Bloch School of Management. Prior to this appointment he served as the director of the Center for Financial Services and as an associate professor of finance at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). He earned a Ph.D. in finance from The University of Alabama in 1997. In addition, he earned both his masters of arts and undergraduate degrees from The University of Alabama. He became a charted financial analyst (C.F.A.) in 1999 and a certified financial planner in 2002. While at USM, he was the founding director of the C.F.P. board-approved financial planning degree program and supervised the student investment fund.