Faculty Profile for Vicki L West

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Education - Mrs. West holds a B.B.A. and an M.B.A. from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Biography - Prior to joining Texas State University, Mrs. West was the Administrator of Coliseum Associates, a joint venture company between Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) and 120 physicians. In that capacity, she managed outpatient radiology, malpractice insurance and satellite communications for physicians, and a variety of other executive services. Additionally, she served as the President of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, Georgia, a large regional museum where she was very active in successful fund-raising at multiple levels. In Texas, West has served as a speaker/consultant to numerous financial institutions, The University of Texas, IBM, Texas Women's Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference, Executive Women in Texas Government and other business and non-profit organizations in several states. Mrs. West was honored with the "Women in Business Advocate of the Year" by the Small Business Administration for the Austin, San Antonio, and Rio Grande Valley for her work with women in business.

Teaching - Since 1989, Mrs. West has been active at the local, regional, and national levels. Vicki West currently teaches Professional Selling and serves as the Founding Director of the Center for Professional Sales. The Center is a fully accredited member of the University Sales Center Alliance, one of only 44 fully accredited sales centers in the world. Since 2003, she has annually coached winning professional sales teams at the National Collegiate Sales Competition & other private competitions. The sales teams hold multiple undergraduate and graduate division national titles in sales role playing, team selling, maintenance calls, and speed selling. The titles include a national undergraduate sales role play championship, nine national graduate sales role play championships, and two national speed selling championships, the most recent in 2024. She won the teaching award in McCoy College in 1994 and 2014. In 1999, she won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching at the university level. She also was honored in 2006 as the Professor of the Year, university wide, by the Alumni Association of Texas State University. In 2015, Mrs. West was named the first recipient of the Gowens Professor of Excellence in McCoy College of Business. In 2024, under West's leadership, The Center for Professional Sales in McCoy College was named the #1 Sales Program in the World.

For 23 years, West also taught Studies in Free Enterprise and coached the SIFE/Enactus free enterprise team. She has served on the free enterprise advisory board at the national level, and she and the team have been featured in USA Today and Entrepreneur Magazine. The team ranked in the Top 20 teams in the United States for 18 out of 23 years, serving as the USA national champion in 2000, 2011, and 2014. The team was also named World Champion in 2000. As the USA national champion, the free enterprise teams represented the USA in both Malaysia in 2011 and in China in 2014.

Research - Her research includes articles on Professional Sales coaching, Entrepreneurship Teaching in Action, Teaching Written Communication Skills in Professional Selling and more. She has contributed to professional selling textbooks on product cross-selling, dressing for success, and other topics. Her work appears in the European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Education, the Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, the Journal for the Advancement of Marketing Education, and other publications.

Service - Active at multiple levels, Vicki West has served on the Students in Free Enterprise National Board of Directors and received international recognition for her free enterprise service work in Central America. She also won the Leavey Award, the National Champion of SIFE award, and was inducted into the SIFE Hall of Fame. She was named a finalist for the Texas State Service Award in multiple years. She founded the Center for Professional Sales and raised significant funding while also recruiting more than 20 corporate partners, including DOW components, S&P 500 companies, and private companies. She helped the Center grow in teaching, research, and service capabilities over a period of many years.

Teaching Interests

Professional Selling and Free Enterprise

Research Interests

Sales, including coaching, writing, making corporate presentations, disruptions in the sales cycle caused by new technology, and following sales trends. Free enterprise areas of interest continue to include the worldwide markets, profitability, and investments.