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Research Fellows Program

How It Works

Our Research Fellows Program is intended to foster new and innovative research in insurance regulation by providing resources to researchers working in this field. Fellows are named for a one-year period and given a stipend and access to relevant NAIC data and materials. 

Connect

You will engage with regulatory subject matter experts for guidance on your research.

Equip

We will provide a stipend and access to available NAIC data and experts who steward it.

Publish

We will share your research report with the CIPR audience of regulators, academics, and thought leaders and encourage you to submit for publication.

Current Fellows

Kyeonghee Kim

Kyeonghee Kim

Kyeonghee is an assistant professor of risk management and insurance in the Department of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies at Florida State University’s College of Business. Her primary research focus is the implications of market imperfections and regulation for financial institutions. She is especially interested in life and health insurance company operations. Kyeonghee’s research interest also extends to topics in population health, using nationally representative survey data on health (e.g., NHIS, NHANES, and MEPS).

Dr. Kim's Fellows research is on the underwriting of sea level rise risks.

Report: Climate Risks in the Commercial Mortgage Portfolios of Life Insurers
NAIC Research Fellow Stuart Heckman

Stuart J. Heckman

Stuart J. Heckman is a Certified Financial Planner™ and an Associate Professor of Personal Financial Planning at Kansas State University. He currently serves as the Academic Editor of the Journal of Financial Planning. His research focuses on professional financial planning and on financial decisions involving uncertainty, especially among young adults and college students.

Dr. Heckman's Fellows project is on racial and ethnic differences in risk literacy.

Report: Understanding Insurance Decisions: A Review of Risk Management Decision Making, Risk Literacy, and Racial/Ethnic Differences
NAIC Research Fellow Jingshu Lou

Jingshu Luo

Jingshu Luo, Ph.D., is a 2021 National Association of Insurance Commissioners Research Fellow. Dr. Luo is assistant professor of finance at University of Mississippi's Business School. Her research interests include corporate risk management, insurance economics, and public policy while her teaching interests include risk management, insurance, and corporate finance. She earned a Ph.D. degree in Risk Management and Insurance from Temple University, a Master’s degree in Economics from Rutgers University-Newark, and a Bachelor’s degree in Insurance and Accounting from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (China).

Dr. Luo's Fellows project focused on the patterns and factors impacting the diffusion of NAIC Model Laws.

Report: The Diffusion of NAIC Model Laws
Headshot of Dr. Abed Rabbani

Abed G. Rabbani

Dr. Abed G. Rabbani is an assistant professor of personal financial planning in the Division of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received a Ph.D. degree in Financial Planning from the University of Georgia. He teaches CFP® curriculum in retirement planning, risk management & insurance, and tax planning at the graduate and undergraduate levels. His research is focused primarily on financial risk tolerance, financial knowledge, and risk literacy. He is also a Certified Financial Planner™. 

Dr. Rabbani's Fellows research is on the topic of life insurance literacy.

Joey Mattingly

Joey Mattingly

Dr. Joey Mattingly has been in pharmacy for over twenty years, with pharmacy operations experience as an entry-level technician, staff pharmacist, pharmacy manager, district manager for a major pharmacy chain, and private equity start-up director for a long-term care pharmacy operation serving multiple states. Dr. Mattingly left the private sector in 2014 to pursue an academic career with a specific focus on pharmacoeconomics. Since 2014, Dr. Mattingly has developed a research portfolio that primarily focuses on drug pricing policy where he has engaged policymakers at local, state, and federal levels, including serving as Speaker of the House of Delegates and Trustee for the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) from 2019-2021. Most recently, he was appointed as an advisor to the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to aid in the implementation of the new “Drug Price Negotiation Program” authorized by Congress through the Inflation Reduction Act.  In addition to drug pricing, Dr. Mattingly has led or co-led multiple federal research proposals aimed at improving patient outcomes through a health equities research lens (U01FD007563 and U01MD017437). Dr. Mattingly has previously served as an advisor on Effectiveness and Decision Science for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Maryland Department of Health Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, and the Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Stakeholder Council. He also serves as an Editorial Advisory Board member for the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and PharmacoEconomics - Open. 

Dr. Mattingly’s Fellows research is on pharmacy benefit manager reforms.

Cameron Ellis - NAIC Research Fellow

Cameron Ellis

Cameron Ellis, Ph.D., is a 2023 National Association of Insurance Commissioners Research Fellow. Dr. Ellis is the Hentges Fellow in Finance and an Assistant Professor in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. His research interests lie at the intersection of insurance economics, household finance, and public policy analysis. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Georgia. 

Dr. Ellis' Fellows project is on the market impacts of lapsation in life insurance. 

Research Fellow Marc Ragin

Marc A. Ragin

Marc A. Ragin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Insurance, Legal Studies, and Real Estate (ILSRE) in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. His research interests include behavioral insurance, catastrophe risk, insurer operations, and insurance market economics. He has published research in The Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, and the North American Actuarial Journal.

Before joining the faculty at UGA, Marc was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management at Temple University in Philadelphia. He completed his doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing on Actuarial Science, Risk Management, and Insurance.

Prior to entering academia, Marc worked as a broker for Lockton in Atlanta for three years.  He specialized in executive risk lines of insurance - Directors and Officers Liability, Employment Practices Liability, Fiduciary Liability, Crime (Employee Theft), Kidnap/Ransom, and Errors and Omissions. He also worked in the Risk Management department at Amazon.com in Seattle. Marc’s work experience drives many classroom discussions.