Dr. Paul Blossom
Dr. Paul Blossom has had hands-on experience in every phase of manufacturing operations from the factory floor to the executive suite. Starting out as a millwright with General Motors, he has been a management consultant with companies around the country, served as Senior Vice President of Operations for one corporation, and Chief Operating Officer of another. His academic credentials are as impressive as his business experience. He has taught at internationally-acclaimed universities, presented papers at numerous professional symposiums, written articles for several trade journals, and was elected to the Decision Sciences Institute Doctoral Student Consortium. And since 2005, Dr. Blossom has been teaching courses in Operations Management at AIU Online.
In addition to his work at AIU Online, Dr. Blossom is the Principal Consultant of Kyvia, Inc. His professional strengths include team development, R&D, business technology and financial management, organizational development, strategic planning and all phases of operations management. A multifaceted, participatory manager, he has spent over twenty years with companies such as Styron, Inc., Bristol Software, and General Motors, Inc., successfully overseeing a broad spectrum of projects including those with complex technical and logistical challenges.
Dr. Blossom began his career in 1978 as an apprentice at General Motors, after graduating with a B.S. in Psychology from Michigan State University. Fortunately, General Motors supported his career aspirations and he was able to continue his education at Michigan State, earning an M.S. in Operations Research Management while moving up GM's corporate ladder. By the time he left the company in 1991, he was a General Supervisor in Planned Maintenance.
Becoming an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Michigan, he taught Management Information Systems, Operations Strategy, and Management Operations for the next nine years. He completed his Ph.D. in Production and Operations Management at Michigan State in 1993 and began teaching at Grand Valley State University as well. When five of the 43 sections he taught at Grand Valley used long distance learning techniques such as video conferencing and e-mail, the experience gave Dr. Blossom a special understanding of the powerful potential this new educational environment offered students, faculty, and employers.
Since he earned most of his own academic degrees while holding down a full-time job, Dr. Blossom has a special appreciation of the challenges that many working students face. "I know from first hand experience as a student and teacher that most ground institutions simply don't understand working students. AIU Online, on the other hand, is ideally designed to serve their needs. Students can immediately apply what they learn at AIU Online on the job, testing their lessons against their own real-life experience."
According to Dr. Blossom, one of his favorite aspects of teaching online "is hearing from former students about how what they've learned in my classes enhanced their effectiveness at work." Undoubtedly Dr. Blossom's real-life expertise adds a special dimension to the academic subject matter. As he admits, "I can't help but cite real-world examples of the various concepts we discuss in class from my own career. And I enjoy hearing about the challenges that my students face at their jobs. These interactions keep the whole subject exciting and fresh for me in my work as well as in the classroom, as I share what I've learned with my students and learn from them in turn."
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