Faculty/Staff

Sharon L. Segrest

Professor of Management
Associate Director, Management
ssegrest@usf.edu
Campus: St. Petersburg
Room: LPH 432
Phone: 727-873-4747
Vita

Sharon L. Segrest is a professor of management in the School of Management at the University of South Florida's Muma College of Business on the St. Petersburg campus, where she has taught since 2007. Her teaching expertise spans organizational behavior, international management, human resource management, and leadership development. She is the recipient of the Muma College of Business Teaching Excellence Award and USF's Women in Leadership and Philanthropy Dr. Kathleen Moore Research Award (2023). Committed to innovative and experiential learning, Segrest incorporated the Search Inside Yourself mindfulness and emotional intelligence training program into her MBA Organizational Behavior courses.

Segrest's research focuses on decision-making, careers, leadership, human resource management, individual differences, and the changing workplace. Her work examines topics such as employee selection and interviewing, gender and accent bias, personality, emotional intelligence, leadership identity, job satisfaction, and the influence of technology and artificial intelligence on workplace attitudes and decisions. Her scholarship has appeared in respected academic journals, including Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Personnel Review. She has presented her research at national and international conferences in countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Mexico, Peru, and Spain.

Her professional service includes serving on the Board of Directors of the Southern Management Association and as a volunteer board member of RBK since its founding in 2014. RBK supports Syrian refugees and others in the Middle East and North Africa through technology education, professional development, and soft-skills training. Read more about her work with refugees.

Segrest brings extensive international experience to her teaching, having lived abroad and traveled to more than 100 countries. These firsthand experiences enrich her international management courses, providing students with insights into cross-cultural differences, global business practices, and management across diverse cultural contexts. She taught global business ethics and international business aboard Semester at Sea, traveling across 11 countries and three continents. She has also facilitated study abroad programs in Chile, China, and the United Kingdom, providing students with opportunities to engage directly with international businesses and cultures. Her international teaching has included leading student visits to organizations such as Tata in India, an Adidas-affiliated textile manufacturer in Aqaba, Jordan, and a luxury footwear manufacturer in Alicante, Spain, as well as organizations supporting rural women artisans and individuals with disabilities. These experiences reflect her commitment to connecting management education with global business practices, ethical leadership, and social responsibility.