FACULTY - Key Persons
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the INTELUS Wealth Management Team
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the INTELUS Wealth Management Team
Alisa joined Brock School of Business in May as the Department Assistant for Entrepreneurship, Management and Marketing. She comes to Samford after 20 years with Briarwood Presbyterian Church as the weekly Publications Designer. She also is a freelance designer for various clients locally and sells her clay art through her company firstImpressions.
She is a Samford graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design (1993) and a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design (1998). Since graduating she has invested time as an active member of the Samford Legacy League. She and her late husband, Craig, have served on the board of the Samford School of the Arts.
Alisa lives in Hoover with her three daughters and dachshund, Tosh. They are members of Dawson Baptist Church. She enjoys being creative and spending time with her girls.
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- Admission Counselor, Regional
Education: BA, Public Relations, MA, Christian Education
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Officers Team
- Vice Chair
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
- Vulcan Materials Company
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- Finance, Hackney Family Research Fellow
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- Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor of Economics / Department of Economics Finance and Quantitative Analysis
- Professor of Economics at Samford University 's Brock School of Business
Art Carden is a professor of economics at Samford University's Brock School of Business. He is also a senior fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research and the Fraser Institute; a research fellow with the Independent Institute; a senior fellow with the Beacon Center of Tennessee; a senior research fellow with the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics; and co-editor of the Southern Economic Journal. His research on mass-market retailers, economic history, and the history of economic ideas has appeared in journals like the Southern Economic Journal, Journal of Urban Economics, Public Choice, and Contemporary Economic Policy. He is a contributor to Forbes.com, and his commentaries and other articles have appeared in USA Today, Productive!, Black Belt, and many other outlets. He earned a B.S. and M.A. from the University of Alabama and an A.M. and Ph.D. from Washington University in Saint Louis. Before joining the faculty at Samford, Carden taught economics at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. His first book, coauthored with Deirdre McCloskey and titled Leave Me Alone and I'll Make You Rich How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World, published by the University of Chicago Press, is available to purchase on Amazon. He lives in Birmingham with his wife and three children.
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Academic Adviser
- Adviser at Samford University 's Brock School of Business
B.J. Hale is an academic adviser at Samford University's Brock School of Business. In her role, she advises freshmen and sophomore pre-business students.
She received a bachelor's degree in speech-language pathology from Auburn University at Montgomery. After graduation, she began her career with the Jefferson County Board of Education as a speech-language pathologist. While working, she earned a master's degree in school counseling from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She transitioned into the school counselor position in various capacities, with her final 10 years as a high school counselor at Mortimer Jordan High School. She sponsored many student clubs and extracurricular activities and participated in numerous committees and organizations. Hale retired with over 31 years of service with the Jefferson County Board of Education. Serving students and families has been a privilege for her, and she is eager to continue this role at Samford.
She and her husband, Tommy, enjoy traveling and spending time with their family. They are active members of Enon Baptist Church.
Education: BA, Journalism and Mass Communication, General Business Minor
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
- Protective Life Corporation
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- President of the University of Alabama
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- President, Professor of Economics
- Samford 's 19th President
As Samford's 19th president, Beck A. Taylor is leading the university to remain vigilant in upholding the university's timeless values while preparing students to engage with an ever-changing world and ensuring that all of Samford's citizens are treated with love, dignity, and respect.
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
- Vintage Sports
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- Retired - Vulcan Materials
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- Vice President for Advancement and Marketing, Professor of Marketing
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- Dreamland Holding Company LLC
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
- Retired - InsideOut LLC
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
- University Fancards & Voice of the Samford Bulldogs, Birmingham Squadron, Legion FC
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the INTELUS Wealth Management Team
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- Certified Public Accountant
- Assistant Professor of Accounting
Brandi Holley joined the Brock School of Business accounting faculty in 2020. She teaches Income Tax I and II, and Government and Nonprofit Accounting.
Holley is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Alabama and Mississippi. Prior to earning her Ph.D. in Accountancy from the University of Mississippi, Holley worked in public accounting in Oxford, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee, for a total of seven years and in the nonprofit sector for two years. Holley's predominant research interest is accounting history.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History and her Master of Taxation also from the University of Mississippi.
