vividly remember sometime in 1998 a friend walked up to me and said, \u2018I see you as a
\nteacher,\u2019 \u201c Manga said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to hear that because I never wanted to teach, partly
\nbecause of my personality. But as I applied myself to learning, I realized there is more to
\nteaching than just transferring knowledge. It involves mentoring and discipleship, which are
\ngodly assignments that we are called to fulfill. I believe that teaching brings transformation to
\nmany when it is done in a godly way. That\u2019s why I\u2019m excited to be part of a family and
\ncommunity that focus on raising a holistic generation in terms of spiritual academic formation,
\nwho will, in turn, move on to serve and transform their world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also motivated by the memory of his father, who passed away last January. Manga is the
\nfirst person in his family to attain a doctorate, and he attributes his decision to reach the
\nhighest level of education to his father, who worked as a janitor at the university Manga
\nattended in Cameroon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was a strong motivator and proponent for pursuing education, which is a passion for
\nme now \u2013 to see young people educated,\u201d Manga said. \u201cAs a janitor, my dad would wake up
\nvery early to go clean the classrooms before students started classes. I still remember one
\ninstance when my dad’s supervisor verbally demeaned him, and I felt bad. But I decided to get
\nto the highest level of education and use it to honor the janitors who keep our work
\nenvironment clean. It was an awful life experience, but it served as a challenge to the
\neducational experience I have today, which I see as a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manga earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Buea in Cameroon before earning a
\nMaster\u2019s of Business Administration from Midwestern State University in 2014, a Master of
\nScience in Management Information Systems from the University of North Texas in 2018, and
\nfinally his Ph.D., in Business Administration from the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley in
\n2022.<\/p>\n

During all of his academic work, Manga has continued his research in several different areas of
\nmanagement information systems, technology, information security policy compliance,
\nbusiness analytics, health information technology, cyber security, and many others.
\n\u201cResearch is a passion,\u201d Manga said. It\u2019s one way to apply my background knowledge in
\nMathematics, which is problem-solving. Identifying problems and looking for ways to provide
\nsolutions to these problems is what drives me into research. Finally, I see research as making a
\nlittle contribution to academia and giving back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manga has also worked as a Men\u2019s Ministry Coordinator at Abundant Grace Community Church
\nin Edinburg and as a tutor while in Wichita Falls. And he\u2019s kept up with a family that includes
\nwife Clarise and four children: Abijoy (9), Solien-Pearl (6), Zoe-Ann (5), and Joe-Praise (4), all of
\nwhom he calls \u201cinquisitive disciples.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now the family of six has found its way to Abilene and ACU where Manga is ready and
\nwilling to serve as God leads.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am passionate to serve, especially in an environment that aligns with one\u2019s beliefs and
\nvalues,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the opportunity opened to be part of a culture and institution that
\ntrains godly business leaders in whatever capacity they find themselves, I was glad to jump on
\nit. God opened this door and I love to follow His lead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by special contributor Lance Fleming Growing up in Cameroon as the oldest child in a family of five, Dr. Joseph Manga never imagined where his life would take him. Four different universities for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral work, as well as tutoring and teaching experience, have all been part of the experience. And this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[818,6633,2758,184663,6627,206734,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-coba-faculty","category-college-decisions","category-faculty-testimonials","category-faith-infusion","category-management-information-systems","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6954"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6958,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6954\/revisions\/6958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}