Turner Business

Turner College assistant professor of management Hyeran Choi is departing from the Turner College of Business and returning to the higher education system in South Korea.  Choi earned a BBA from Yonsei University, a master’s degree in human resources and industrial relations from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, and a doctorate in management from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois.  She joined the Turner College management faculty in August of 2017.  She recently co-authored a study with Daisung Jang of the University of Queensland (Australia) and Jeffrey Lowenstein of the University of Illinois on how effective negotiation rests in part on generating integrative agreements, or agreements advancing parties’ interests through generating joint gains.  This study appears in a recent issue of Group Decision and Negotiation .  Turner Business wishes Choi the best with this move, which allows her to be closer t...

Turner College of Business Advisory Council On December 8, 2022, Turner College Dean Deborah Kidder will be hosting a luncheon for the Turner College Business Advisory Council, a group consisting mainly of private sector supporters of the Turner College who advise the dean on strategy and other related matters.  The Advisory Council currently has 12 members, each of whom will get the chance to meet several Turner College faculty at the December luncheon.  Among the members of the Advisory Council is Paul Amos, who joined Aflac as executive vice president of U.S. Operations in 2005 and was named COO and President in 2007.   He retired from Aflac in 2017 to become Director of Jordan Blanchard Capital.  In 1977, another current Advisory Council member, Wade Burford, started his career at CB&T as a part-time teller.  He now works as Market President for Synovus in Phenix City.  Philip Tomlinson spent almost 49 years in financial services, retiring as Presid...

by Cristina Feliciano, WRBL-TV With a big grand prize at stake, four local entrepreneurs pitched their small businesses to a panel of judges on November 17, 2022, at Columbus State University.  In front of a live audience, BizPitch Columbus finalists took the stage, pitching their business proposals for the chance to win a grand prize of $15,000.  BizPitch, a Shark-Tank inspired pitch competition, serves as a networking opportunity for various local businesses and highlights the importance of economic development in the Chattahoochee Valley.  The finalists included Rashmi Hudson of Alltimate Luggage, Michael Williams of Huneu, Connell Reynolds of Travel Kots, and Alap Shah of iParaDox.  There was a heavy community presence as people shuffled into the event and were greeted by various local vendors such as Boss Mom Enterprise and TapWagen Columbus.  Michael Woodham , owner of TapWagen Columbus, is very familiar with the ups and downs that come with starting a ne...

With more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare and real estate development industries, Denise Kendust has a proven track record of accomplishment for growing and increasing brand awareness and market share in complex environments.   Since August of 2021, Denise has worked in Tallahassee, Florida, as the Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement at HCA Healthcare, which is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services, comprising 182 hospitals and approximately more than 2,300 sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom.   Prior to holding this position, she was a director of communications and community engagement for HCA Healthcare in the Fort Walton-Destin market, where she supported and led the community relations team at Twin Cities Hospital and the communications team at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center.   Denise’s impressive business caree...

When COVID-19 hit the United States and institutions of higher learning went virtual, traditional models of teaching and learning were no longer useful.   Educators were forced to innovate.   Turner College finance professor Joshua Brooks adapted in a remarkable way.   “When we went into lockdown, I taught myself video editing software and created a YouTube channel to begin posting short problem solving videos for each of my [finance] classes. I continue to build on this and have found it to be invaluable for teaching business analytics and managerial finance,” Brooks explained.   Brooks also elevated his contact with students by communicating with them each week through announcements and e-mail messages.   To bring a human element to spring semester of 2020, he provided his classes weekly photographic updates of a flower garden his family planted and cultivated during quarantine.   “Several students emailed me at the end of the [spring 2020] semester than...

Turner College economics students Heather Chason and Michael Carter recently travelled to Valdosta State University to present their research on food insecurity and inflation as part of the 2022 Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference.  Using data from the National Garden Association, their study investigates the effectiveness of backyard farming in combatting food insecurity and inflation in the United States.  The results of the study suggest that although the initial costs of starting a backyard garden can vary, the revenue generated from the produce harvested outweighs the costs of production by as much as $2,000.  When asked by Turner Business about the conclusions and recommendations from the research, Chason explained that the results of the study “suggest that government support of backyard farming through tax[ation policies], facilitating exchange markets, and media advertising will increase participation and food security for . . . disadvantaged populations...

Turner College economics professor Frank Mixon was recently invited to guest edit a forthcoming special issue of Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics .  Mixon will be assisted in this endeavor by Richard Cebula, a professor of economics at George Mason University.  The title of the special issue will be “Theoretical and Empirical Approaches to Public Choice.”  As Mixon explained to Turner Business , public choice is often defined as the application of the methodology of economics to the study of politics.  Given that the machinations of politics occur outside of traditional market settings, public choice has also been referred to as the (economic) study of non-market decision making.  “As evident by these descriptions, public choice is an inherently interdisciplinary field, whose contributions have emanated from economists, political scientists, legal scholars, and mathematicians, among others.  As such, examinations of the subject are sometimes...