To celebrate the 70 years of teaching insurance at the University of North Texas – College of Business, the school announced it will hire three recognized scholars to join its insurance faculty.
Among the newest faculty members in insurance in will be Dr. Yu-Luen Ma, who will become the first holder of the Glen L. Taylor Professorship in Insurance. This new position, which represents decades of fundraising from alumni and supporters of the program, will honor Dr. Glen L. Taylor, a dedicated UNT professor for more than three decades.
“The college and the university are committed to have a nationally rated program in risk management and insurance,” UNT Provost Dr. Finley Graves said in the announcement. “In order to that we need an academic leader who can work with the insurance industry in Texas and beyond. As UNT continues to be a Tier 1 Research institution, the risk management and insurance program will lead the college in that direction.”
Although fundraising will continue, once the fund in Dr. Taylor’s honor reached the level of a professorship, the decision was made to recruit a nationally recognized scholar to the position. Dr. Ma is a noted scholar who has taught for more than 18 years and in 2014 was named one of the most prolific contributing authors in the leading risk management and insurance journals. Her work has appeared in a number of academic journals such as the Journal of Risk and Insurance and the Journal of Insurance Regulation. She is also the winner of a highly competitive federal grant, offering her $300,000 in funding from the Federal Highway Administration.
In addition to Dr. Ma, the two new faculty members joining UNT’s insurance program will be Dr. Nat Pope, a winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association, and Dr. Jianren Xu.