Experts Guide
Faculty Emeritus
Peggy K. Takahashi, Associate Professor and Undergraduate Programs Associate Dean, is a highly accomplished academic with a primary focus on international business management with research interests in organizational strategy and policy, comparative studies of East Asian business (with a concentration on Japan), Keiretsu and Alliance.
Dr. Takahashi's undergraduate courses are designed to help students examine organizational behavior in global firms at both the macro and micro levels. They…
Adjunct Professor
Born and raised in San Francisco, Professor Helen Tam has always been drawn to urban public schools. After studying education at UC Davis and going on to become an elementary school teacher, she felt called to work with students with special needs. This led her to USF, where she earned a credential in special education. The field of special ed has been her passion ever since, and she plans to spend most, if not the rest, of her teaching career working with differently-abled students in public…
Adjunct Professor
Jonathan Tang is an adjunct instructor for the MA in Asia Pacific Studies Program, where he taught from 2014-2018, and has now returned to in 2022. After graduating with an AB in Social Studies from Harvard College in 2004, he received an MA in Regional Studies: East Asia from Columbia University, studied Mandarin Chinese for two years, and worked at a Beijing-based business school for two more before starting his doctoral studies on Twentieth-Century Chinese History at University of California,…
Adjunct Professor
Expertise: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,
Anxiety Disorders,
Clinical training and supervision
Litsa has been a part-time faculty member in the marriage and family therapy program at the Santa Rosa Campus since 2019.
In addition to her teaching, Litsa is the owner and co-founder of the Santa Rosa Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy a private group practice specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders using evidence based treatments as well as providing intensive training for post degree masters clinicians pursuing their hours for licensure.
Administrative Director
Aija Tapaninen has been with USF since 2014. Prior to joining the MSDS program team, she has held positions in the Strategic Enrollment Management division and at the School of Management, working with the campus community on a range of topics related to graduate student education. Before USF, Aija was in graduate admissions and student affairs at UC Berkeley and UCLA.
Associate Professor
Cowell Hall 220
Nancy Taquino is a nursing leader with extensive experience in clinical practice, education, and quality who has held various leadership roles. Her leadership and nursing practice are grounded in nursing disciplinary knowledge and Jesuit values with the goal of improving patient care outcomes and creating a healthy work environment for the patients, communities, students, and faculty we serve.
Professor
Malloy Hall, Room 318
Expertise: Corporate finance, financial management, investment analysis, entrepreneurial finance, and investing
Manuel Tarrazo has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses throughout his career at USF, including: financial management, investment analysis, entrepreneurship, personal finance, investing in Bay Area firms, and entrepreneurial finance.
His research interests center on financial decision-making, especially financial management and the selection of investments. He has made contributions (including 30 journal publications and 40 academic presentations) to pedagogy, the enhancement…
Professor
Downtown Campus, 101 Howard St., Office 216
Expertise: Sustainability management,
Sustainable development leadership,
Social economy organizations,
Indigenous & human rights,
Refugee education & services
Dr. Marco Tavanti is a professor of Leadership and Sustainability at the University of San Francisco’s Masagung Graduate School of Management. He serves as Program Director for the Master in Management - Sustainable Social Impact (MIM-SSI) and Faculty Lead for the Sustainability in Management Education (SiME) Impact Area. With over 30 years of global experience, Dr. Tavanti has led programs across Europe, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, focusing on sustainable development,…
Professor
Malloy Hall, Room 229
Professor Nicholas Tay’s research focuses on building theoretical models and conducting empirical studies to understand how human behaviors and market frictions interplay to affect the pricing of financial assets and the stability of financial markets. He uncovers relationships and patterns through financial econometrics and non-economic concepts, including agent-based modeling, social network analysis, cellular automata, genetic programming, fuzzy logic, chaos theory, fractal analysis, wavelet…