Sarah Namara

Sarah Namara distinguished herself in the MSTM program as a top scholar, completing all coursework in 18 months with an overall GPA of 3.90. Her thesis, Do Companies Value Maintaining ISO 9000 Certification?, was an outstanding case study of 41 US companies first certified in 2000 and showed that companies do value certification, but only because it is a customer requirement; not necessarily to improve quality. Future MSTM students will appreciate her scholarly thesis as an example of excellent work. During this time, Sarah also worked as a Graduate Assistant for the department, performing excellent research that was the basis for the development of the Kentucky Technology Consortium, whose goal is to establish a seamless course articulation for technology management graduate students in Kentucky.

Sarah completed her undergraduate degree in Electrical Technical Teacher Education at Kyambogo University in Kampala, Uganda. Even though she is still developing her English language skills and has only been in the U.S. since September 2007, she gave three peer-reviewed presentations at two conferences of the Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering and two presentations at the WKU Student Research Conference for the last two years with submitted manuscripts for publication. She maintained active membership in the American Society for Quality and attended the local chapter meetings on campus. In addition, Sarah has distinguished herself as an athlete of distinction, receiving awards for her performance in WKU Track & Field and Cross-Country.

In her spare time, she volunteers as a counselor at the Barefoot Republic, a summer camp for youth of diverse cultures and facilitates artistic, athletic, and team activities. In this program, she helps youth understand that no matter their backgrounds, they are all equal and have the potential to be successful in life. Sarah comes from a family of 10 and has seven brothers, all of whom still live in Uganda. Besides running, which is her passion, Sarah enjoys attending academic conferences/workshops, listening to music, making new friends, traveling, and helping others.

Graduate faculty who had Sarah in classes or who served on her thesis committee describe her as well-prepared, self-motivated, knowledgeable, thoughtful, collaborative, and participative. Sarah performs to a high standard and honors her commitments. Sarah, while unassuming, has strong leadership abilities. Sarah’s personal character is honest, kind, and professional. Overall, she is characterized as patient, considerate, and well-grounded . The graduate faculty of the MSTM program is pleased to recommend her.

Signed, MSTM Graduate Faculty