Haslam College of Business Welcomes 20 New Faculty Members

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business welcomes 20 new faculty members with a wide range of both academic and industry experience. The increase in faculty reflects Haslam’s ongoing efforts to keep pace with its growing student population.

“We are excited to welcome this group of accomplished scholars and teachers,” said Chad Autry, the college’s associate dean for research and faculty, Daniel and Karen Myers Distinguished Professor and R. Stanley Bowden II Faculty Research Fellow. “Their wide range of expertise and achievements will inspire our students and enhance the college’s growing reputation for thought leadership.”

The newcomers join the departments of accounting and information management, business analytics and statistics, economics, finance, management and entrepreneurship, marketing and supply chain management. Learn more about them below.

Accounting and Information Management

Joshua Madden, Assistant Professor of Practice

Joshua Madden joins Haslam with a specialty in information systems after five years of previous experience at Salisbury University. He is primarily focused on work in systems design and analysis, with a particular emphasis on new and emerging technologies. Madden completed his doctorate in computer information systems at Georgia State University. He also holds a master’s degree in information systems from Baylor University, as well as a master’s degree and an undergraduate degree from Kansas State University.

Bryan Cataldi, Assistant Professor of Practice

Bryan Cataldi holds a doctorate in accounting from Southern Illinois University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Iowa. Prior to entering academia, he worked in the public accounting industry for PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has conducted research and published works in top-tier journals in the cross-section of accounting, entrepreneurship and angel investment. Cataldi also developed a multi-million-dollar real estate company from the ground up, which gives him a unique perspective on small business and entrepreneurship in relation to accounting and finance.

Business Analytics and Statistics

Stacey Espinosa, Lecturer

Stacey Espinosa’s professional experience centers on bridging the gap between the business and technical worlds. Her most recent position was senior director at Visa Inc., leading its artificial intelligence program. Previously, she led two international teams for Visa Direct, Visa’s instant payments service. Espinosa also has robust experience in financial services, including her work at Charles Schwab & Co. Her statistical work at Schwab focused on attracting and retaining young investors. Additionally, she served as an exchange traded fund product expert and fixed income trader. Espinosa created the original course “Global Payments and the Digital Economy” and taught it at two business schools. She earned her B.S. and MBA from Florida State University and her M.S. in applied analytics from Columbia University.

Economics

Ryan Hanson, Lecturer

Ryan Hanson joins Haslam with more than eight years of previous experience in the classroom. He has devoted his career to providing engaging course material for both introductory and upper-level economics courses, particularly in the field of macroeconomics and monetary policy. Hanson’s research focuses on the economics of crude oil and how it impacts day-to-day life, from gasoline prices to job creation and/or destruction. He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Kentucky, as well as a B.A. in mathematics, economics and Spanish from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

Finance

Josh Fairbanks, Professor of Practice

Joshua (Josh) Fairbanks holds a B.S. in economics from the University of Washington (Seattle), an M.S. in economics from Texas A&M University and a doctorate in finance from Texas Tech University. Before joining Haslam, he held positions at Texas Tech, Ohio University and South Plains College. He has more than 20 years of higher education teaching experience, and his research focuses on corporate finance, human capital and real estate. His awards include the Assessment Innovation Grant Award, Outstanding Student Organization Advisor of the Year and Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award, among others.

Tingting Liu, Professor

Tingting Liu received her doctorate in finance from the University of Georgia. Before joining UT, she served on the faculty at Iowa State University for six years and at Creighton University for three years. Her teaching focuses on financial modeling and merger valuation analysis. Her research interests include corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, boards of directors, behavioral finance and corporate disclosure. Liu has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies and Journal of Law and Economics.

David Maslar, Academic Director – Full-Time MBA

David Maslar holds a doctorate, an M.S. in applied mathematics and an M.A. in economics from the University of Missouri, as well as a B.S. in economic analysis from Binghamton University. He joined the Haslam finance department in 2015 after spending two years as a visiting assistant professor of finance at the University of Missouri. Maslar’s research interests include investments, market microstructure and fixed income. His work has been published in the Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Corporate Finance and Journal of Financial Markets, and it has appeared on numerous conference programs.

Austin Starkweather, Assistant Professor

Austin Starkweather received his doctorate in finance from the University of Maryland and undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University. His research centers around corporate governance, with a focus on executive compensation and the relationship between corporations and their investors. His research has been published in the Review of Financial Studies and Review of Finance. Before joining Haslam, he served on the faculty at Vanderbilt and the University of South Carolina. In addition to academia, he has spent several years working in both consulting and private equity.

Daniel Weagley, Associate Professor

Daniel Weagley received his doctorate from the University of Michigan and previously was an assistant professor and the Hubert L. Harris Early Career Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the role of financial frictions in climate finance, labor finance and individual and institutional investor decision-making. His work has been published in the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, presented at conferences worldwide and covered by national media outlets. In 2021, Weagley received Georgia Tech’s Brady Family Award for Faculty Teaching Excellence.

