Turner Business

Associate professor of economics, Tesa Leonce , was recently chosen to chair the Turner College’s Department of Accounting and Finance, taking over for Associate Dean, Fonda Carter , who has been serving on an interim basis.  She joined the Turner College in 2014 from her prior position on the economics faculty at Eastern Illinois University.  In 2016, Leonce and associate professor of business, John Finley , led a group of 22 Turner College students on a study abroad trip to Spain, while in 2017 she joined management professor, Neal Thomson , in leading nine Turner College students in a study abroad program in Ireland.  Leonce, who earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Wyoming, won the 2017 Turner College Faculty Service Award and currently serves on the editorial board of Compensation & Benefits Review .  Lastly, her latest research appears in Empirical Economics , Tourism Economics , Healthcare , and the International Journal of Healthcare Man...

Talisha Lockhart joined the Turner College’s administrative team in June, taking positions as the College’s Web MBA Coordinator and academic advisor.   She comes to the Turner College from Columbus Technical College, where she served as Assistant Director of Financial Aid.   Prior to her 11-year stint at CTC, Lockhart was a Resource Planning Analyst at Aflac for five years.   She earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Alabama State University in 2004, and an MBA from Troy University in 2008.   

A Mathematical Approach to Liver Fibrosis Diagnosis Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the infectious agent causing hepatitis C, affects 170 million people worldwide, leading to more than 350,000 deaths per year.  Serial liver biopsies, which are typically used for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis progression, can be invasive, expensive, risky, and inconvenient to patients.  Fortunately for hepatitis C sufferers, a preferred diagnosis process may be on the way.  In a study appearing in a 2022 issue of Sensors , TSYS School computer scientists Anastasia Angelopoulou and Rania Hodhod , and their colleague from the CSU Department of Mathematics, Nehal Shukla, present the development, validation, and evaluation of a prediction mathematical model for non-invasive diagnosis of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C virus.  Their model uses a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations as its core and divides the population into six groups: susceptible, treatment, responder, no...

Smooth Glide or Bumpy Ride? In their 2022 article appearing in the Journal of Financial Planning , Turner College finance professor Gisung Moon and his co-authors, Doug Waggle of the University of West Florida and Hongbok Lee of Western Illinois University, point out that rising rates of inflation mean that bonds are providing negative real returns for retirees in need of safe cash flows.   Unlike prior research that assumes that bond rates and inflation will return to normal over five or 10 years, Moon’s study considers scenarios where rates return to normal over five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 years, or never.   The research finds that post-retirement glide path choices that would have worked in the past, such as a 20 percent-80 percent stock-bond mix and a four percent withdrawal rate over 30 years, are no longer safe investment choices in the current environment.   As Moon indicated to Turner Business , “Even with lower withdrawal rates and/or shorter retirement horizons,...