Meet the Faculty - AGBS

Dr. John Deal, Economics

John Deal received a B.S. degree in Political Science from UNC-Charlotte in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Economics from North Carolina State University in 2004. His primary fields of study were agricultural economics and international trade. Dr. Deal spent ten years at Manchester University, a liberal arts school in Indiana, where he was the Howard S. and Myra Brembeck Associate Professor of Economics and the chair of the Economics Department. Dr. Deal is currently a full-time lecturer in the Department of Economics, the Director of the Agricultural Business program at CSUB, and an affiliated faculty with the Grimm Family Center for Agricultural Business (GFCAB). His research has focused on crop insurance and risk management, agricultural production and the environment, and teaching pedagogy and student learning. He has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the Annals of Regional Science, and the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Abran “Abe” Padilla, Entrepreneur, Consultant, Educator

Abe has almost three decades of almond and pistachio industry experience, serving in various senior, executive, and entrepreneurial roles throughout his professional tenure. In 2015, Abe left the Wonderful Company and partnered with a long-time industry friend to start his own nut processing and export ventures. Aside from the nut businesses, he is also the owner and founder of Spectrum Data Analytics, LLC—with clients in both the public and private sectors (supporting clients in industries such as public transit, banking, agricultural processing, sales, and logistics). Finally, he is also a professor of Agribusiness and Data Analytics at CSU Bakersfield, as well as a former lecturer of Business Analytics at Loyola Marymount University. During his academic teaching tenure, Abe has placed over 180 former students in management and analytics positions with clients while also helping over two-dozen former students gain admission to top MBA and graduate Business Analytics programs (such as MIT, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Tech, USC, Loyola Marymount, and Pepperdine…to name a few).

Academically, Abe received a double bachelor's in Political Science and Economics from California State University, Bakersfield. He then received a double MBA in Finance and Computer Information Systems from Loyola Marymount University. After his MBA, Abe received a Master of Science in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University. Finally, he is currently pursuing his doctorate in business at Pepperdine University where he is working on his dissertation which centers on applied analytics in California-based agricultural products.

Cayetano S. Urias

Cayetano S. Urias is a Lecturer and former Founding Director of the Grimm Family Center for Agricultural Business (GFCAB). As a Southern San Joaquin native, agriculture was a common sight growing up. He attended California State University, Bakersfield and graduated with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Economics. He earned his MBA from the Graziado School of Business at Pepperdine University during the summer of 2020. Prior to joining CSUB, Cayetano was employed with the Wonderful Company for 15 years where he worked in a multitude of roles including: Financial Analyst, Shipping Supervisor, QA Manager, Director of Order Fulfillment, and Director of Food Safety and Quality with his most recent assignment AgReserves, Inc.

Gitika Commuri

Gitika Commuri has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California and has been teaching at CSUB since 2006. Her research interests are varied and span political identity and its impact on foreign policy, soft power in international politics and more recently American child labor policy in agriculture. She has published articles and a book exploring how political identity discourses impact India's foreign policy in Kashmir, on India-Pakistan-China relations, as well as on the ambiguity of soft power as a concept. She is currently working on projects related to theorizing the significance of historically traumatic events as soft power with a focus on Holocaust, exploring India-Afghanistan relations with the resurgence of Taliban, and the prevalence of child labor in American agriculture. She teaches courses in Food Policy and Politics, Senior Seminar on The Human/Machine Worlds, International Relations Theory and Theories of Power. Dr. Commuri is also a member of the Grimm Center Faculty Advisory committee and has mentored research students.

Joel is the Edible Garden Coordinator at California State University, where he manages the crop production and community education programming for the Edible Garden. Joel received his M.S. in Crop and Soil Science with an emphasis in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of Georgia, where he also received a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Food Systems. He received his B.A. in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

bio

Dr. John Deal

Lecture of Agricultural Business

Email: jdeal@csub.eduOffice: BDC 261A

Cayetano Urias

Lecture

Email: curias@csub.edu