FACULTY UPDATES: Tom Downen Promoted to Associate Professor, Accounting
Tom Downen spent most of his life living in the southwest U.S., including earning his Ph.D. at Texas Tech University, specializing in financial accounting and managerial accounting. He was a faculty member at two other schools prior, but has really enjoyed his colleagues and the environment since coming to UNCW in 2015. He and his wife Becky, an adjunct instructor at UNCW, love sporting activities and living at the beach.
Adam Jones Promoted to Department Chair, Economics and Finance
Prior to pursing his Ph.D. in economics, Adam Jones was the Director of Economic Development with the Covington/ Newton County Chamber of Commerce in Covington, GA. His responsibilities included business recruitment, retention and expansion of existing businesses and public policy development. While attending graduate school at the University of Georgia, Dr. Jones assisted the Carl Vinson Institute of Government with various economic impact studies and other economic development policy consultation projects. In addition to his role as Department Chair, Dr. Jones serves as the Regional Economist for the Swain Center.
Thom Porter Resumed Position as Associate Professor of Marketing
Thom Porter has been at UNCW for 20 years. During that time he has served in just about every role that a faculty member can, including associate dean, department chair, graduate program director, Director of the Swain Center and international liaison. While serving as associate dean, Thom lead the effort to establish its online graduate programs. Cameron would like to thank Thom for his work as associate dean. He did great work, provided timely counsel, and worked tirelessly to operationalize new online programs.
Nivine Richie Promoted to Associate Dean, Graduate Programs and External Programs
Nivine Richie most recently served as the chair of the Department of Economics and Finance and professor of finance. She joined the faculty at UNCW in 2007 where she has taught
FACULTY ADDITIONS: courses in investment analysis, derivatives, fixed income and research methods. Her research interests include cost of capital, banking and derivatives. She has published studies in the Journal of Economics and Finance, Journal of Futures Markets, Review of Futures Markets, and Journal of Trading, among others. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Richie was a mortgage-backed securities trader for a regional dealer bank in South Florida.
Ethan Watson Promoted to Associate Professor, Finance
Ethan Watson joined the Cameron School faculty in 2013. Professor Watson has several teaching interests including principles of finance, investments, health care finance and financial statement analysis. His research interests are in the areas of market microstructure and institutional investing. He is particularly interested in how information is incorporated into markets. Dr. Watson has five years of corporate experience from working at the Medical College of Georgia and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Joe Betts Lecturer, Business Law
Joe Betts received his bachelor’s in political science at UNCW in 1996. He then received his master’s in accountancy at UNCW in 1997. Joe also attended UNC School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor in 2000. He teaches accounting and business law.
Brandon Brice Lecturer, Economics
Brandon Brice joined the Cameron School faculty in fall 2018 after completing his Ph.D. in economics at Florida State University. Brandon has a passion for interactive and discussionbased learning, and has won several teaching awards while instructing economic development and principles courses. His research interests are in institutions and development, law and economics and economic education.
Gretchen Casterella Associate Professor, Accounting
Gretchen Casterella earned her Ph.D. in information systems from the University
of Colorado, and was a faculty member at the University of Auckland and Colorado State University before joining the Cameron School of Business at UNCW in 2018. Gretchen’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of accounting information systems, ethical decisionmaking, data modeling and information retrieval. Her favorite pastime is going for long leisurely walks on Kure Beach with her husband and two sons.
Miran Hossain Assistant Professor, Finance
Miran Hossain is an assistant professor of finance in the economics and finance department. He joined the Cameron School of Business in 2018 after completing his Ph.D. in finance at Florida Atlantic University. His teaching interests include principles of finance, corporate finance and equity valuation. His research falls under the broad umbrella of empirical corporate finance with particular interest in corporate governance, mergers and dividend policy.
Aruna Lakshmanan Lecturer, Business Analytics
Aruna comes from a statistics background with master’s and doctoral degrees from Louisiana State University. She has experience working at a Fortune 500 company, applying statistics in areas ranging from marketing to research and development. She currently teaches two courses.
Xaver Neumeyer Assistant Professor, Management
Xaver Neumeyer teaches entrepreneurship as well as managing technology and innovation. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University and was a participant of University of Florida’s postdoctoral bridge program. His research interests include entrepreneurial ecosystems, ventures and teams. His work has been published in journals including the Journal of Small Business Management, Small Business Economics, the Journal of Technology Transfer, and the Journal of Cleaner Production and he is a recipient of AOM’s Entrepreneurship Practice award.