Turner Business

Since graduating in 2018, Turner College alum  Adrien Vakerics has established himself as a human resource  professional with recruitment experience for highly technical positions. After completing a B.A. in psychology from LaGrange College, where he was inducted into both the  Alpha Mu Gamma (Foreign Language) Honor Society  and the  Omicron Delta Kappa (Leadership) Honor Society , Adrien entered the graduate organizational leadership program in the Turner College and earned an MSOL with a concentration in human resources. This educational background propelled Adrien into a human resources assistant role with Macias, Gini & O'Connell LLP. From there he moved into the Human Resources Generalist position with Amynta Group, where he worked almost three years. Adrien's professional journey passed another milestone when he accepted to role of Human Resources Administrator with WAXIE Sanitary Supply. This path led Adrien to the role of Human Resources Generalist ...

Federal government spending in response to COVID-19 and military conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have combined to recently push the U.S. national debt above $1 trillion for the first time in history. As expected, annual debt service payments have risen sharply over the past four years, increasing from about $521 billion to $940 billion, representing an 80.4% increase. A new study by Turner College economist Frank Mixon and his colleagues Richard Cebula of the University of Tennessee, Jason Jolley of Ohio University and Kamal Upadhyaya of the University of New Haven develops a conceptual macroeconomic model to more fully appreciate the monetary policy impact on U.S. Treasury debt service and growth of the national debt that divides federal government spending into separate categories for (1) exogenous real expenditures on new goods and services and (2) interest rate sensitive payments made by the government to service its national debt. According to the study, which is set to a...

TSYS School computer scientist Rania Hodhod has been selected by CSU's Campus Culture Work Crew as a member of the CSU community whose professional activities are worthy of recognition. In describing Hodhod's work, the Crew notes that she " is quick to collaborate with both students and faculty/staff to ensure students are given the highest opportunity for success." The crew also notes that Hodhod "is kind and encouraging, always offering explanations and information that help students make informed decisions." The rest of the Crew's recognition states: " Dr. Hodhod has been a tremendous resource for myself and my students as we navigate the degree path changes (and as I learn how to advise CPSC students). She embodies the servant leadership mindset through connecting with and empowering students and colleagues alike through innovative ideas that improve efficiency and degree understanding. Her commitment to student success is evident through her i...

The Spring 2025 graduation ceremony at the University of Memphis was a big one for Turner College management professor Phil Bryant and his family. During the ceremony Bryant's father, Ben, received an honorary doctorate degree and Phil was able to participate in the hooding portion of that event.  "I’m excited, humbled, and honored to be a part of my dad’s hooding ceremony tomorrow at the University of Memphis," Phil Bryant explained the day before the ceremony.  Ben Bryant is currently Executive-in-Residence at the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Memphis, assisting with advice, direction and mentoring for the initiatives within the Center. He is also a member of the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, the Management Information Systems Advisory Council, the U of M President’s Innovation Board, and a former Executive-in-Residence of the FedEx Institute of Technology. Ben Bryant is Vice-Chairman of the University of Memphis Board of Vi...

Columbus State University has named 1,202 undergraduate students to its Spring 2025 President’s List and Dean’s Lists. This represents more than 21% of all undergraduate students enrolled in the spring.  The Dean’s List represents an elite group of undergraduate students who excelled in the classroom by earning a minimum 3.60 semester GPA in at least 12 semester credit hours during the spring. The Dean’s List include 398 students—more than 7% of the university’s spring undergraduate enrollment, with 98 students from the Turner College. These impressive students are listed below.

Columbus State University has named 1,202 undergraduate students to its Spring 2025 President’s List and Dean’s Lists. This represents more than 21% of all undergraduate students enrolled in the spring. The President’s List represents the pinnacle of academic achievement and recognizes undergraduate students who achieved a minimum 3.80 semester grade point average in at least 12 semester credit hours during the spring. It includes 804 students—more than 14% of its spring undergraduate enrollment, with 197 students from the Turner College. These incredible students are listed below.

At a recent reception, the CSU Office of Student Life & Development honored registered student organizations and their leaders for their dedication and service to the university and the community. “Student organizations and campus engagement programs allow Columbus State students to create community and find their people,” said Melissa Dempsey, assistant dean of students for student engagement. “Both allow students to connect with others who share their same interests and passions, as well as gain valuable leadership skills, experience through volunteerism and a broad network through social and community programs.” The Turner College and TSYS School were well represented at the reception, as the  Emerging Leader of the Year Award went to  Bryan Lucas , a junior majoring in business management with a concentration in human resources. Bryan is involved in multiple campus activities, including the Presidential Envoys, CHISPA, Student Activities Council, Residence Life and the...