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- Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partner
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Assistant Secretary
- Member of the Officers Team
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- Retired, Carr, Riggs & Ingram
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the INTELUS Wealth Management Team
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- Serviam Partner
- Retired - Regions Financial
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Marketing and Communication Coordinator, Brock School of Business / Marketing and Communication
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- Professor of Management
- Professor of Management / Department of Entrepreneurship Management and Marketing
Charles M. (Chad) Carson, Ph.D., serves as dean of Brock School of Business and as a professor of management. Carson is a three-time recipient of the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Brock School and was previously named the "Outstanding Educator" by the Federation of Business Disciplines / Southwest Case Research Association.
Carson has published over 50 peer reviewed articles in leading academic journals such as The Journal of Managerial Psychology, Case Research Journal, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Management Decision, Journal of Managerial Issues and Human Performance.
Carson has provided research, training, and consulting services to a wide range of organizations including ServisFirst Bank, Hibbett Sports, Regions Bank, AC Inc., and G & O Supply Co.
Prior to entering the academic world, Carson worked as a senior auditor for the State of Mississippi, and a human resources benefits generalist for Mississippi State University. Carson received his PhD from the University of Mississippi and an MBA and Accountancy degrees from Mississippi State University.
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ( FINRA )
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Coordinator
- Associate Professor of Marketing
- Professor of Marketing
- Professor of Marketing / Department of Entrepreneurship Management and Marketing
Clif Eason is an associate professor of marketing and the coordinator of the professional sales program in Samford University's Brock School of Business. His teaching portfolio includes courses in Marketing Strategy, Analytics, Sales, and Customer Relationship Management. In addition to his instructional responsibilities in Brock School of Business, Eason maintains an active practitioner-focused research agenda covering the areas of customer experience, sports marketing, locally-owned businesses, and other timely trends and topics in marketing.
Prior to earning his Ph.D., Eason worked for 15 years in banking and financial services in his hometown of Birmingham, AL and in Nashville, TN. During that time, he gained experience in many facets of marketing and management, culminating with responsibilities as regional chief financial officer and registered principal of a Fortune 500 financial services company.
As an academic with extensive professional experience, Eason remains active in the business community through speaking engagements, leading workshops, and consulting. Under his leadership as the president of the American Marketing Association's Birmingham Chapter, the organization grew its membership and event attendee count to the largest numbers on record. Eason continues to work with AMA and other non- and for-profit organizations in an advisory capacity.
Expertise
Marketing analytics, customer experience, branding, sales
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- Department of Entrepreneurship, Management and Marketing
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- Interim Chair, Professor of Accounting
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Director of Professional Success
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- Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor and the Founder of Sports Industry Program / Department of Entrepreneurship Management and Marketing
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Premier Sports Management Team
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- Retired - Alabama Power Company
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- President of Meridian College
Ralph Waldo Beeson (1900-1990), son of Dr. John Wesley Beeson, president of Meridian College, graduated from Emory University in 1920. He joined Liberty National Life Insurance Company in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1921. After several years selling insurance, he switched over to automobile distribution at Ford Motor Company in 1923. Ultimately, he returned to Liberty National in 1926 and transferred to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1927 to serve as the assistant secretary at the company. In 1942, he began his service in the U.S. Naval Reserve for the duration of World War II. After the war he became a director at the Veterans Administration in Richmond, Virginia, helping to organize the Insurance Service in their branch offices. Beeson began supporting Samford University during the 1960s, after his brother, Dwight Beeson, became involved.
As one of the greatest individual donors in Samford's history, Ralph Waldo Beeson's gifts to the university have provided for the establishment and endowment of Beeson Divinity School, the construction of Beeson Woods residential village, construction and equipment of the building for the School of Education, completion of an addition to the University Center, scholarships to Samford students pursuing ministry careers and much more.
