(Posted October 2, 2006)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Marlene Burkhardt, associate professor of business and information technology at Juniata College, will give a talk on "You Are Who You Meet," a discussion of how social influences shape opinions, attitudes and behaviors, at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 11 in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture is part of the Bookend Seminar Lecture Series, which features afternoon lectures each month by Juniata faculty.
Burkhardt, who teaches Juniata's course on cyber-marketing, has researched how students used computers as learning tools and found that individuals adopt similar attitudes about computers and computer-use habits as the people they interact with in the office, lab, or online. She also will talk about how individuals with similar computer-use habits will often reach the same decision when deciding whether to stay in a job or leave an organization.
Burkhardt came to Juniata in 2002 as associate professor of business and information technology. She earned a bachelor\'s degree in psychology and philosophy from Wilkes College in 1980. She went on to earn a master\'s degree in administration from the University of Maryland in 1982 and earned a doctorate in organizational theory and behavior from Penn State University in 1990.
Before joining Juniata\'s faculty, she worked as a full-time business consultant from 1998 to 2002 as president of Nittany Research, a firm specializing in organizational survey development and research. She started her academic career as the Anheuser-Busch Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School of Business and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, a position she held from 1990 to 1997.
Her research has been published in academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business School Press and Administrative Science Quarterly. She received the University of Pennsylvania Junior Faculty Award in 1992.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.