Center Staff
Ali Emdad, PhD
Associate Dean, Graves Business School
FinTech Center Director
Biography
Dr. Ali Emdad is the Associate Dean of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. He oversees all daily operations in the Graves School and assists the Dean in setting the vision and strategic priorities for the School. He is the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Blockchain and Financial Technology (The FinTech Center) where he manages a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant received from Ripple in February 2019. Previously, he served as the Founding Chair of the Department of Information Science and Systems in the Graves School where he holds rank of Full Professor with tenure. Dr. Emdad provided leadership for the department’s growth and addition of new programs including the B.S. in Supply Chain Management; the M.S. in Project Management; the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Project Management (both online and on campus); and the Information Systems Track in the Ph.D. Program in Business Administration.
Dr. Emdad has more than forty publications in various areas of IT. He focuses on FinTech related technologies including cryptoassets and blockchain program development and adoption models integrating design thinking and agile methodologies. He has shepherded the growth of the Graves School’s Capital Markets Lab. An experienced educator, Dr. Emdad has a thorough knowledge of the AACSB International accreditation standards and processes. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Emdad served as an IT specialist at Kennecott Corporation. A prolific fundraiser, he has established strong partnerships with corporations and government agencies and has been instrumental in bringing in large grants to Morgan State University. Dr. Emdad has been awarded the Iva G. Jones Medallion, the highest honor the university bestows upon a faculty member for outstanding teaching, research, and service. A 2007 Fulbright Fellow, Emdad holds a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University and has completed executive management, leadership, and technical education programs at Harvard, Yale, and MIT.
Sanjay Bapna, PhD
Chairman, Department of Information Science and Systems
FinTech Center Associate Director
Biography
Professor Sanjay Bapna is Professor and Chair of the Department of Information Science and Systems. Prof. Bapna received a BTech. in Chemical Engineering in 1981 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, an MBA. in 1987, and a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems in 1992 from The University of Iowa. He has received many honors including the prestigious 2011 Best Paper award, the 2009 Best paper award from the internationally recognized National Decision Sciences Institute, the 1994 best paper award from the International Association of Computer Information Systems. Prof. Bapna has also secured several grants from the Department of Transportation and is an authority on analytics and modeling, as well as Commercial Vehicle operations.
Judith Schnidman, MBA
FinTech Center Program Coordinator
Biography
Tyneissa Walters, CSM
FinTech Center Program Communications Coordinator
Biography
Tyneissa Walters is the Program Assistant of the Center for the Study of Blockchain and Financial Technology. She is a Certified Agile Scrum Master (CSM). Her background is in the field of agile project management and insurance sales. She specializes in project facilitation, graphic design, social media development and telemarketing.