Prof. Rusty Adair joins us on the plains this year from International Paper (IP) as a Professor of Practice. He worked at IP for 33 years where he was the HR Director with responsibility for Corporate Staff Groups, Talent Acquisition, and HR Development in his last role. He even spent some time abroad working in India for several months on an assignment. He has many fun stories about working at IP and abroad. "Ask me about the Indian wedding I attended some time or my work-related injury in India. Great experience." Prof. Adair always wanted to teach, so when the opportunity at Auburn opened, he retired from IP to move here.

Prof. Adair comes from an Auburn family, so he has known about Auburn his whole life. Early in his HR career [with IP], he recruited engineers from Auburn, and in recent years, recruited HR professionals from Auburn. "I was very impressed with the students that I met while recruiting here." This is one reason Auburn enticed Prof. Adair to want to leave his previous career and teach in a University setting. Also, living in and working at Auburn has been a lifelong dream of his.

Real-world experiences are important. According to Prof. Adair, he worked in HR for many years in the corporate world and is hoping that he can help students see what the things they read about actually look like in practice. Also, he wants them to see that HR is about people. Everything they do in HR affects somebody’s life. He is most excited about teaching for the first time because everything is so new. "I’m really excited about the case studies we’ll do so the students get some hands-on experience."