Faculty Member Details

Charles Jarrell

Assistant Professor, Colangelo College of Business

Chuck Jarrell earned undergraduate degrees in aerospace engineering and business, as well as an MBA, from West Virginia University. He has a PhD in business administration with an emphasis in marketing from Northcentral University. His dissertation was focused on service quality and brand equity in the online higher education industry.

Mr. Jarrell has held senior sales and marketing positions and served in general and executive management roles. He is currently consulting in higher education and teaching online and campus-based courses in management, marketing and business research and statistics at Grand Canyon University. He has spent the past 10 years in the higher education sector. Prior, Mr. Jarrell served as vice president of marketing and recruiting for CEA Global Education, a company offering study abroad experiences for college students. Prior to that, he was vice president of marketing and recruiting for Northcentral University, an online university serving adult students worldwide and focusing on graduate education. His first assignment in higher education was as a member of the development team of Axia College for Apollo Group, Inc.

Prior to higher education, Mr. Jarrell served as vice president of marketing for Insight, a reseller of name brand computing products. He also held positions at SmartHealth, a privately held direct marketing firm serving healthcare professionals; Harte-Hanks Communications, a direct marketing services firm; PCA International, one of the largest portrait photography companies in the U.S.; and Dupont, the chemical and bio-technology giant.

Mr. Jarrell served as chairman and member of the Board of Directors of the Arizona Quality Alliance and as a member of the Arizona Governor’s Advisory Council on Quality. He is serving as an elder for the Presbyterian church and an elder commissioner to the Grand Canyon Presbytery in Phoenix. In 2008, he served as a commissioner to the 218th General Assembly. In 2008 and 2012, he participated in week-long mission trips to Honduras, where his team worked alongside native Hondurans to build floors, chimneys and latrines to improve public health in rural villages.

Mr. Jarrell enjoys a number of things, including his family, which includes two granddaughters and a new grandson. He also enjoys stargazing and family history research. In 2003, he published a history of his family entitled “The Jarrell's of Southern West Virginia.” He also enjoys teaching because of his extensive background in business. He relates well to students and has many practical experiences to help them learn about business theory and application.

Faculty Spotlight

I am a career professional in marketing and sales who took up teaching 15 years ago. I chose to teach as a way to update my knowledge in marketing and management. I have taught campus and online courses in marketing, operations and human resources management and business research and statistics. I started teaching at GCU in 2010 as the Colangelo College of Business was expanding. I have taught all of the undergraduate marketing courses, graduate-level marketing courses and in the executive MBA program.

I bring some unique experiences to GCU classrooms. I have worked in diverse industries, including chemicals, retail discount and department store photography, healthcare, computers and technology, marketing communications and higher education. I have had progressive responsibilities in frontline BTB sales, marketing research and analytics, strategy development, implementation and evaluation as a director, vice president and executive leader. These experiences have provided frameworks to communicate marketing theory and practice in a variety of industry settings and levels of career responsibilities.

The teaching-learning environment is a positive one where students bring real-world experiences to share. Faculty members collaborate and help each other to be successful. The students are serious about their education and view GCU as a way to obtain a college degree that will benefit their career and their life. The support staff is always helpful and courteous. The growth is astounding and leads to opportunities for students, faculty and staff.

Take advantage of the opportunities to learn the theory of business and practical application of those theories to the challenging global environment. Enjoy the learning environment and your classmates. Remember that the primary objective when seeking a degree is to learn about the discipline and discover how you can become a practitioner in your chosen industry. Build collaborative relationships with fellow students, faculty and staff that can lead to networking opportunities in the future.

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