Marla Royne Stafford is an advertising and marketing expert who boasts 30 years of experience as a professor, department chair, and dean in the business discipline. She was previously the executive associate dean of academic affairs in UNLV's William F. Harrah College of Hospitality and currently serves as the William F. Harrah Distinguished Chair. Prior to her time in academia, she held positions with companies such as Tupperware Worldwide, Philip Crosby Associates, and Cardinal Industries where she worked in marketing and promotions, communications, and training development. 

Stafford has received numerous honors from the American Academy of Advertising (AAAs) — an organization for which she has served as past president. In March 2024, she received the organization's Kim Rotzoll Award for Ethics and Social Responsibility; in 2021, she was elected Fellow of the AAAs; and in 2016, she received the AAA's Ivan Preston Award for Outstanding Contribution to Advertising Research. Stafford is a two-time recipient of the University of Memphis Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Research in Business and Social Sciences. In 2018, she was recognized as one of the Superwomen in Business by the Memphis Business Journal.

Stafford is past editor-in-chief of the Journal of Advertising, and currently serves as associate editor of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing and the Journal of Advertising Research. She has published more than 100 research articles in publications such as the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Research, American Journal of Public Health, and Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Amanda Belarmino is an expert on revenue management, strategic management, and the influence of social and cultural movements on consumer behavior.

Belarmino has 20 years of management experience in casinos, hotels, and restaurants. Prior to joining UNLV, her job titles included property revenue manager and senior training specialist with Caesars Entertainment, and reservations and revenue manager at the Plaza Las Vegas. 

She is frequently called upon by local and national media to provide her expertise on the hospitality industry’s response to cultural movements, including the coronavirus pandemic. Her work has been published in journals including Current Issues in Tourism and the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Mehmet Erdem is a professor of hotel operations and technology at UNLV who specializes in the use and impact of technology in hospitality operations as well as the assessment of training and decision support systems. Teaching courses at UNLV since 2006, Erdem has over 25 years of hospitality operations, consulting, and teaching experience.

He also has expertise in hotel revenue management, social informatics, and organizational behavior. Erdem has published his work in research journals such as International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.

Daniel Sahl is the associate director of UNLV's Center for Gaming Innovation.

Sahl is an expert on tourism, gaming, slot machines. He has published numerous papers at academic conferences and journals, and his most recent research examined the convergence of video game design with present-day slot machines and how these new games impact the player’s experience.

Sahl has worked with the Center for Gaming Innovation from its inception: first as a student in the class, then as the graduate assistant, and now as the associate director. To date, he has filed six gaming patent applications as either a sole inventor or a co-inventor.

Murray Mackenzie is an associate professor in residence at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality. His teaching and research areas include food and beverage operational management, corporate social responsibility, marketing, wine education, and etiquette.

Prior to joining UNLV, Mackenzie was a head banqueting, executive sous, and executive head chef whose 20 years of industry experience took him across various continents. He has worked alongside well-known chefs at major restaurants and hotel companies in Australia, South Africa, and Northern Ireland. Mackenzie's expertise also enabled him to teach at prominent institutes and universities in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and now the United States. 

Mackenzie joined UNLV's faculty in 2019.

Robert Rippee is a nationally recognized authority on the hospitality industry, particularly technology innovation, esports, and business and product development. He is often called upon by local and national media to provide context to emerging trends in hospitality, esports, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other technology applications in the service industry. 

Rippee directs the Hospitality and Esports Lab within UNLV's International Gaming Institute and is former senior vice president of marketing for Las Vegas Sands Corporation. The lab is project-oriented and guides students from an array of disciplines through the innovation process. The lab’s environment is one of the unique learning environments at UNLV, combining the development of disruptive innovation with guidance from subject matter experts in esports, robotics, artificial intelligence, experience design, virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain, and more. 

Rippee is active as a board advisor, mentor, and consultant to several early stage and mature technology startup companies. He is also a veteran, having served as a pilot in the United States Navy. 

Dak Kopec is an architectural psychologist. He is among course instructors for UNLV's Healthcare Interior Design master's program, which blends Architecture and Health Sciences disciplines to teach interior designers to create spaces (such as hospitals, schools, homes, and senior living communities) that cater to aging populations as well as a wide range of physical ailments (for example: visual impairment, mobility issues, and dementia).

Kopec has written five books pertaining to psychological and physical health and a person’s overall well being, has been invited internationally to discuss health and wellbeing within the designed environment, and invited to serve diverse government appointed positions. His interests are in social justice through environmental design and person-centered design for specific health-related conditions. 

Alan Feldman is one of the world’s leading experts on responsible gaming.

As Distinguished Fellow in Responsible Gaming for UNLV’s International Gaming Institute, Feldman develops programs and policies to advance related knowledge and capabilities within the industry and regulatory community.

Feldman spent nearly 30 years in the gaming industry with MGM Resorts, where he recently spearheaded the launch of GameSense, an innovative, player-focused responsible gambling program that encourages players to adopt behaviors and attitudes that can reduce the risk of developing gambling disorders. This landmark program is now available at all of MGM’s U.S. properties.

A frequent speaker on responsible gaming at conferences, universities and media events around the world, Feldman serves as Chair of both the National Center for Responsible Gaming as well as the Nevada Advisory Committee on Problem Gambling. He also serves as a member of the Gambling Research Advisory Committee for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

In 2002, the Casino Management Association honored Feldman as the Gaming Professional of the Year and in 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Gaming Communications from the American Gaming Association.

Steffen Lehmann is a nationally recognized architect, educator, designer and author on sustainable architecture and urban design. Lehmann is often called upon to discuss the relationship between environment and design, and how cities themselves can adapt to climate change.

His research specialties include green urbanism, urban regeneration, and sustainable development.

Starting as a professional architect in his home country of Germany, Lehmann was actively involved in the urban creation of the “New Berlin.” The founder of Steffen Lehmann Architekten Berlin, he has been teaching advanced design studios at leading universities in six countries since 1991. He is also the founding director of two research centers at the University of South Australia, founding director of the Cluster for Sustainable Cities (UK), and Principal Investigator of several large multidisciplinary grants. Lehmann has authored over 19 books with prestigious publishers, countless articles and papers along with numerous publications on sustainable architecture and future cities.

Brett Abarbanel is the executive director of UNLV's International Gaming Institute, with an affiliate position at the University of California, Los Angeles’s Gambling Studies Program. She has expertise in global gambling and social science applications, and her research covers Internet gambling policy and behavior, esports and gambling, operations and technology, and responsible gambling and community relations.

Abarbanel serves as co-executive editor of the UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal, which publishes internationally relevant gambling research articles representing a broad span of academic disciplines. She is a founding director of the Nevada Esports Alliance, which promotes the development of best practices at the intersection of the esports and regulated gambling industries. In 2021, she was among seven industry expert professionals named to the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s first-ever Esports Technical Advisory Committee, which is responsible for making recommendations to the board on guidelines for maintaining integrity in esports when betting is involved.

In 2015, Abarbanel was honored by the Global Gaming Expo and The Innovation Group with their Emerging Leader Award, and was named to the 2016 Global Gaming Business 40 Under 40 list.

She has been interviewed as a gambling expert for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Discovery Channel and served as a consultant for multiple industry and government entities around the world.