Hospitality: An Introduction

Robert A. Brymer, Ph.D., CHA, is the Director of the Dedman School of Hospitality, College of Business, at Florida State University, and the Cecil B. Day Professor of Lodging Management. He is nationally recognized in hotel management and education in the following ways:

• Ranked 18th in hospitality research influence and 20th in hospitality research productivity worldwide
• Certified Trainer in Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Recognized in Harvard University's Profiles in Business & Management: An International Directory of Scholars and Their Research
• Appointed to the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism
• Stevenson Fletcher CHRIE Achievement Award
• Van Nostrand Reinhold CHRIE Research Award
• Elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Stress
• Florida State University Teaching Award
• Certified Hotel Administrator by the American Hotel & Lodging Association

Dr. Brymer has over 30 years of management, consulting, and education experience in the hotel industry. He has held management and supervisory positions with Hyatt Hotels, Westin Hotels, and Hospitality Management Corporation. In 2000, while on sabbatical from Florida State University, he worked for several months in daily operations at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Sydney, Australia. His management seminars have been presented for more than 7000 managers in the hotel industry, including Four Seasons, Walt Disney World, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Westin, Inter-Continental, and many five-star independent hotels and resorts.

Dr. Brymer earned his doctorate in Psychology from The University of Denver, where he specialized in executive and management psychology. He has an M.B.A. in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management from Michigan State University and a B.S.B.A. in Hotel and Restaurant Management from The University of Denver. He is one of the hotel industry's leading authorities in managerial and organizational psychology, and has conducted research in the areas of executive personality, leadership behavior, ethics, service excellence, and managerial stress.

Lisa Cain is an Associate Professor in the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate level Hospitality Management courses, including Women in Hospitality Leadership, Global Issues and Marketing Management. Her teaching has earned her an FIU’s Top Scholar in Teaching Award in 2021. Dr. Cain currently serves as the President for the Southeast, Central and South American Federation of ICHRIE and serves as an Associate Editor for both the International Journal of Consumer Studies and International Hospitality Review. She has written two Introduction to Hospitality textbooks, co-authored three textbook chapters, and published over 40 peer-reviewed articles. Her research interests fall within the broad topics of organizational behavior and marketing, with an emphasis on understanding internal and external customer experiences. Specifically, she has published in the areas of work-life balance, substance abuse among hospitality workers, gender issues, technology, and loyalty in the hospitality industry. She continues to develop research in these topics.

Rhett Brymer is the John Mee Endowed Assistant Professor of Management at the Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He completed his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in the field of business strategy, his M.S. in instructional systems design and M.B.A. from Florida State University, and B.A. in chemistry from Kenyon College. His general research interest is in strategic human capital, specifically how firms manage their recruiting pipelines, their turnover, and their incentives for performance. Dr. Brymer has industry interests in beverage operations and teaches a course on the craft brewing industry. Prior to academia, he worked in hospitality operations in full and quick service restaurants and in catering/special events. Dr. Brymer also worked as a chemist in biotechnology, and as a human capital consultant. He has published in the Journal of Management, Strategic Organization, Academy of Management Education and Learning, and in MIT Sloan Sports Analytics, among other outlets.