51±¬ÁÏÍø

Dr. Brian D. Lyons is the Love Term Professor of Management within the Love School of Business at 51±¬ÁÏÍø. He joined the faculty in 2014 after serving on the faculties of Wright State University and California State University, Fresno. Throughout his academic career, Dr. Lyons has received recognition for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.

Dr. Lyons teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Human Resource Management (HRM) and Organizational Behavior. His teaching emphasizes experiential learning, evidence-based reflection, practical application, inclusivity, and community engagement. For example, in his upper-level HR Strategy and Consulting course, student teams serve as HR consultants for nonprofit organizations and small businesses, developing and delivering HR solutions to address real organizational challenges. Past projects have included competency models, structured interview systems, recruitment materials, onboarding programs, employee handbook language, and compensation structures. Dr. Lyons also shares his teaching approaches with colleagues through formal and informal mentoring, including facilitating a Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) workshop on creating student interdependence in the classroom.

Dr. Lyons's research focuses on recruitment, selection, counterproductive work and off-duty behavior, and leadership effectiveness. His work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Resource Management, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Journal of Business and Psychology, and the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. As a co-principal investigator, he has helped secure more than $1 million in external research funding since 2021. Dr. Lyons serves on the editorial boards of Applied Psychology: An International Review, Journal of Business and Psychology, Journal of Managerial Psychology, and Leadership & Organization Development Journal. His research has been featured by media outlets including ESPN, NPR (Southern California), CBC Radio's The Current, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, FiveThirtyEight, and The Huffington Post Canada. His interest in applying sports data to organizational research led him to serve as guest co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Business and Psychology. He also mentors undergraduate student researchers, with several projects culminating in peer-reviewed publications and top-tier conference presentations.

Dr. Lyons has led numerous academic initiatives at 51±¬ÁÏÍø. At the university level, he co-chaired the Full-Time Faculty Teaching Appointments Committee, whose recommendations resulted in the creation of a new Teaching track that replaced the longstanding Lecturer track. He also co-chaired the Gender Salary Equity Special Committee, which developed a new analytical model for examining gender identity differences in full-time faculty salaries. In addition, he chaired the Distinguished Scholar Award Committee, helped organize two Distinguished Scholar talks, and served on Academic Council, Committee on Committees, Faculty Research and Development Committee, Institutional Review Board, and the SPDC Advisory Board.

Within the Love School of Business, Dr. Lyons served as Faculty Director of the MBA and MSBA programs for seven years. During his tenure, he led the implementation of the MBA and MSBA curriculum revisions, co-created the 3+1 BSBA/MSBA pathway, developed new graduate certificate programs (e.g., Healthcare Analytics and Operations Excellence), and oversaw assurance of learning initiatives across multiple graduate programs. He also designed the Human Resource Management (HRM) major--which is aligned with SHRM curriculum standards--co-developed the HRM minor, chaired multiple tenure-track faculty searches, and helped restructure administrative roles within the Dean's Office. He currently serves as faculty advisor for Elon's award-winning SHRM student chapter.

Dr. Lyons received the Love School of Business Dean's Awards for Excellence in Scholarship (2016), Teaching (2017), and Service (2019), as well as the 2020 Beta Gamma Sigma Professor of the Year Award. Prior to entering academia, he conducted HR research for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC. He is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Studies from the University at Albany, State University of New York.