Rate My Professor Pamela Thompson

Pamela Thompson, Ph.D., serves as Associate Professor of Information Systems in the Department of Mathematical & Computing Sciences at Catawba College, affiliated with the Ralph W. Ketner School of Business. She earned her Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2011, an M.B.A. from James Madison University, and a B.B.A. in Management Information Systems from James Madison University. Her academic interests encompass applications development, web design, systems consulting, systems design, app development and coding, computer science, data mining, machine learning, knowledge discovery with databases, data analytics, data integration, e-commerce, entrepreneurship with technology, information systems, Internet of Things, beacons, near field communication, programming, social media, and women in business. Thompson conducts ongoing research mining proprietary big data from receivers and transmitters to develop a predictive recommender system for great white shark presence in nearshore waters off the Cape Cod coast, involving interdisciplinary collaboration with experts in weather, marine biology, and data science. Her work has been presented at the SAS Deep Learning Symposium and the University of North Texas.

In her career at Catawba College, Thompson holds tenure as the Saleeby Professor of Business and has served as interim chair of the Ketner School of Business, ACBSP Accreditation Co-Champion, and member of the Graduate Council. She advises the Catawba Tech Club, Phi Beta Lambda chapter, and Future Business Leaders of America-Collegiate division, leading students to national recognition and earning awards including Outstanding Local Chapter Advisor, a 10-year PBL adviser award, and contributions to student successes in business competitions. Thompson presented at the national ACBSP conference in 2015 after selection from 55 applicants and hosted educational sessions for Girls Who Code middle school participants, teaching HTML, coding exercises, and Hour of Code activities. As an adjunct lecturer and graduate faculty member in the School of Data Science and College of Computing and Informatics at UNC Charlotte, she received the Excellence in Undergraduate Adjunct Teaching Award in 2019. She is certified in AWS foundational and advanced cloud skills and active in consulting.