Beeson died in 1990, nine days short of his 90th birthday. Following Beeson's death, Samford President Thomas E. Corts called him "a titanic figure in the history of Samford University," adding, "All that Mr. Beeson did, he did out of a sense of profound Christian stewardship." Beeson left the school an estate gift of $56 million. Beeson said, "It's the Lord's money. He gave me the gift of making it. I am not smart enough to make that much money on my own. It's His money, and I am going to give it back to Him." At the entrance to Centennial Walk, a bronze statue of Beeson sitting on a park bench bears the following inscription: "In a spirit of love and Christian stewardship he gave away all that he possessed ... to the glory of God. In the halls of this university, and in the hearts of its sons and daughters,the Christian charity of Ralph Waldo Beeson lives on forever."
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- Dwight Moody Beeson Chair of Business, Professor of Economics, Social Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator / Department of Economics Finance and Quantitative Analysis
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- Founder of Howard and Judson Colleges
General Edwin D. King (?-1862) was a planter, businessman and philanthropist based in Marion, Alabama. Present at the founding of Howard College, King was one of its first financial backers and trustees. King also aided in founding the Judson Female Institute (Judson College) and The Alabama Baptist.
Edwin King was born in Georgia, to a wealthy family of planters that stretched from the tobacco plantations of Virginia and North Carolina to the prairie frontier of Alabama. King served in the Georgia militia during the War of 1812 and fought with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. King later received the rank of major general in the Alabama militia. After the war, King moved to Perry County, Alabama, in 1816, where his brother, Elisha F. King, had already established a large cotton plantation. Although Edwin also became a cotton planter with thousands of acres and hundreds of slaves, it was his investments in local businesses and schools that consumed much of his time. King served as trustee to the University of Alabama and served the Alabama State Baptist Convention in many capacities, whether as an officer or the chair of a committee.
The president of the University of Alabama, Basil Manly, Sr., introduced King to Milo P. Jewett, an educator from Vermont who had moved south to establish a seminary for young women. King, along with Julia Tarrant Barron, helped Jewett found the Judson Female Institute in 1838 with King serving as its first trustee chair. Judson's first class included two of King's daughters.
In 1841, King, Barron, Jewett and James H. DeVotie-acting on initiatives already set in motion by the state Baptist Convention-founded a similar theological institution for the young men of Marion and named it Howard College. King regularly donated funds to keep Howard going during its first decades, and served on its board of trustees. Another prominent Baptist of the nineteenth century, B.H. Riley, noted, "It is not too much to say that the denomination of the state is more indebted to Gen. E. D. King for the successful establishment and maintenance of its two schools that to any other. It is gravely doubted that they could ever have been successfully organized and maintained, through their shifting fortunes, but for the clear judgment and liberal purse of General King."
Edwin D. King died in 1862 in Marion, and is buried in that city's cemetery. His son, Porter King, continued the family's connection with Howard by serving as a long-time trustee after the Civil War.
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- Member of the Premier Sports Management Team
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- Member of the Premier Sports Management Team
- a / B Consulting
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- Assistant Professor of Accounting
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- Member of the Premier Sports Management Team
- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- McGriff Insurance Services
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Premier Sports Management Team
- Independent Sports & Entertainment
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partner
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Administrative Director
- Administrative Director of Academic Programs
Heather Averett serves as the administrative director of academic programs in Brock School of Business. She manages the recruitment, admissions, and advising for all Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Accountancy (MAcc) students as well as for all business minors. In addition, she coordinates with various graduate departments across campus whose students are interested in pursuing a joint graduate degree with the School of Business.
She is a graduate of the Brock School of Business MBA program and has served in various marketing, communications, career development and publishing capacities during her professional career, including roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and Time Inc.
In the community, she is a member of Samford's Legacy League, serves on the Women Business Leaders Board, and is a member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church.
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- Chairman
- Member of the Officers Team
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- Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partner
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- CRC Insurance Services Inc
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- Chairman in Financial Management at the Brock School of Business
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- Professor of Quantitative Analysis
Dr. Hardin came to Samford University in July 2015 from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, where he served as the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration dean. Dr. Hardin had previously served as Culverhouse's senior associate dean, associate dean for research, director of the University of Alabama's NIH Alabama EPSCoR Agency and director of Culverhouse's Institute of Business Intelligence.
