Dr. Gary K. Vallen is Professor in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona University. He joined that program in 1988 as one of its founding faculty, bringing 16 years of industry experience to the classroom. Part of that resumé included vice president and assistant general manager of a casino, hotel sales manager, financial and operational analyst, and associate manager for private clubs.

Dr. Vallen received his undergraduate degree in hotel administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Despite the long hours of industry, he simultaneously worked and earned an MBA at the University of Nevada-Reno. His Ed.D. degree with an emphasis in hospitality education (Northern Arizona University) was earned after he began teaching. In addition to Check-In, Check-Out, Dr. Vallen coauthored An Introduction to Hospitality Management and has published over three dozen refereed articles and conference proceedings. He is on the editorial boards of six professional journals.

Professor Vallen operates Gary Vallen Hospitality Consultants, which specializes in hosted casino nights for clients of destination management companies, and in visitor analyses for festivals, fairs, rodeos, and ski slopes. He has developed and carried out numerous secret-shopper evaluations for both hotels and restaurants. The Southwest location has enabled him to assist many Native American groups, including the Hopi and Navajo, but he is also well known for his rural tourism expertise.

Dr. Jerome J. Vallen was the founding Dean of the College of Hotel Administration, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and served in that capacity for 22 years. He is now Professor Emeritus/Dean Emeritus. Jerry Vallen returned to the classroom for a short period before taking an assignment as founding dean of the Australian International Hotel School, Canberra.

After earning a baccalaureate degree at Cornell, he entered the hotel industry, carrying with him the food experience gained from the family's small chain of four restaurants. For several years, he taught and worked in industry. Dr. Vallen earned a master's degree in educational administration (St. Lawrence University) and a doctoral degree from Cornell's School of Hotel Administration.

He has co-authored a book on hotel management and edited a work on the legal basis for obtaining a gaming license in Nevada. Professor Vallen has served as a consulting editor for textbook publishers; a traveling consultant to the U.S. Department of Commerce that has carried him to over three dozen countries; an outside examiner for the University of the West Indies; president of a consulting company; member of the board of several private companies and public entities; and president and chairman of the Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (CHRIE).

Such diverse groups as the University Alumni Association, the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association, and the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association have honored him. So has CHRIE, with its prestigious H.B. Meek Award. Jerome Vallen has been cited in the Congressional Record and named among the 100 most important Las Vegans of the 20th century.