Professor to join hospitality association board
John Avella has been elected to the Monterey County Hospitality Association’s board of directors. Dr. Avella, assistant professor of hospitality management and hotel/resort management in CSU Monterey Bay's School of Business, will join the board in January. He’ll serve on the association’s education committee. His background includes 40 years of human resource development and teaching experience in the hospitality industry and higher education. He has been vice president of human resources for Marriott Corporation, The Rainbow Room and Windows on the World, and president of Human Resource Concepts. His work focused on management and executive development, customer service and organizational strategic change. His clients included Marriott Corporation, University of Florida, and Hilton Hotels, to name a few. Dr. Avella has taught on the graduate and undergraduate level at Columbia University, Empire State College, Fairleigh Dickinson University and City University of New York. In 2001, he was director of human resources for the food service group at the Salt Lake City Olympics – an operation that served 125,000 meals per day. In 2011, he was a consultant on tourism issues in Anhui Province, China. He has a doctorate from Columbia University, with a concentration in Adult and Organizational Learning. Among his research interests is the application of emotional intelligence to customer service/loyalty, emotional labor and leadership. He has developed a process that teaches people to “connect” to the customer and staff to create loyalty.