Wee, Belinda, PhD
Biography
Dr. Belinda Wee’s Ph.D. is in Education, with a specialization in Human Resource Development, from the University of Minnesota. She earned her Masters in Human Resources & Industrial Relations from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota and she worked on her undergraduate degree in Restaurant, Hotel & Institutional Management, Purdue University. Her Master of Business Administration is from Husson University. She joined the College of Business, Husson University in the Fall of 2012.
Dr. Wee’s field experiences include being engaged in high level management positions in various international organizations, mainly as a human resource practitioner. She earned her place in those organizations by applying and demonstrating leadership and management skills in conceptualizing, communicating and over-seeing the execution of strategic plans to ensure that the areas under her lead consistently contribute value to the organization. Her portfolio encompassed corporate level responsibilities like crafting Human Resources Policies and Procedures that was implemented organization-wide. While working with a management company which had interests in various hotels in China and Australia, Dr. Wee designed training and development modules for implementation at each of the hotels. Her pursuit of a career in the international hospitality sector led her to live and work in Singapore, Malaysia, the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States.
The establishment of a Corporate Training Center in Beijing, China for the then Holiday Inn Worldwide group is another feather in Dr. Wee’s cap. Besides recruiting and training course facilitators for this Corporate University, she was also involved in the development and teaching of some of the courses. She looked after the hotel management company’s People Management, Learning & Development needs of the 17 properties in China, Hong Kong and Macau then. During the course of her tenure, she was also involved in the business development of the company and actively participated in the various stages of marketing hotel management contracts to hotel/business owners in Asia.
While working on her doctorate degree, Dr. Wee co-founded an online busines offering unique Chinese and Tibetan handmade arts and craft items. Her China-based business offered her the opportunity to deal with international businesses/customers throughout Southeast and North Asia, Australia, Europe and the US. Another entrepreneurial endeavor that Dr. Wee undertook is an outfit that provided automotive consultation and services. Dr. Wee credits this business for having deepened her insight and understanding of the issues that surround American business operators/owners. Just before joining Husson University, Dr. Wee worked full time for the State of Maine.
Dr. Wee’s research interests are in the areas of expatriation, career development, motivation, mentoring, optimizing organizational talent, organizational development, Corporate Culture, Diversity, Equality & Inclusiveness, Remote Leadership, amongst other topics. She keeps current on trends and best employer practices in the business arenas and actively participates in attending and presenting papers at national and international conferences. She also serves as a peer reviewer for papers submitted to refereed journals and professional conferences.
A way for Dr. Wee’s personal expression of “giving back“ to the community is by being involved in community service. Besides working on various faculty-led committees on campus, she also holds leadership positions in her church and also the larger district activities of the United Methodist Conference.
I passionately believe that my role in teaching is to be that of not just a facilitator, but also a coach, a manager, and a mentor to my students. People construct meanings and knowledge through their interactions with each other and with texts, carried through by reflective and critical thinking. An effective teacher is one who plays an important part in this construction stage of the learning process.
We often hear that knowledge is power. One of the responsibilities of a teacher is to prepare students for a productive and effective role in society and I believer that the consequence of learning is the acquisition of not only knowledge, but of skills and attitudes too. People learn either because they are genuinely interested to know or they have to know in order to survive. The goal of instruction therefore, is to impart and provide knowledge or skills required by the students.
I truly believe that teachers can contribute positively to society through their students. Learning takes place both formally and informally. An energetic and motivated teacher is capable of bringing life to the students’ minds and imparting attitudes that have long lasting influence on lives. In my personal experience, I credit my undergraduate academic advisor, the late Professor Ray Dault, for having made significant impact on my adoption of the philosophy of always giving my best effort in all my undertakings. He had challenged me to go beyond efficiency and to become an effective person. Likewise, I would like to impart some of these values to my students by requiring them to always give their very best effort in their tasks so that this practice will eventually become an integral part of them as they walk into their futures. And I hope that they will find that the consistent giving of their personal best is one factors that contributes significantly towards the achievement of their success.
Active learning can only take place when learning is literally seen as a verb and not a noun. As much as it is the responsibility of the teacher to tech, the onus to learn is on the students and they must have the desire to learn before learning can take place. My classrooms would be a place where there is commitment to dialogue so as to exchange ideas. Questions from students are earnestly encouraged because their questions represent inquisitive, engaged and interested minds. It is a fact that questions posed by learners show that reasoning or thinking that learning is taking place. I will attempt to answer questions posed by my students as completely and as accurately as I can. I will also stage my classes by posing questions to my students to check their understanding of the materials being taught.
Finally, it will be my responsibility as a teacher to ensure that although students will need to work hard, they may be surprised at how enjoyable the learning journey can turn out to be!