I am an Assistant Professor in Finance at the University of Georgia, where my research focuses municipal bonds, the opioid crisis effects on local finances, credit ratings, and real investment decisions and corporate diversification. Throughout my rollercoaster career, I have also taught banking, risk management, and economics and most of the electives in the MBA and executive MBA programs at the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University and Tulane University.

I received my Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. I've published papers in journals such as the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics , served as a fellow of the FDIC, and presented my papers at the NBER, American Finance Association meetings, and the Society for Financial Studies Cavalcade.

 I also co-founded and co-managed the Financial Engineering Group at BankBoston/Fleet, where I was responsible for developing models to price, hedge, and market proprietary interest rate, currency, and emerging market structured products. I presented original research at numerous industry conferences and was the highest rated speaker at credit derivative conferences and training courses in New York, London, and Hong Kong. I've consulted for money center banks on advanced topics on emerging market debt and derivatives, and also served as an expert witness in legal cases involving derivatives and corporate appropriateness.

A very long time ago, I graduated magna cum laude from Williams College with a B.A. in Political Economy and a concentration in Russian, Soviet, and Eastern European Studies, and attended UCLA as a PH.D. student in Political Science.