Three professors in Samford University’s Brock School of Business have recently earned promotions.
Sara Helms McCarty was promoted to professor. She teaches economics, principles of microeconomics, public policy, econometrics and micro-economics in the M.B.A. program. She also serves as coordinator of the Brock Scholars program. McCarty is a research associate at the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy. Her research interests include applied microeconomics and public policy, particularly in the areas of volunteering, charitable giving, education policy and public health policy. She uses both traditional econometric and experimental methods.
“With the promotion, I plan to both continue with research projects already in progress and develop longer-term studies on the questions and issues that intrigue me,” she said. “For example, I am continuing work on the employment decisions of the elderly and on education research focusing on the behavior of teenagers. I am also exploring new projects that consider the under representation of females in economics and finance majors and jobs, as well as cross-disciplinary studies of other countries’ policies toward girls and their education.”
Matt Mazzei was promoted to associate professor of strategic management. He has taught a variety of management and entrepreneurship courses as an instructor at both Auburn University and Samford, including topics on strategic management, corporate entrepreneurship/innovation management, project management, organizational change and big data strategy. His research primarily focuses on corporate entrepreneurship, with secondary interests in new venture characteristics and big data analytics at the macro level.
“As far as new research, I always have a bunch of things going concurrent,” said Mazzei. “I am particularly interested in the influence of analytics on corporate strategy, and so I am excited for a project that examines theoretical foundations for how firms are using analytics in fundamentally different ways. Working with coauthors Sean McMahon (Elon University) and David Noble (University of Connecticut), we compare functional versus strategic analytics, using different theoretical perspectives to help distinguish between the two approaches.”
Rusty Yerkes was promoted to associate professor of finance. His areas of expertise include financial markets and institutions, investments, portfolio management, financial planning. corporate financial analysis, financial risk, management/derivatives, treasury management and banking. He is currently working with Brock Scholar Jacob Evans on an Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) investing research project also known as Sustainable or Socially Responsible Investing (SRI).
“It’s quite an honor and means a lot to me to be promoted to associate professor and receive tenure at Samford,” said Yerkes. “Promotion and tenure recognizes accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and service all of which benefit our students through excellent classroom instruction, cutting edge research and great campus programs.“
Congratulations to these professors.
