After earning her bachelor’s degree and MBA from Donghua University in Shanghai, China, Chen received her Ph.D. in Hotel Restaurant Management from Auburn University. The courses she teaches this fall tackle topics like hospitality revenue management, research methods, tourism and hospitality marketing and hotel operations. She is an authorized instructor for Certification in Hotel Industry Analytics (CHIA) and is a certified ServSafe instructor, as well. Chen began her UNO career in 2018 and was granted a promotion and tenure earlier this fall after just six years with the university.
Chen's research focuses on hospitality human resources management and organizational behavior, international hospitality management and hospitality consumer behaviors. She has won four best paper awards at conferences including ICHRIE and SECSA, and her research has been published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and others.
Compared to her hometown of Jinan, of Shandong Province, Shanghai, where she spent much time, Chen sees the most significant differences here in personal vs. public transportation; the food culture with increased portion sizes and richness; and the large festival culture, especially our Mardi Gras season.
“My first time coming to this city, I was a tourist, and I felt like, wow, this is the best place to be for hospitality and hotel management," Chen said. "With so many hotels and restaurants near the campus, and New Orleans being known for the cuisine and year-round tourism, I can’t think of a better place to study hospitality.”
Chen says that the New Orleans area is very appealing to the hospitality industry and allows students interested in the tourism industry to find jobs as soon as they graduate. With so many available jobs, she tells students to get into the industry through internships or beginner jobs as early as possible, to help them decide which hospitality focus area they'd most like to pursue.