Dr. Hardin's service as a Culverhouse professor of quantitative analysis, business and statistics was widely credited for establishing the University of Alabama as an internationally-known resource in the field of data analytics. His Culverhouse career followed his numerous administrative and faculty appointments at the University of Alabama in Birmingham in biostatistics, biomathematics, health informatics and computer science.
Dr. Hardin holds a PhD in Applied Statistics from the University of Alabama, MA in Mathematics from the University of Alabama, MS in Research Design and Statistics from Florida State University's College of Education, BA in Mathematics from the University of West Florida, BA in Philosophy from the University of West Florida and MDiv from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is an ordained Southern Baptist minister.
This avid advocate for the liberal arts is also a leading scholar in analytics and knowledge discovery, big data, data visualization, data warehousing, machine learning, statistical classification models, data management and collection methodologies, research design, information and biostatistics. He is an instructor and consultant for the SAS Institute in the areas of business analytics and time series analysis. He has served as a Scholar in Residence for Loyola University, Visiting Professor at Ireland's Trinity College, and is a member of numerous professional associations, including the Biometric Society and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Dr. Hardin is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), one of only four in the state of Alabama. ASA Fellows, nominated by member peers for outstanding contributions to statistical science, represent only one-third of one percent of the organization's worldwide membership.
Dr. Hardin has authored or co-authored more than 150 papers in various journals, edited numerous professional journals, authored multiple book chapters, presented more than 250 abstracts at national meetings and given more than 150 invited lectures or talks. For 25 years he served as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant reviewer and participated as Investigator or co-Investigator on more than 100 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/NIH-funded projects. He has served as a consultant for other national healthcare and financial organizations and was among the inventors receiving a U.S. patent licensed to MedMined, a Birmingham-based firm dedicated to controlling hospital infection rates and improving patient care.
Dr. Hardin has served on more than a dozen professional, civic and philanthropic boards, ranging from the Business Council of Alabama to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. He and his wife Anna Kathryn have two married children.
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
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- Associate Professor of Data Analytics
An impassioned advocate of education in frontier Alabama, Rev. James Harvey DeVotie played a pivotal role in the founding of Howard College. Not only did he propose naming the institution after the British reformer, John Howard, he also chaired the Alabama Baptist Convention's committee on education, which recommended the founding of the college, served on the school's first board of trustees, and was Howard's principal advocate and agent (fundraiser). "As an agent," one contemporary wrote, DeVotie was "gifted with a pleasing address, a fluent utterance and a heart running over with the tenderest sensibilities when he rises to address an audience" on funding missions of education. "His passionate appeals, seconded by his imaginative powers, are sure to arouse enthusiasm and secure large contributions."
Born September 24, 1813, in Oneida County, New York, J. H. DeVotie was the son of an irreligious frontier farmer and a pious Presbyterian mother-the latter shaping his educational and religious values. He converted to Christianity in 1830, and the following year moved to Savannah, Georgia, and lived with a merchant uncle who was a devout Baptist. The young DeVotie rejected several of the tenets of his Presbyterian upbringing and was baptized via immersion on Sunday, December 4, 1831, by H. O. Wyer, the pastor of the church in Savannah. Immediately feeling the call to preach, DeVotie moved to High Hills Santee in South Carolina to study at the Furman Theological Institute and supplied the pulpit at nearby Camden. Following what he later described as an "unfortunate misunderstanding" with members of the faculty, DeVotie left the school after eighteen months. Nonetheless, in March 1833, he was ordained at Camden and assumed the pastorate of the church. By September 1834, DeVotie was in Montgomery, Alabama, initially preaching two Sundays each month at the Baptist church and later every Sabbath.
The year in Montgomery proved to be a stormy one for the twenty-one-year-old minister, who found himself at odds with his congregation over a number of issues, including his marriage to a non-Baptist, Margaret Christian Noble, who was condemned for being too "devoted to fashion." This, along with DeVotie's Yankee brashness and youthful fervor, led to his dismissal in May 1835. Discouraged, he decided to quit the ministry, but the Rev. Alva Woods, president of the University of Alabama, persuaded DeVotie to accept the pulpit at First Baptist, Tuscaloosa, where he remained four years. In 1840, he became pastor of the thriving Siloam Baptist Church in Marion and worked tirelessly for Howard College during his fourteen-year tenure. He would later be given an honorary degree from the college. In 1856, he was called by First Baptist, Columbus (Georgia). During his tenure in Columbus, and later at the Baptist church in Griffin, DeVotie emerged as one of the most important leaders in the Georgia Baptist Convention. He died on February 16, 1891.