Graduate and Executive Education

Monica Langley, Professor of Practice

Monica Langley, a professor of practice, leads strategy on the visibility and reputation of Haslam’s research and academic programs through interaction with students, faculty and corporate leaders. She leads a college-wide initiative to expand interaction with C-suite executives and business leaders by creating media content, speaker series and special events.

Langley recently served as executive vice president of global strategy for Salesforce and advisor to its founder/CEO. For 27 years she was the senior special writer for The Wall Street Journal covering prominent news makers and corporations. She also was a media host and national news commentator. Additionally, Langley was a corporate attorney and member of the District of Columbia, Tennessee and U.S. Supreme Court bars. She previously served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law and Columbia University.

Management and Entrepreneurship

John Clayton, Lecturer

John Clayton’s expertise lies in baseline development and management, cost analysis, change control, scheduling and earned value. Before entering academia, Clayton spent 38 years supporting corporate and governmental entities in a variety of project management and controls positions. He worked on projects of all sizes, including several with baselines in excess of $1 billion. Clayton is passionate about helping students jumpstart their careers by connecting them with prospective employers. He received his bachelor’s degree from Murray State University and his MBA from UT.

Joseph Harrison, Associate Professor

Joseph Harrison received his doctorate in strategic management from Texas A&M University. His research focuses on social and behavioral aspects of strategic leaders and on using content analytic techniques to understand organizational phenomena. He has co-developed multiple machine-learning applications to extract meaning from unstructured text and provide insights into executive personality, corporate governance, risk and performance. Harrison’s work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal, among others.

Brian Bergman, Assistant Professor

Brian Bergman holds a doctorate in entrepreneurship from Indiana University, a Master in International Development from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Arts in diplomacy and foreign affairs from Miami University. His international development work includes developing public health policies for United Nations affiliates in Switzerland, supporting social venture creation in rural Kenya and helping to design social impact measurement courses in Guatemala and Ecuador. His academic research, examining how entrepreneurs and communities organize to create positive social and economic change, has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

Ruixiang Song, Assistant Professor

Ruixiang Song’s research focuses on corporate governance, threat response, competitive dynamics and quantitative research methods. He has published in management journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management and Journal of Management Studies. His work explores topics such as CFO language incongruity, stereotypical perceptions in management and impression management in mergers and acquisitions.

Marketing

Blair Presley Bone, Assistant Professor of Practice*

Blair Presley Bone holds a B.S. in marketing from Hampton University, an MBA in marketing and leadership from the New York Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in business philosophy from Walden University. She is currently a doctoral candidate focusing on organizational design and innovation, and her research centers on gender and career advancement in product management. In addition to a corporate product management career, Bone became a distinguished faculty member at educational technology company General Assembly, teaching and mentoring aspiring product managers and entrepreneurs. She later shifted to full-time entrepreneurship, guiding product management newcomers via her career coaching company and podcast.

Hoorsana Damavandi, Assistant Professor

Hoorsana Damavandi earned her doctorate in marketing from Western University’s Ivey Business School in 2024, specializing in quantitative marketing strategy. Her research is focused on understanding how firms deal with adversity in their upstream and downstream relationships. Using econometrics, spatial and network analysis, machine learning and experiments in her research, Damavandi works on the substantive areas related to product quality failures, price increases and location-based marketing.

Zach Thompson, Assistant Professor of Practice

Zach Thompson has lectured in branding and digital marketing for more than 10 years, most recently as senior lecturer at the University of Bristol Business School in England. He has been a consultant for numerous businesses and nonprofits internationally, and has worked in the nonprofit sector within homelessness, recidivism prevention and poverty alleviation. He holds a doctorate from Durham University in England as well as an MBA and a bachelor of science in business management and information technology from the University of Plymouth. Thompson is also a certified digital marketer.

Christine White, Assistant Professor of Practice

Christine White has more than 20 years of marketing and sales experience in the entertainment, nonprofit and higher education sectors. In addition to her classroom role, she serves as the marketing department’s director of partnerships and growth initiatives, building bridges to industry for unique hands-on experiential learning and early-career recruitment opportunities to benefit all students. She holds a Master of Science in communication and information from UT and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from the University of Central Florida.

Supply Chain Management

Andrew Balthrop, Assistant Professor

Andrew Balthrop serves as assistant professor in Haslam and in UT’s Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs. He specializes in transportation economics and supply chain management with a focus on policy evaluation. Balthrop has published in Resource and Energy Economics, Empirical Economics, the Journal of Operations Management and the Journal of Business Logistics. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Georgia State University.

Emily Dickey, Assistant Professor

Emily Dickey¹ will receive her doctorate from Kuehne Logistics University in Germany in October 2024. Under the umbrella of behavioral operations, her research seeks to better understand the cognitive and affective drivers of sustainable decision making in operations and supply chain management. At Haslam, she will teach SCM 414, Manufacturing and Service Operations. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in supply chain management from UT.

¹Dickey now serves as a lecturer but will assume the role of assistant professor after her October 2024 doctoral defense.

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Haslam College of Business - Haslam College of Business Welcomes 20 New Faculty Members