DBA 8 Candidates

Pam Dzikowski, ABD

Pam is a native of Jacksonville, Florida and has strong ties to Jacksonville both personally and professionally. Pam grew up just one mile down the street from JU’s campus, where she lived for 25 years through high school. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting and her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of North Florida, and she is an active certified public accountant (CPA). Pam is the Corporate Controller for Baptist Health and has been with Baptist for ten years.

Her career meandered through Jacksonville, starting at Florida National Bank, where she worked while in college. Her career continued after acquisitions with First Union National Bank and Wachovia National Bank where she worked in various operations roles and lastly in Finance as the Vice President and North Florida Regional Financial Analyst. After 15 years in banking, she went into consulting with CFO Services serving in interim accounting and system implementation roles. She left to pursue a career with Winn Dixie as a Division Financial Analyst/Controller for three years, only to return to consulting with CFO Services/Accretive Solutions as the Director of Business Development and Accounting & Finance. After a combined nine years of consulting, she worked for the Jacksonville Bank as the Vice-President and Controller and left shortly before the bank was acquired. She joined Baptist Health in 2012, where she is the Corporate Controller. She has served in memberships with many professional organizations, such as Financial Executives International (FEI) and Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and served as Vice-President of the local chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA).

When not working or at school, Pam is with her family, volunteering, engaged with church, or participating in fitness activities. Pam is married and has two sons, both of whom currently attend JU. One son played collegiate baseball and is a senior at JU’s Keigwin School of Nursing. The other son played football for JU and is an accounting major within the Davis College of Business & Technology.

Mohammad Elayyan, ABD

Mohammad Elayyan is the General Manager of the U.S. branch of an international Dubai-based manufacturing company (NAFFCO Group). He is a Mechanical/Mechatronics engineer, and has more than 15 years of experience in management at engineering companies. He is working with his team right now to take his new operations at Beeville, Texas to the next level. It is an exciting journey for him to explore new markets and face new challenges. 

Mohammad hold a BSc from Jordan University of Science and Technology, and MBA from New York Institute of Technology. 

Presently, pursuing a Doctorate degree in Business Administration (DBA) in-order to attain his life goal of a career in management consultancy, research, and academia. 

Mohammad is born and raised in Amman, Jordan. He lives Houston, Texas, married, and blessed with two children (Zuhour and Kamal).

Jessie Hafele, ABD

Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Jessie graduated from Florida State College at Jacksonville with Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and then completed her Master of Healthcare Administration from University of Central Florida.

Her passion is patient focused and strives to help others. She has over a decade of experience in the pharmacy and health insurance industry. In 2016, she assisted with opening Publix specialty compounding pharmacy inside Nemours Children’s Specialty Clinic. Additionally, Jessie has been instrumental in implementing and overseeing new departments and processes for home delivery pharmacies for United Healthcare OptumRx and high dollar patient responsible denial resolutions for Mayo Clinic. Currently, she is a member of a small team in assisting Florida Blue Medicare Pharmacy Programs by contributing to strategic and operational support.

Jessie took a short survey through social media asking her followers basic questions related to their knowledge of their health benefits. She found many of her respondents do not understand their benefits and are often confused by the policies. She believes this is a common household concern and often, people are not sure which policies to choose. She is interested in researching further to identify how to help communicate healthcare costs and how their insurance policies are designed to help

Dawn Hart, ABD

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Dawn Hart is a certified public accountant with thirty years work experience in academia and private industry.  Dawn’s private sector experience includes working as: an accountant for Trammel Crow Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma; a United States Department of Veteran’s Affairs fiduciary, a Dougherty County Probate Court fiduciary, and a manager of Driskell Machine Works (a second-generation family business).   Dawn’s academic experience includes teaching accounting and other business courses at Albany State University, Northeastern State University, Rogers State University, and Georgia Southwestern State University.