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
- Retired - Deloitte
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- Dwight Moody Beeson Chair of Business, Professor of Economics, Social Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator / Department of Economics Finance and Quantitative Analysis
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
- Host Communications
Education: MS, Guidance and Counseling, BS, Secondary Education
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- Member of the Premier Sports Management Team
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Coca - Cola Bottling Company United
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Little Professor Bookshop
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
- Ronald Blue Trust
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management
Joshua V. White is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and strategic management in Brock School of Business at Samford University. In addition to academic scholarship, Joshua has hands-on experience as a nonprofit founder and a corporate finance professional. He has published 15 peer-reviewed articles in journals including Journal of Business Research, Organizational Research Methods, Small Business Economics, Long Range Planning, Journal of Small Business Management and Personality and Individual Differences. Focusing primarily on the personality traits and personal values of CEOs, senior executives and small business owners, his research examines how individual characteristics translate into business outcomes. In addition, his work explores how companies can cultivate an Entrepreneurial Orientation and leverage business model innovation to achieve higher performance. He is also a leading champion of research on Small Business Values.
Joshua has taught various classes in entrepreneurship and strategic management. Prior to joining Brock School of Business, Joshua was the program manager of the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute at The University of Alabama, and he served as an assistant professor of management at the University of Dayton. He has led entrepreneurship accelerator programs for student entrepreneurs and has served as a consultant and business coach for growing small businesses.
Prior to earning his Ph.D. in entrepreneurship and strategic management from The University of Alabama, Joshua founded a community nonprofit organization and worked in Corporate Finance and Investor Relations for Regions Financial Corporation, a premier banking provider in the U.S.
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- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Quantitative Analysis and Economics
Joy Buchanan is an associate professor of quantitative analysis and economics in Samford University's Brock School of Business. She teaches data analytics and economics courses. She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals including Labour Economics and Experimental Economics. Her research is in behavioral economics with a focus on applying experimental methods to issues in the labor market. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and other organizations.
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- Benefactor and Founder of Howard College
Julia Tarrant Barron (1805-1890) played an important role in Alabama Baptist history. She was born in South Carolina but moved with her family to the Alabama Territory at a young age. In 1828, she married William Barron, a prosperous businessman in Perry County. About a year later, Julia gave birth to their only son, John Thomas Barron. William died in 1832, leaving Julia with a large estate.
Julia became one of the wealthiest women in Marion. She was well respected among the community and a prominent member of Siloam Baptist Church. Although little is actually known of Julia's specific church work, in 1840, Hosea Holcomb, a Baptist historian, described the women of Siloam Baptist Church as, "precious ones of the earth-such as an Apostle would commend: they follow Jesus, ministering unto him-and ‘have been succourers of many, and of myself also.'"
In 1838, Julia invited General E. D. King and other Baptist leaders to her home to discuss organizing a Baptist school for young ladies. That year, she rented a building for the school and invited the newly elected school president Dr. Milo P. Jewett and his wife to stay with her free of charge. The school opened as the Judson Female Institute in 1839 with Julia's son, John Thomas, enrolled as one of the "young ladies."
In 1841, James H. DeVotie, the pastor at Siloam Baptist Church, is believed to have discussed the idea of starting a college for men with Julia and other Baptist leaders. Although the specifics of her role in the founding of Howard College is not known, she is believed to have taken part in recruiting Samuel Sterling Sherman as the college's first president and is credited with being at the head of the donors list. The Alabama Baptist, a newspaper she co-founded, credits her as being the first donor to the new school.
Julia's son, John Thomas, became one of the original 9 students to attend Howard College and was the first to graduate from the school in 1848. After graduation, he became a physician in Marion and continued to support Howard as a patron and a trustee. When the campus was destroyed by fire in 1854, J. T. Barron was listed on the roster of contributors as donating $2,000. However, tradition says it was Julia Barron who gave the land for the school to be rebuilt.
