U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>. Coles said the state\u2019s central location creates a successful business environment.<\/p>\nThroughout his three decades in mushroom farming, Coles moved up through the ranks and became a project manager. At age 54 he chose to quit working at the mushroom farm and go back to school to teach business full time.<\/p>\n
Coles said he wanted to teach at a university but was rejected multiple times for not having the qualifications, which inspired him to get his MBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now been teaching supply-chain at Lehigh for the past eight years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coles said he prioritizes education and continues to take classes at Lehigh, unbothered by the idea of sitting among first-years in introductory courses. He applies that same commitment to teaching, doing his job for the joy of seeing his students thrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Greer Erhard, \u201827, one of Coles\u2019 students, said he helped fuel her love for supply chain management after she entered the business school undecided.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s easy to tell that Coles loves what he does and wants his students to succeed.<\/p>\n
Coles teaches both introductory and advanced courses, allowing him to see students at different stages of their college careers. He said he enjoys watching them grow from being shy and uncertain into confident, accomplished post-graduates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through his classes and individual conversations, Coles said he aims to help people understand how businesses actually work by correcting misconceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said markets control the price of goods and emphasized the importance of eliminating waste to improve efficiency \u2014 lessons that trace back to his first job where he reduced pesticides.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter what your major is, that is something that you can learn,\u201d Coles said. \u201cWaste is in any kind of business, \u200ait\u2019s everywhere, if you can only see it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coles said he teaches these topics by connecting them to real-world examples and using visual cues to help his students better understand the complexities of business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erhard said she bonded with Coles because they\u2019re both from Pittsburgh, so she enjoys hearing his hometown stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like every time you\u2019re a student in his class, you can have real conversations with him,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marguerite Whitley, the coordinator of the Department of Decisions and Technology Analytics, works in the department\u2019s lobby, constantly interacting with business professors.<\/p>\n
She said although she\u2019s been working at Lehigh for only a year, Coles stands out as someone willing to chat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always has stories, so that\u2019s fun,\u201d Whitley said. \u201cHe always is sharing music as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coles also shares his stories and passions through writing. He\u2019s published four articles in The Wall Street Journal and has also written for The Hill, The Washington Examiner and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he doesn\u2019t write for the love of writing, but out of enthusiasm for the topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI get so upset by something that I read and I disagree with it that I can\u2019t stop myself,\u201d Coles said. \u201cI\u2019ll be up until 4 o\u2019clock in the morning writing something, so I need that inspiration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coles writes for business and economic journals as well as agricultural science publications. He said he enjoys bringing his business insights into the agricultural industry and offering new ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A paper co-written by Coles and one of his former students was recently approved for publication in the \u201cHortScience\u201d journal. Coles said he feels grateful to see his students\u2019 success firsthand and is proud to have contributed to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of live vicariously through the students,\u201d Coles said. \u201cWhen I hear these great things they\u2019re doing, it just makes me feel so good and I enjoy that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professor Phillip Coles\u2019s supply-chain knowledge about improving efficiency and business growth did not stem from watching it in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5877,119,121,120,1197,523],"class_list":{"0":"post-34472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-4-minute-read","9":"tag-allentown","10":"tag-allentown-headlines","11":"tag-allentown-news","12":"tag-feature","13":"tag-people"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}