CSU has  launched a new and improved campus chatbot, CodyBot, designed to provide faster, smarter, and more personalized support—now with live chat capabilities.  The chatbot now delivers more accurate contextual answers to questions about admissions, enrollment, financial aid, and more.  If the bot can’t answer a question, one will be seamlessly connected to a live support agent during business hours. One can r each the chatbot through the campus website (available via a mobile phone) and MyCSU. CSU is  committed to enhancing your campus experience with tools that provide convenient, reliable support—whether you’re applying, registering for classes or simply looking for information. Look for the chat icon at the bottom-right corner of any website or MyCSU and try it today.

The TSYS School is currently searching for a new Director of the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity, and three finalists have emerged for the position. At 10:00 am today, the third of these, Stephen Childers, will speak at an open forum in the Synovus Center Theater. Childers earned a B.S. in Business Administration and Occupational Education from Wayland Baptist University, an MBA from Troy University, and an M.A. in Teaching from Columbus State University. He currently serves as High School Principal at Calvary Christian School. Prior to holding his current position, he Instructional Coordinator for the Harris County School District, Associate Project Director at TSYS, Financial Specialist and Bank President at Wachovia, Director of Operations at Pioneer Financial Services, Branch Manager at Wells Fargo, and Special Operations NCO in the U.S. Air Force.

The TSYS School is currently searching for a new Director of the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity, and three finalists have emerged for the position. At 10:00 am today, the second of these, Armando Fernandez , will speak at an open forum in the Synovus Center Theater. Fernandez earned a B.A. in Modern Culture and Language from Columbus State University, an MBA from the Turner College, and an M.S. in Cybersecurity Management from the TSYS School. He currently serves as a Lecturer of Cybersecurity in the TSYS School. Prior to holding his current position, he completed an internship in trust compliance with Synovus, held various senior leadership roles in the U.S. Army, and held various senior leadership and recruiting roles in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The TSYS School is currently searching for a new Director of the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity, and three finalists have emerged for the position. At 10:00 am today, the first of these, Sean Glieberman, will speak at an open forum in the Synovus Center Theater. Glieberman earned a B.S. in Information Sciences and Technology from Pennsylvania State University, an M.S. in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and an Executive Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Center for Cyber Defense at Tiffin University. Prior to holding his current position, he was the CEO of Cywareness LTD, Director of Cyber Intelligence at Opora Technologies, and COO of the NSA Threat Operations Center.

A recent post here at Turner Business reports that Turner College associate professor of accounting Jasmine Bordere was a big winner at the 2025 CSU Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony, taking home the 2025 CSU Scholarship of Teaching & Learning Award. As indicated there, this award recognizes a faculty member's engagement in the systematic examination of issues about student learning and instructional conditions which promote the learning, building on previous scholarship. The criteria for selection include documented use of strategies for investigating and evaluating the impact of teaching practice on student learning, anchored in the research literature; engagement in scholarship that is public, peer reviewed and critiqued; the production of scholarly work which contributes new questions and knowledge about teaching and learning; the development of a well-articulated teaching philosophy that drives research questions; and documented dissemination of their scholarship results...

A recent entry here at Turner Business looked at business and computer science faculty recognition at CSU's annual faculty award ceremonies. Similarly, this post takes a look back over the first five Turner College faculty award ceremonies of the current decade. As noted in the table below, wherein business faculty are listed in red and computer science faculty are list in blue , there are a couple of multiple award winners in Joshua Brooks , an  associate professor of finance,  and Jennifer Pitts , a  professor of management information systems. Brooks won the Turner College Teaching Award in 2024 and the Turner College Online Teaching Award in 2022. Pitts won the Turner College Online Teaching Award in 2025 and the Turner College Graduate Teaching Award in 2023.     Of the 25 award winners listed in the table above, 15 are Turner College business faculty and 10 are TSYS School computer science faculty. Of the 15 Turner College business faculty, eight are fro...

The 2024-25 academic year saw a number of successes on the research front. Jumping to January of 2025 brings us back to TSYS School computer scientist Riduan Abid , whose study in Computer Communications explains that  Fog computing - a technology that extends cloud computing and services to the edge of an enterprise's network, thus allowing data, applications, and other resources to be moved closer to end users - has emerged as a promising paradigm to address the challenges of processing and managing data generated by the Internet of Things.  Load balancing - a process that distributes traffic and workloads to ensure that no single server or machine is under-loaded, overloaded, or idle - plays a crucial role in Fog computing environments to optimize overall system performance. It requires efficient resource allocation to improve resource utilization, minimize latency, and enhance the quality of service for end-users. Abid's study seeks to improve the performance of priv...

