The director of the School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Recreation Management at Penn State University will join UNLV in August as dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, President Carol C. Harter announced Thursday.
Stuart H. Mann, who has been at Penn State since 1970 and has served as director of the hotel, restaurant, and recreation management school since 1990, was hired following a national search, Harter said.
"We believe that it takes a special person to lead our internationally known College of Hotel Administration, and I am confident that we have found that person in Dr. Mann," Harter said. "His extensive experience in higher education administration and as a consultant to business and governmental clients convinced us that we identified an excellent new dean."
Provost Douglas Ferraro said, "Dr. Mann's administration of multi-disciplinary teaching, service, and research programs will make him a wonderful asset to the College of Hotel Administration and to the campus as a whole."
Mann has held several positions at Penn State University, including assistant dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Human Development, head of the Man-Environment Department, and chair of the Intercollege Program in Operations Research. He also taught operations research at Penn State and Purdue universities, publishing more than 30 articles and papers in refereed journals.
Mann has been president of SHM Consulting Associates, Inc., in State College, Penn., since 1971. In that position he provides management science methods and services to a wide variety of public and industry clients.
He received the Ph.D. and master of science degrees in operations research from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and the bachelor of science in mathematics from the University of Illinois, Urbana.
Mann will be the third dean of UNLV's College of Hotel administration. The first was Dr. Jerry Vallen. The current dean is Dr. David Christianson, who has served since 1989 and who will assume the Harrah Distinguished Chair on July 1.
The William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration is widely considered the top program of its kind in the country and is among the very best in the world. The college has some 1,900 undergraduate and graduate majors and draws many international students to UNLV to study in the departments of food and beverage, hotel management, tourism and convention administration, and the UNLV International Gaming Institute.
