Haslam College of Business - UT Haslam College of Business Welcomes 22 New Faculty Members

This fall, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business welcomed 22 new faculty members across the college. According to Chad Autry, Haslam’s associate dean for research and faculty, Myers Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management and R. Stanley Bowden II Faculty Research Fellow, this infusion of fresh talent is a boost to the college’s ongoing delivery of world-class educational experiences and scholarship.

“The incoming faculty’s different expertise and experience strengthen our capabilities as we continue to pursue excellence in academics, research and business,” Autry says. “We are excited to see how their various scholarship areas, teaching backgrounds and fresh viewpoints contribute to Haslam’s continuing progress.”

The newcomers join five of the college’s seven departments: accounting and information management, finance, management and entrepreneurship, marketing and supply chain management. Hailing from diverse sectors and disciplines, these new faculty appointments inject valuable experience and invigorating enthusiasm into Haslam’s research and teaching.

Accounting and Information Management

Maggie Bates, an assistant professor of practice, brings 15 years of experience as a CPA and Certified Construction Industry Financial Professional (CCIFP) with a major accounting firm in multiple industries. She teaches an introduction to audit course, preparing the next generation of accounting professionals for their future careers.

Teaching assistant professor Laurie Ereddia joins the college from Mississippi State University, where she served as an assistant professor of accounting. Prior to her career in higher education, Ereddia, a licensed CPA in Georgia, worked in the private sector as an auditor and controller.

Teaching assistant professor Andrea Faulkner incorporates more than 10 years of commercial banking and loan review experience into her teaching to provide students with applied, real-world perspectives. Her research centers on financial accounting and reporting in the banking industry.

Teaching assistant professor Ben Huegel engages students with in-class experiences and challenges to build skills necessary for successful careers in accounting. His research interests include accounting education issues, human resource issues and public accounting training and development.

As an assistant professor of practice, Lance J. Kerwin draws on more than 30 years of experience spanning software development, systems architecture, project management, IT consulting, executive leadership and cybersecurity to inform his teaching. He previously spent nine years as a faculty member at Florida State University, where he also served as assistant department chair.

Albert Tay joins Haslam as a teaching assistant professor specializing in research on cybersecurity workforce development, cybersecurity education, infrastructure hardening and the integration of AI into cybersecurity practice and education. A member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency e-Manifest Advisory Board, Tay previously managed Utah’s statewide longitudinal data systems program and oversaw critical infrastructure operations.

Finance

Thomas Cook is an assistant professor of practice and the founding director of Haslam’s financial planning program, leading the development of the university’s future CFP Board Registered Program. He is a Certified Financial Planner professional and an enrolled agent (EA) with the IRS.

Cathy Duesbery, a teaching associate professor, spent 18 years in financial regulation, public accounting and business management. Using this experience, she helps students connect classroom concepts with real-world practices in courses on financial statement analysis.

Associate professor Peter Haslag’s primary research investigates the intersection of labor economics and finance, with a focus on human capital. His broader research spans mergers and acquisitions, equity market microstructure, banking, securitization, municipal bonds and migration patterns.

Syed M. Kamal, a teaching associate professor and assistant department head, is a military veteran with a commitment to student success and collaborative leadership. Kamal’s teaching profile includes undergraduate and graduate courses in corporate finance and investments. His research interests encompass corporate governance, corporate finance, financial literacy and finance education.

Jun Yang is an assistant professor of finance. Her research focuses on empirical banking and corporate finance. Yang previously worked at the University of Notre Dame.

Management and Entrepreneurship

Assistant professor Savannah Asay’s research examines employee well-being and stress, identity and social evaluations at work and the work-nonwork interface. Her research has been recognized with awards from the Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division and Human Resources Division.

Teaching assistant professor Zulay Buchs is an entrepreneur whose work connects strategic management, entrepreneurship, organizational theory and leadership. Her experience living and working across four continents has shaped her approach to teaching strategy, venture creation and decision-making under uncertainty.

In his classroom instruction, Lecturer Ted Colpo applies his extensive leadership experience in multiple business functions to equip current and future leaders with practical strategies for driving growth, building high-performing teams and leading organizational transformation.

Jake Livesay was as an adjunct faculty member with Haslam for several semesters before joining the college as a full-time lecturer. He also serves as a startup coach with the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where he mentors founders and supports new venture development. His background includes working at ORNL as a research and development specialist, where he developed an interest in commercializing intellectual property. This led him into entrepreneurship and founding his own business, where he served as CTO for more than a decade.

As an assistant professor, Eduardo Meléndez draws on his entrepreneurial and corporate experience to examine how entrepreneurial actors shape market categories. He is currently conducting this research in the empirical setting of electronic dance music, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. He also researches civic wealth creation and cultural entrepreneurship.

Jinyuan (Stephanie) Song, an assistant professor, gained extensive professional experience in consulting firms and international organizations across diverse global settings before joining academia. Her research explores strategic management in complex, stakeholder-driven contexts.

Marketing

James C. Reeder III is an assistant professor whose research uses quantitative marketing methods to examine sales force effectiveness, digital promotions and the use of generative AI in managerial decision-making. Reeder’s work also develops new econometric frameworks and estimators combining causal inference, machine learning and structural modeling to address marketing problems.

Assistant professor of practice Whitney Roman previously served as director of the Center for Sales and Service Excellence and assistant professor of professional practice at Oklahoma State University, leading sales initiatives, corporate partnerships, student coaching and experiential learning opportunities. She is passionate about preparing students for successful careers by combining practical sales experience with engaging, hands-on learning. Before entering higher education, she built a successful career in sales and business development, bringing valuable industry perspective into the classroom.

Professor Garriy Shteynberg studies how shared experiences shape the way people think, choose and trust, both individually and collectively. His current work focuses on consumer trust in AI systems and the societal effects of organized disinformation. Before joining the marketing faculty at Haslam, Shteynberg spent more than a decade as a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UT and previously held a research appointment at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Supply Chain Management

Lecturer Amelia Abernathy has taught courses in logistics, procurement, Lean Six Sigma and supply chain strategy. She uses her industry experience to create hands-on, real-world learning experiences that help students connect classroom concepts to business practices.

Angela L. Cheatham joins Haslam as a teaching assistant professor. She has expertise in supply chain management, logistics, transportation, project management, Lean Six Sigma and management. She has taught courses in supply chain management for aviation and aerospace, logistics management for aviation operations, transportation, lean six sigma, project management, management and college success. Cheatham is committed to advancing student learning and connecting business education to industry practice.

About the Haslam College of Business

The Haslam College of Business, founded in 1914, sets the standard in developing future business leaders whose work positively impacts the world. More than 11,000 undergraduate, graduate and executive education students are taught by more than 300 faculty with dedicated staff members facilitating their needs. Haslam programs consist of seven departments and nine undergraduate majors. Its eight centers, institutes and forums, as well as its myriad graduate and executive education programs, reach across the for profit, not-for-profit and governmental sectors of business, with a heavy emphasis on practical research. UT was founded in 1794 and was designated as Tennessee’s land-grant institution in 1879.

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CONTACT:

Scott McNutt, senior business writer/publicist, [email protected]