Suresh Chalasani

Community Engaged Learning and Research Award
 

This year’s recipient of the Community Engaged Learning and Research Award is Dr. Suresh Chalasani, professor of Management Information Systems. As the first director of the Ralph Jaeschke Solutions for Economic Growth Center, he helped build best practices and processes for integrating community-based learning projects with the curriculum. Since 2003, Dr. Chalasani has involved hundreds of students in nearly one hundred community-based learning projects and has successfully published an article about his work in the Journal of Cases on Information Technology. Dr. Chalasani emphasized quality as students in his classes designed websites, managed projects and developed database systems that resulted in increased organizational capacity for area non-profits. It is not just the number of partnerships that make Dr. Chalasani so deserving of this award, but also his commitment to high-quality results. For example, after benefiting from a new website, the Danish American Home said, “It was obvious that Dr. Chalasani has the highest expectations of his students and their final presentation was truly professional.” Students also report their experiences positively. One MIS major wrote that Dr. Chalasani is always “willing to go above and beyond for the sake of student growth and community benefit. During the entire process, Suresh assisted as he saw fit, and provided constructive, challenging feedback. He continuously pushed us to exceed our own personal expectations and potential.” This commitment to quality, student growth and community benefit is why Dr. Chalasani is so deserving of this year’s Community Engaged Learning and Research Award.  

Dr. Suresh Chalasani is a Professor of Management Information Systems. He teaches in a number of programs including Management Information Systems, Health Information Management and Technology, Sustainable Management, Project Management, and MBA consortium. He serves as the Academic Director for the first competency-based Business degree program in the UW System --- flexible option Bachelor of Science in Business Administration offered by UW-Extension --- a program that he helped design and implement. Dr. Chalasani’s research interests include using information technology for healthcare applications and business supply chains, and he published several articles in prestigious journals such as the IEEE transactions. He coordinates the MIS and Project Management programs, co-chairs the campus-wide assessment committee, and oversees the implementation of international agreements with IndSearch, India. Dr. Chalasani received a number of research and teaching grants from the UW system and the National Science Foundation. His past experience includes working as an Assistant professor at UW-Madison and consulting for multiple organizations in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California.

Congratulations, Professor Chalasani!