During his presidency at Howard College, Dr. John C. Dawson asked Julia's granddaughter, Olive Barron Becker, to paint Julia's portrait for the school. The portrait now resides in the Special Collection department at the Samford University Library. It was presented to Howard College, now Samford University, in December 1945. In February 1946, an unveiling ceremony was held in Reid Chapel to commemorate Julia Barron's significant role in the history of Alabama Baptists and the university.
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Assistant Professor of Management, Brock Scholars Program Coordinator
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- Instructor of Business
- Instructor of Business / Department of Entrepreneurship Management and Marketing
Kathryn Boyd, MBA, PHR, is an instructor of business in Brock School of Business where she teaches in the Department of Entrepreneurship, Management and Marketing.
She earned her Master of Business Administration from Samford University and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Human Resources from Auburn University. Prior to this role, she served as the director of professional success in the Office Academic Programs office where she worked toward developing and building partnerships, internships, and full-time opportunities locally and regionally for students; coordinated Brock School of Business' academic internship program for pre-professional business experience; and worked with students over their Brock School of Business tenure relative to academic exploration, self-discovery, career information, interview preparedness, and job searching. In addition to the academic internship and development role, she developed and oversaw the professional development course and its associated events throughout each academic term. She came to Samford with industry experience in recruitment and human resources management.
She is a member of the Birmingham Society of Human Resource Management and a member of The Church of Brook Hills. She is married to Chad, who works in medical sales. They live in Hoover, Alabama, with their children.
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
- Growth Lending
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Associate Professor of Quantitative Analysis
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Academic Adviser
- Adviser in Samford University 's Brock School of Business
Kori Cecil is an academic adviser in Samford University's Brock School of Business. In her role, she advises sophomore and junior prebusiness and business majors.
Originally from Paducah, Kentucky, Cecil attended the University of Kentucky where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Master of Social Work (MSW). Cecil worked as an adjunct instructor at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee, and at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, where she was also a field liaison for the MSW program.
In addition to her work with these universities, Cecil has experience working in community mental health, under a federal grant for workforce development, and as a medical social worker for a large hospital system. She moved to Birmingham in June 2016 with her two sons and her husband, David, who is a faculty member in Samford's School of Public Health.
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- Admission Counselor, Regional
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- Development Officer
- Development Officer / Brock School of Business
Kristen Evans joined the Samford University advancement team in November 2022 as the advancement officer for Brock School of Business.
She comes to Samford after serving as associate director of development at Lakeshore Foundation. During her almost 10 years at Lakeshore, she was responsible for donor cultivation, developing and implementing annual fund and donor retention campaigns, and managing all fundraising and stewardship events.
Originally from Fairfax, Virginia, she moved to Alabama to attend The University of Alabama where she received a B.S. in Commerce and Business Administration. She went on to receive her Master of Public Administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
She lives in Vestavia with her husband, Patrick, a Cumberland School of Law graduate, and their daughter and son. They attend Trinity United Methodist in Homewood.
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- Member of the Premier Sports Management Team
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- Member of the INTELUS Wealth Management Team
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Retired - McGriff, Seibels & Williams Inc
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- Interim Dean, Senior Associate Provost, SACSCOC Liaison
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Assistant Director / Center for Sports Analytics
With his generous 2022 bequest of $95 million for endowed student scholarships and $5 million for supporting the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership, Marvin Mann provided the largest gift to the university by a single donor and the largest gift ever made to a higher education institution in the state of Alabama by a single donor.
Mann, a first-generation college graduate and native of Springdale, Alabama, understood the meaning of hard work and treasured the value of his Samford education. Having grown up in the Great Depression, he began working at four years old, candling eggs at his grandfather's distribution business. After graduating from Samford in 1954, he worked for IBM for 32 years and went on to found Lexmark International, Inc. in 1991 where he served as chief executive officer and chairman until 1999. He was named Samford's Alumnus of the Year in 2004 and received an honorary doctorate in commerce from the university in 1993.