New research by Turner College MIS professor Yoon Lee points out that t he cryptocurrency market has experienced substantial growth in recent years, driven by increased capital liquidity and speculative investment.  However, its volatility has led to significant financial losses for many investors, particularly in Altcoins.  The new study by Lee and his co-authors  Chulhwan Chris Bang of Georgia Southern University,  Donghyup Woo of the University of Pittsburgh — Greensburg, and Fauziya Ado Yakasai of Michigan State University  investigates the factors influencing Altcoin price volatility during bear markets, with a focus on the roles of dominant cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and sentiment derived from Reddit discussions. Grounded in Dow Theory and spillover effect, the research, which is set to appear in a future issue of Information Systems Frontiers , evaluates how the dominance of Bitcoin and Ethereum shapes Altcoin price movements. F...

The 2024-25 academic year saw a number of successes on the research front. Jumping to November of 2024, Turner College management professor Johnny Ho published a study in the International Journal of Services and Standards  demystifies the potential of generative AI by evaluating the performance of ChatGPT in addressing operations management problems and questions. The findings of his study reveal that ChatGPT generally performs well but struggles with aspects of Bloom’s taxonomy, suggesting its limitations in higher-order cognitive tasks. This particular finding underscores the importance of collaboration among educators, learners, and generative AI to enhance educational outcomes. Lastly, the study also explores the role of prompt engineering and custom GPTs in improving education and learning in operations management courses. Taken as a whole, Ho's study provides significant insights into operations management education and pedagogy, unveiling many opportunities for future rese...

Turner College officials received news today that its undergraduate and graduate business programs have achieved an extension of accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. In his letter to Turner College Dean Deb Kidder , AACSB Accreditation Coordinator Ryan Duzon congratulated Turner College faculty, staff and administration for "the Peer Review Team's recommendation for extension of accreditation of the business degree programs offered by your school has been concurred with by the Continuous Improvement Review Committee and also ratified by the Board of Directors." Please join Turner Business in congratulating the Turner College on this outstanding accomplishment.  

CSU President Stuart Rayfield recently announced to the CSU Faculty Senate that $145,000 of the University's budget for 2025-26 and onward will be allotted to merit raises for the top 15% of CSU's faculty and staff. For the Turner College's 36 faculty, this means that 5.4 faculty will receive a merit raise of some amount in the near future. According to Rayfield, t he expectations and directives for selecting the top performers for this merit-based pay increase will be disseminated among the deans and chairs soon and will be implemented by September 1. For the Turner College, these decisions will be made by Dean Deborah Kidder , Associate Dean Tesa Leonce , and department chairs John Finley , Rania Hodhod and Gisung Moon . At the state level, the governor is expected to sign this budget and finalize it by May 14. Stay connected to Turner Business for more in this process.

The 2024-25 academic year saw a number of successes on the research front. Jumping to September of 2024, TSYS school computer scientist Yi Zhou   provides a comprehensive overview of past developments and recent progress in the area of AI technology, which has developed rapidly in recent years, leading to widespread use in daily life. Zhou's study in Future Internet  first summarizes the definition and characteristics of smart healthcare and then explores the opportunities that AI technology brings to the smart healthcare field from a macro perspective. The final two sections of the study categorize specific AI applications in smart healthcare into 10 domains and identify 10 key challenges these applications face. The 10 applications lie in the areas of disease prevention and prediction, diagnostic imaging, personalized treatment plans, virtual health assistance, remote patient monitoring, drug discovery and development, robotic surgery, electronic health records, behavio...

The 2024-25 academic year saw a number of successes on the research front. Starting in May of 2024, Turner College economist Frank Mixon kicked things off with a publication in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology   examining the factors influencing the tendency of members of the U.S. House of Representative to either shirk (i.e., skip) the vote on  HR 965,  a 2020 resolution that authorized proxy voting in the U.S. House of Representatives as a way avoiding spread of COVID-19 in the Congress,  or to vote in favor of the resolution (i.e., HR 965) allowing for the proxy vote. The study reports that  female Representatives were 4.3 to 5.5 percentage points more likely to skip the vote on HR 965 than were their male counterparts, and that older Representatives were about 4.7 percentage points more likely to skip the vote on HR 965 that were their younger counterparts. Most importantly, Representatives who generally tend to skip votes exhibited a ...

Turner College and TSYS School faculty won four of the seven CSU faculty awards at the recent ceremony on CSU's main campus -- an impressive feat. Turner Business took this as an opportunity to look back at this annual ceremony and compare how these organizations did in prior years with how they recently performed. The table below covers the seven awards over the first half of the current decade, with Turner College business faculty winners listed in red and TSYS School computer science faculty listed in blue . As shown there, the Turner College and TSYS School collected two of the seven awards in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and three of the seven awards in 2023. So, the recent performance of winning four of the seven awards stands out.     A few other trends are evident in the information above. First, the Turner College and TSYS School have dominated the Chappell Graduate Teaching Award over the first half of the current decade. Second, the Turner College and TSYS are establishin...