In her personal life, Dawn is a Licensed Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church.  Both personally and professionally, Dawn is committed to service.  Upon completion of her Doctorate of Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting and Finance, Dawn hopes to contribute to the body of scholarly work and continue her first love of working with students.

Shahbaz Khan, ABD

Shahbaz is Born and raised in Mumbai, India, and now resides in Dallas, Texas. Joining him is his wife and 3 kids. He has a professional career spanning of more than 10 years in diverse industries such as Finance, Retail, and Consumer Goods. He works as a Manager in a Fortune 100 company and is also a Founder and Chief Visionary officer of a Consumer Goods startup based in Texas. 

Shahbaz graduated with a Bachelors in Management Studies from the University of Mumbai, Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Alagappa University, Post Graduate Diploma in Retail Management from Madurai Kamaraj University, Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a specialization in Marketing from Alagappa University, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a specialization in Data Analytics and Entrepreneurship from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. 

Presently is pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) to learn the art of research and gain theoretical-based knowledge that can be applied to the practice of business and business management and to contribute to business scholarship.

Sarah Schechter, ABD

Sarah Schechter is starting her first year at Jacksonville University with the DBA program and is interested in pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. Sarah completed her undergraduate degree at Florida Gulf Coast University in 2017 and her MBA at Johnson & Wales University in 2019. Sarah is currently employed with Drury Hotels as a National Sales Coordinator. She started with Drury Hotels back in 2017 in Fort Myers, FL and worked her way up to Assistant General Manager in Burlington, NC assisting in Housekeeping, Food & Beverage and the Front Office. She played a key role in hiring, training, and mentoring team members and creating memorable experiences for guest's during their stays at the hotel. 

 Since she was little, her family has owned and operated two businesses: a Private School- Sunset Preparatory School- in Miami, FL and a Hotel- The Worthington- on Fort Lauderdale beach. After watching her family own and operate the businesses, she knew at a young age she also wanted to leave a legacy like that behind. In the future, she hopes to continue in her parents' path with education and pursue a career as a University Professor specializing in Hospitality and Marketing.  Sarah spends her free time trying new recipes in the kitchen and kickboxing with her friends and family. 

Sabrin Stewart, ABD

Born and raised in Egypt, Sabrin is currently residing in Irvin, California. Since 2018, she works as an accounting adjunct faculty for Ashland University, Eastern Gateway Community College, and Washtenaw Community College located in Ohio and Michigan. Sabrin worked with one of the Big Four companies, PriceWaterhouseCooper “PWC” after graduating with her master's degree in accounting back in 2016. In “PWC”, she worked for the hedge funds taxes, later, she started her own tax practice for individuals’ and small business taxes operating under an LLC named “Top Tax Services”. In addition, Sabrin is a world traveler; she visited over 50 countries during the past 20 years. She has an interest in helping minorities especially women who move to the United States with very limited English skills.

Sabrin joined Jacksonville in fall 2021 for doctorate in business with double majors: “Accounting and finance”. In spring 2022, Sabrin got accepted in Penn State University as an Assistant Professor for Accounting. PSU is ranked 54th among the best universities in the world for the quality of education of its students and the research prowess of its faculty. Upon completing the Doctorate program, Sabrin will purse research in Tax topics.

Charmaine Zhang, ABD

Charmaine is currently an audit data analyst at the State Board of Administration of Florida. She performs analytic and technical duties to enhance the Office of Internal Audit’s (OIA) data analytics program. She is responsible for assisting with data analytics during the regular audit and advisory engagements, and creating analysis for OIA’s continuous monitoring and risk assessment.

Charmaine obtained a Bachelor of Economics in Finance from Central South University, a Master of Science in Information Systems and Operations Management, with a concentration in Business Intelligence & Analytics and a minor in Statistics from University of Florida. Charmaine is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society.

She is pursuing her Doctorate of Business Administration and is interested in management information systems. Charmaine is originally from Inner Mongolia, China. Currently, she lives in Tallahassee, FL with her two cats.