"My father occasionally told stories of hitchhiking to and from Samford during the 1950s, so he must have highly valued his experience there, especially considering the effort he had to go through to attend," said Mann's son, Jeff Mann. "It's obvious that my father revered Samford University and its community. For anyone to provide a gift that represents decades of hard work, leadership and successful investing he must have had full confidence in the leadership and future of the institution."
Mann was a beloved member of the Samford community. Aside from being named Alumnus of the Year, he was also the first recipient of the university's Ethics-in-Business Award in 2006. The award, which was later renamed as the Marvin Mann Ethics-in-Business Award, recognizes individuals who embody professional achievement and personal integrity, who display an uncommon commitment to leadership through service, and who have left their marks of influence on institutions and industries without compromising Christian virtue or charity.
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- Visiting Associate Professor of Marketing / Department of Entrepreneurship, Management and Marketing
- Visiting Associate Professor of Marketing at Samford University
Mary Harrison is a visiting associate professor of marketing at Samford University where she teaches Principles of Marketing, Consumer Behavior, and Social Media Marketing. She is also an adviser to the American Marketing Association student organization. Harrison's work is published in the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Service Research, and the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. She is currently on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and previously served as co-associate editor for Services Marketing at the Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science. She has presented research or served as a conference panelist over 25 times at numerous marketing academic conferences.
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- Director of Clinical Research at the American Sports Medicine Institute
- Interim Director of Research, Project SAMson
- Interim Research Director for Project
Matt Ithurburn, PT, DPT, PhD, is the director of Clinical Research at the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI) in Birmingham, Alabama. ASMI is an international leader in sports medicine research, focused on studying surgical and rehabilitation outcomes, biomechanics, and injury mechanisms to improve the prevention and treatment of sports-related injuries. In his role at ASMI, Ithurburn leads a multidisciplinary clinical research team managing multiple externally-funded studies, ongoing outcomes data repositories, and multisite collaborative projects.
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
- Tigris Sponsoring and Marketing Inc
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- Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partner
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- Chairman, Brock Family Chair in Entrepreneurship, Professor of Strategic Management / Department of Entrepreneurship Management and Marketing
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Continuing Studies Recruitment Coordinator
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
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- Education Director
- Executive
- Adjunct Professor and Executive Education Director
- Director of Executive Education for Samford University 's Brock School of Business
Michael Dale serves as the director of Executive Education for Samford University's Brock School of Business. In his role, he leads the development and offering of non-degree programs designed to provide knowledge and skills to business professionals. His focus is on facilitating programs that enhance the strategic, leadership and management capabilities of executives and managers in the business community.
He is a 1997 graduate of Samford and has worked in private sector leadership roles for more than two decades. He holds an MBA from New York Institute of Technology and a PhD from Carolina University. In 2022, he returned to Samford as an adjunct professor in Brock School of Business. In addition, he is the founder of a training and consulting firm, and author of a project management leadership book.
He is a native of Jersey City, New Jersey, and moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1988. At Samford, he was a 4-year football team letterman, served in the role of liaison to the Student Government Association, vice president of the Black Student Organization and president of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. As a professional, he has continued to serve in volunteer capacities including with the Project Management Institute.
He and his wife, Trina, live in Hueytown. They are blessed to have three adult children, Maniyah (husband Tyler), Brianna, and Michael II, and two grandchildren, Jesiah and Malia.
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Founder of Howard and Judson Colleges
Milo P. Jewett (1808-1882) was a clergyman and leading advocate for women's education in the mid-nineteenth century. Although he is counted as one of the founders of Howard College, he is better known for establishing its neighbor, Judson College, in Marion, Alabama, and serving as its first president. After leaving the South for political reasons in 1855, Jewett helped found Vassar College in New York.
Born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in 1808, he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1828. He entered Andover Theological Seminary the following year and while there, began to lecture for the cause of common (public) schools in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. After seminary, Jewett moved to Ohio to serve as a professor at Marietta College; because it was a Presbyterian institution, Jewett obtained his preaching license from the presbytery. He married Jane Augusta Russell in 1833. In 1838, Jewett was baptized into the Baptist church and felt obligated to resign his post at a Presbyterian college.
