LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- The Rider University College of Business Administration's Business Advisory Board (BAB) has named Dr. Sigfredo Hernandez of Horsham, PA, associate professor of marketing, as the 1998 recipient of the Innovative Teaching Award.

The BAB presents the award annually to recognize the importance of bringing new and creative teaching practices to business education in the College of Business Administration.

In announcing the winner at a recent BAB meeting, Scotti Smith-Adair, chair of the BAB's business partnership committee and president of Results Unlimited of Titusville, cited Hernandez for his development of the community service/mentoring project called Minding Our Business (MOB) at the Arthur J. Holland Middle School in Trenton.

"Dr. Hernandez's course impressed the BAB members," Smith-Adair said. "Members were struck by the degree to which his approach embodied the spirit of the business school mission."

The MOB program is designed to promote leadership, teamwork, and entrepreneurial skills among the middle-school students, while Rider students benefit by practicing social responsibility through their mentoring experience. Local business leaders and other Rider business faculty are also part of the advising teams that work with the youngsters.

"The task of selecting this year's award recipient was enjoyable and challenging," Smith-Adair added. "All the courses under consideration impressed the committee as providing students with valuable experience that will prepare them for the business world."

Competition for the award included Dr. Christine Lentz, associate professor of management, with her international business study tour and her graduate-level international business seminar, and Dr. Lauren Eder, assistant professor of computer information systems, with her management information system course.

Dr. Hernandez began implementing his MOB program in the fall of 1996 when he was a recipient of a Jesse H. Harper Professorship which allowed him to work on a special project and enhance the teaching program of the business college.

A member of Rider's marketing faculty since 1987, Dr. Hernandez has taught, in addition to his MOB course, marketing principles, marketing research, graduate and undergraduate international marketing, a MBA course in marketing management, as well as race, class, gender and ethnicity in America and a course in Puerto Rican culture.

He holds a Ph.D. from Temple University, a M.A. degree from Boston University, and a B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico. He was also a recipient of Rider's Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.