BIOGRAPHY

Hospitality Educator, Researcher, Author, Consultant

William D. Frye recently served as  a Visiting Associate Professor at the Hart School of Hospitality, Sport, and Recreation Management at James Madison University. 

Prior to joining JMU, he was a tenured associate professor and program coordinator at Niagara University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management  He taught classes in hotel and resort management, hospitality and tourism law, and club management, and was the professor in charge of Niagara University’s club management and Disney internship programs. A doctoral graduate from the School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Recreation Management at The Pennsylvania State University, he was a University Graduate Fellow and taught classes in advanced hotel management while serving as the hospitality internship coordinator for Penn State Hospitality Services.  

Dr. Frye is a Special Advisor to the Board of Directors and most recently served as the Secretary for the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education. He also has served as the Chair of the Lodging Special Interest Group since 2001 and the Chair of the Scientific Paper Review Committee's Lodging track since 2011.  He holds a Master of Hospitality Management degree from the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management at the University  of Houston where he served in a variety of teaching and instructional capacities as well as serving as the assistant to the general manager of the College’s conference center. Previously, he was an adjunct faculty member at Newbury College in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he taught courses in front office procedures, food & beverage controls, hospitality and travel law, and the introductory course. Dr. Frye has earned the designations of Certified Hospitality Educator and Certification in Hotel Industry Analytics from the Education Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Certified Hotel Owner designation from the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. He has served a two-year term on the nominating board of the International Council of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education. Additionally, he has been awarded six certificates of achievement with honors for studies in varying hotel management fields. Dr. Frye has served as the executive editor of The Rooms Chronicle® and the editor of the Electronic Journal of Hospitality Legal, Safety and Security Research. In 2008, he co-authored a textbook, Managing Housekeeping Operations, published by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. 

Dr. Frye possesses over 30 years management experience and has been associated with the hospitality industry for the past 24 years, primarily in hotel operations and hospitality education. Prior to arriving at Penn State, Dr. Frye was the general manager of a resort lodging property in Taos, New Mexico. He has also been employed previously by The Copley Plaza-A Wyndham Hotel, a historic, world-class luxury hotel located in Boston, Massachusetts as a night manager, as well as the Sonesta Hotel Corporation, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, and Hilton Hotels in several facets of rooms division operations. In addition to New Mexico, Dr. Frye has been employed in the Houston, Boston, and central Pennsylvania hotel markets. 

As a graduate student, Dr. Frye’s concentration was in lodging operations specializing in service quality and revenue management. He has performed research and written papers on a variety of hospitality related issues including hotel employee and management job satisfaction, school-to-work initiatives as alternatives for recruiting, women’s lodging expectations in the Thai hotel market, and internal customer service attributes as a predictor of organizational competitiveness. He has been published in various hospitality journals and currently conducts research in the areas of consumer and guest satisfaction, risk-management, security issues, as well as lodging strategies. Dr. Frye has received two best research paper awards: first at the 2001 International CHRIE conference in Toronto, Canada, and again at the 2005 I-CHRIE Great Lakes Hospitality and Tourism Educator’s Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.  

Dr. Frye earned his undergraduate degree, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in history, from the University of Massachusetts. He holds an Associate of Applied Science degree in Hospitality Management, summa cum laude, from Newbury College. Dr. Frye is a member of Eta-Sigma-Delta hospitality honor society and was recognized with the Outstanding Academic Excellence Award from Newbury College in 1995. In 2012, Dr. Frye became only the 10th recipient to receive the “Raphael Kavanaugh Champion of Education Award” conferred by the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education. In 2015 he was conferred the “Anthony G. Marshall Award” from the American Hotel & Lodging Association. This award is presented to one educator throughout the world, who has made significant long-term contributions to the hospitality industry in educating future leaders. In 2018 he was awarded the "Rich Reagan Club Manager of the Year" award by the New York State Chapter of the Club Management Association of America.