Marketing, Management & Finance

Dr. Eve Proper currently teaches the Management and Leadership & Negotiation courses.

Organization theory and governance and fundraising are Dr. Proper’s primary areas of expertise. She is the co-author of Professors Behaving Badly: Faculty Misconduct in Graduate Teaching (Johns Hopkins Press, 2011), and of Institutional Advancement: What We Know (Palgrave, 2014). Her work has also been published in the International Journal of Educational Advancement, the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, and the Peabody Journal of Education.

A member of the Academy of Management and the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Dr. Proper earned a Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University. She also holds both a Master of Arts degree in Philanthropic Studies and a Master of Public Affairs degree in Nonprofit Management from Indiana University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Gavin Goldstein teaches Business Law, Licensing, Leadership and Negotiation, as well as First Year Experience.

In addition to teaching, he operates a legal practice focusing on property and business law. He has written Continuing Legal Education and Continuing Professional Education tutorials for Lawline.com and has presented on the topic of legal issues for startup businesses at Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship.

Professor Goldstein received a Juris Doctorate degree from Brooklyn Law School and a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree from Syracuse University.

Dr. Gayathri Banavara teaches Power of the Brand, Leadership & Negotiation, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility and Project Management at the undergraduate level and Retail Merchandising, Planning, and Control at the graduate level.

Professor Banavara worked in a buying office in India for several years before moving to Canada. There she worked at Roots Canada and was involved in the development of official attire for the 2002 and 2004 U.S. Olympic teams. She later worked with Kahn Lucas Lancaster Inc., an importer of girls’ dresses in New York.

Her current research interests are in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and ethics. She has been interviewed on those topics by WWD (Women’s Wear Daily) and Columbia University’s Uptown Radio.

Professor Banavara holds an Ed.D in Organizational Leadership Studies from Northeastern University, Master of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Mercy College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Delhi (India). 

Dr. Nicole Kirpalani teaches a variety of marketing courses, including Global Markets, Consumer Behavior, Services Marketing, Cause Marketing, and Customer Service.

Her academic interests focus on consumer relationships with fashion brands, consumer privacy, and sustainability in the context of fashion. In addition, she is engaged in research related to pedagogy and online/hybrid learning.

She has published her research in Psychology & Marketing, Marketing Education Review, and the Journal of Marketing Management.  An article is forthcoming in the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice.  Dr. Kirpalani serves as an editorial advisory board member for Young Consumers and as an editorial review board member for Marketing Education Review.  She serves as a discipline reviewer for the Fulbright Scholar Program Peer Review Committee.

Dr. Kirpalani holds a Ph.D. in Business (Marketing) from the City University of New York, where she was a doctoral fellowship recipient. She also received a Master of Science in Secondary Education (Business Education) and a Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from Hofstra University.

Dr. Kirpalani was inducted into the Delta Mu Delta honor society as a faculty member in 2014. She was selected as one of three finalists for the Pride-Ferrell Cengage Innovations in Teaching Competition at the Society for Marketing Advances Conference in 2012 and is the recipient of LIM College's 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award.

Prior to joining LIM College Dr. Rudolph Lalak had a 25-year career with JP Morgan Chase & Co., spending the last 10 of those years in a senior officer position at the firm as Financial Director.

At the undergraduate level Dr. Lalak teaches the Accounting and Finance courses, and he has taught Accounting for Managers, Financial Management, and Entrepreneurial Finance on the graduate level. His academic research currently focuses on corporate taxation, earnings management, and corporate financial risk-taking. In 2019, he was promoted to Associate Professor.

The recipient of LIM College’s 2008 Distinguished Teaching Award, Dr. Lalak is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and Certified Financial Manager (CFM). He is a member of the American Accounting Association, the American Taxation Association, the Financial Management Association International, and the Institute of Management Accountants. He has also been inducted into the Beta Alpha Psi Financial Information Honorary Organization and Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society for Business, Management and Administration.

He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Accounting and Finance from Trident University International, a Master of Business Administration degree in Economics from Iona College, an Advanced Professional Certificate in Taxation from New York University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Fordham University.

Dr. Mary Wagner joined LIM College as an Assistant Professor of Marketing, Management, and Finance in the Fall 2019 semester.

Dr. Wagner holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Michigan. She has experience teaching a wide range of marketing classes in multiple formats, including online.

Dr. Wagner previously taught at the University of New Hampshire, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Michigan, Dearborn. Prior to working at LIM College, she served as Interim Dean of Graduate Studies at Berkeley College. During her time at Berkeley, which started in 2010, she also served as the Interim Chair of Marketing and Chair of the Department of Management.