Dr. Marcus Fila, associate professor of management at Hope, has received this year’s Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award from the graduating Class of 2022.
The H.O.P.E. award, first given in 1965, is presented by the graduating class to the professor who they feel epitomizes the best qualities of the Hope College educator. Fila was named the recipient during the college’s Commencement ceremony, held at Ray and Sue Smith Stadium on Sunday, May 8.
The seniors vote for the award during the final weeks of spring-semester classes, with the outcome kept a secret until the announcement. As it happened, Fila didn’t have far to go to come to the podium to accept the honor. Instead of sitting among his faculty colleagues on the field with the graduates, he was already there as the event’s featured speaker.
Fila has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2013. He teaches courses in principles of management, human resource management, management in the British economy, and marketing management, as well as a management senior seminar designed to help equip students to transition to being successful, balanced and accountable professionals. He is also the director of Hope’s leadership minor program.
His primary area of research is the relationship between people and their work in the context of occupational health psychology and, specifically, stress at work. His interest in the topic was initially formed prior to his academic role, during almost a decade of work in executive recruitment and other business development positions in both the U.S. and U.K.
He has written or co-authored multiple articles published in professional journals and book chapters. During the college’s Winter Happening event in 2019, he presented the seminar “Got Work Stress? Creating Healthier and More Productive Workplaces.”
Originally from the United Kingdom, he moved to the United States in 1999. He holds a Diploma in management studies with distinction from Greenwich School of Management (2003); MBA with commendation, in personal development, marketing and strategy from Kingston Business School, (2005); an M.Sc. in industrial/organizational psychology from Ohio University (2013); and a Ph.D. in organizational leadership and analysis from Western Michigan University (2016).