Dr. Anthony “Tony” Gabel has become the first William and Anita Lusk Faculty Member of Distinction at Fort Hays State University.

The Lusk Faculty Member of Distinction was created to provide recognition of and support for an outstanding faculty member in FHSU’s College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Mark Bannister, dean, said the award was intended to build the quality of the college’s faculty expertise and its research portfolio.

“It provides resources to allow funding of a mixture of summer supplemental salary for research and additional operating support for research assistants, travel or equipment and is awarded through an annual competitive application process,” Bannister said. “Dr. Gabel will use his funding award to develop qualitative case studies from the Chinese business and legal environment.”

Gabel said he was excited and humbled to have been selected as the first Lusk Faculty Member of Distinction.

“I plan to use the opportunity afforded by the award to further my research in the use of law for strategic competitive advantage in foreign jurisdictions,” Gabel said. “This award permits my colleague and co-author Dr. Justin Evan and me to travel to China to interview industry leaders about their use of law in their decision-making process. We will be spending nearly two and one-half weeks in Shanghai, Urumqi and Beijing conducting on-the-ground interviews.

“I sincerely thank the Lusk family for their generosity in establishing this award.”