Haslam College of Business - PHD Student Profiles

Deanie Chaudoin is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Accounting and Information Management at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting and a Master of Accountancy from Lipscomb University. Prior to starting the Ph.D. program, she worked as an assurance associate at EY, one of the “Big 4” auditing firms.

Chaudoin’s research covers various topics. She is interested in how audit committees are formed, particularly with the types of financial expertise that are onboarded during merger and acquisition activity. Second, she is interested in cybersecurity and its intersection with corporate governance. A recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule requires all public companies to provide annual disclosures on how they assess cybersecurity risk. For Chaudoin, this disclosure raises key questions about how public companies discuss risk, both with auditors and even with their peers.

According to Chaudoin, her interest in auditing comes from her own professional experience. As for her interest in cybersecurity issues, she’s drawn to the topic because it’s something that’s equally relevant for business stakeholders and everyday consumers.

“Everyone knows what a cybersecurity breach is because we all get notifications about our data being breached,” she notes.

Ultimately, Chaudoin hopes her research impacts policy and shapes the way students think about being practitioners. Her career goal is to obtain a faculty position that allows her to continue investing in students’ lives.

Pedro Masi is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Business Analytics and Statistics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business. Before beginning his doctoral work, Masi enjoyed a successful career in banking and financial consulting. He holds a master’s degree in finance and technology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Masi’s research covers AI and its impact on labor markets.

“I study how exposure to AI capabilities reveals which skills are becoming more or less valued, and how firms that imitate each other’s AI investments compete for external funding,” he explains.

For his methodology, Masi combines natural language processing, deep learning and econometric techniques to study a pair of interconnected topics. First, he assesses large volumes of text data, including job postings and skills taxonomies, to determine how the market value of different skills changes over time, specifically in relation to AI exposure. Second, he evaluates startup patent data and financial records to determine how imitation dynamics in AI investment shape competitiveness for outside funding.

Some of his findings have been surprising. For example, his research indicates that an organization’s exposure to AI increases demand for “human-centric” skills, such as communication, as well as technical competencies like systems thinking and computer science. However, only those technical skills see a correlated rise in salary rates. Masi regards this as evidence that, amidst AI’s disruption, the labor market is comparatively sluggish to reward those skills that are less technical in nature.

“Coming from a finance background, I saw firsthand how quickly technology was reshaping the skills that employers valued, yet how little we understood about which skills would actually pay off,” Masi notes.

Through his Ph.D. research, Masi hopes to expand that understanding considerably, with the goal of shaping public policy and academic curricula. Ultimately, he hopes to earn a faculty position in information systems, where he can continue using data-driven methods and AI applications to solve real-world business problems while also mentoring the next generation of students.

Wenxuan Sun is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Finance at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business. Her previous industry experience includes roles as an auditor and credit analyst, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Xi’an International Studies University, as well as a master’s degree in qualitative finance and risk analytics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Her research at Haslam encompasses corporate finance, labor, innovation and public policy. She’s interested in how legal and governmental changes affect corporate investment, innovation, employees and firm performance.

“I study how rules created by the government affect decisions companies make,” she summarizes. “For example, I look at whether labor laws change how much a firm invests, innovates, hires or acquires other companies. So, the broader goal is to understand the real business consequence of the public policy.”

According to Sun, much of her work deals with unintended outcomes. What drew her to these subjects was the opportunity to compare what policymakers intend with the real-world business results.

After completing her Ph.D., Sun aspires for a tenure-track professorship that will allow her to do the two things she enjoys most: continuing her research while also providing instruction to students.

Janelle Bremer is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business. With a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from the University of Hawaii, Bremer’s previous experience encompasses multiple entrepreneurial ventures in the food and beverage sector. She also served as an adjust instructor and an advisor at student entrepreneurial centers.

Bremer’s Ph.D. research looks at entrepreneurship from the perspective of a whole career. Specifically, she is studying how entrepreneurial work compounds over time for the entrepreneur, in a way that might differ from employees who do more traditional wage work.

“We kind of know that the traditional career is one position to the next or one organization to the next,” she explains. “Entrepreneurs are oftentimes involved in many organizations and many positions at one time. We don’t have quite a complete understanding of how that affects things like their well-being or their career satisfaction.”

While career theories are common in academia, they tend to have a linear perspective of work. Bremer’s research presupposes that this linearity doesn’t accommodate the unique dynamics of entrepreneurship. She wants her work to contribute meaningfully to the academic literature, but also to provide practical help.

“I hope there can be some advice or some knowledge that comes out of this that’s helpful for entrepreneurs in managing their own careers,” she says.

Upon completing her Ph.D., Bremer hopes to find a faculty position that will allow her to continue researching as well as teaching students.

Laurel Johnston is a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business. Before beginning her doctoral degree, Johnston worked in social media marketing for multiple businesses. She also gained experience in public service through a role at the Federal Reserve Board.

Johnston’s research considers issues that involve multiple stakeholders, particularly at the intersection of marketing and finance. For example, she studies how the interests of investors and customers can complement one another — or cause friction. Additionally, her research explores customers who violate social norms within a service setting, and what effect that can have on the organization.

Much of her research focuses on the question of data privacy.

“I find that firms can benefit from proactively investing in customer data protection, even if there has not been a privacy failure or breach that prompts this investment,” Johnston says.

To better understand complex dynamics, Johnston employs several methodologies, including qualitative interviews, text mining, LLM-based approaches and applied econometric techniques.

Ultimately, Johnston wants to see her research impact decision-making at the managerial level.

“I hope that my research helps managers make informed trade-offs and balance the priorities of many different types of people, hopefully to the end of a better society and better-informed public policies as a result,” she says.

Johnston has secured a postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado State University upon her graduation, which will bridge to her goal of a faculty position that will allow her to continue conducting managerially relevant research and investing in student success.