Six months later he moved to Marion, Alabama, where he oversaw the establishment of a seminary for young women with the support of the local Baptist church, Siloam. The seminary, called the Judson Female Institute, was named for Alabama's first female foreign missionary. It opened its doors in 1839, with Jewett as its president. During this time, proponents of Baptist education in Alabama resolved to open a theological college for men. In 1841, Jewett met with Julia Tarrant Barron, E. D. King and James H. DeVotie to discuss the matter, and during that meeting Howard College was founded.
While at Judson, Jewett also helped to found, edit and print The Alabama Baptist, a weekly newspaper and church periodical. By the 1850s, it was clear Jewett's abolitionist beliefs did not fit in with the goals of the Southern Baptist Convention. Jewett resigned from Judson in 1855, and moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he advised Matthew Vassar in the development and chartering of Vassar Female College. Jewett was appointed the college's first president, but he never took the post due to disagreements with Vassar and the trustees. Jewett then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he remained active in education until his death in 1882.
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- PointeNorth Insurance Group
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- Associate Professor of Management
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants
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- Administrative Assistant
- Member of Samford University's Women 's Club
Patrice Donnelly joins the Brock School of Business as Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs as a Student Advisor. Prior to joining the Brock School she served as the Clinical Coordinator, Athletic Training Education Program, in Samford University's Kinesiology and Nutrition Science Department. There she advised athletic training students on their majors.
Patrice is a member of Samford University's Women's Club and Legacy League. She also serves as faculty advisor for Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity. She is a 1996 Samford University graduate.
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- Associated Insurance Administrators, Inc
Education: BA, International Relations and Sociology
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- Retired - Surgical Care Affiliates
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Serviam Partner
- Redmont Capital
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Associate Professor of Management
Reginald Harris joined the faculty at Samford University in the fall of 2018. His research addresses the impact of social dynamics on organization outcomes in the entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions, and nonprofit contexts. His recreational interests include hiking, cycling and travel. He and his wife, Jennifer, have twenty-six states left to go on their plan to visit every state in the country. Prior to entering academia, Reginald spent over a decade in ministry as missions coordinator and campus ministry director. He and Jennifer both hail from Augusta, Georgia where the newlyweds met in graduate school.
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- Academic Adviser
- Adviser in Samford University 's Brock School of Business
Rhonda Eichhorn is an academic adviser in Samford University's Brock School of Business. She advises sophomore and junior pre-business and business majors.
She is a Birmingham native and attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in education, she began her career at Rudd Middle School in Pinson and taught English for nine years. While teaching, she earned a master's degree in education and then a master's degree in school counseling. She transitioned into the school counselor position at Rudd Middle School and remained in that role for 17 years. After retiring from the Jefferson County Board of Education with 26 years of service, she worked as an adult education instructor with Jefferson State Community College for six years. Throughout her career, she has sponsored many student clubs and extracurricular groups and has also been a member of numerous committees and organizations. Serving her students and their families has been the main priority for her as an educator, and she is excited to continue in that role at Samford.
Rhonda and her husband, Tom, have one son and three daughters. They attend Church of the Highlands and enjoy traveling, camping, hiking and kayaking.
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Serviam Partner
- Medical Properties Trust
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Serviam Partner
- Public Affairs
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
- Ronald Blue Trust
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- Associate Dean, Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor of Economics / Department of Economics Finance and Quantitative Analysis
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Officers Team
- Secretary
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- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Data Analytics
Stephen Hill is an associate professor of Data Analytics in Samford University's Brock School of Business.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Hill received his doctorate in Operations Management from the University of Alabama in 2008. At Samford, he teaches courses in data analytics.
He has received several awards in recognition of his teaching. His research focuses on applications of analytics techniques in a variety of areas such as: sports, supply chains, education and health care.
Hill enjoys traveling, photography and sports, especially college football. Learn more about Professor Hill on his personal website: drhill.io.
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
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- Director of Regional Recruitment
Education: MBA, Business Administration, BS, Interior Design
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- Administrative Assistant to the Dean
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- Business Operations Coordinator
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
- Retired, Nike Inc
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- Member of the Professional Sales Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Accounting Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board
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- Retired - Motion Industries Inc.
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- Associate Professor of Accounting
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- CBI Construction Services
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- Member of the Sports Industry Advisory Board