Research Fellows Program

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Joey Mattingly has over twenty years of experience in pharmacy, with roles ranging from entry-level technician to private equity start-up director. He left the private sector in 2014 to focus on pharmacoeconomics in academia, developing a research portfolio centered on drug pricing policy. From 2019-2021, he served as Speaker of the House of Delegates and Trustee for the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and is currently an advisor to the CMS for the Drug Price Negotiation Program. Dr. Mattingly has also led multiple federal research proposals aimed at improving patient outcomes through health equities research and serves on several advisory boards.

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

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. 

Marc A. Ragin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Insurance, Legal Studies, and Real Estate (ILSRE) at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. His research focuses on behavioral insurance, catastrophe risk, insurer operations, and insurance market economics, with publications in several leading journals. Before joining UGA, Marc was an Assistant Professor at Temple University and completed his doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also has industry experience, having worked as a broker for Lockton in Atlanta and in risk management at Amazon.com in Seattle.

Dr. Unal Tatar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cybersecurity at the University at Albany. With over twenty years of experience in cyber risk analysis and management, Dr. Tatar previously served as the head of Turkey’s National Computer Emergency Response Team. His tenure also includes the role of academic advisor at NATO’s Center of Excellence Defense Against Terrorism, specializing in cybersecurity and risk management.

Dr. Tatar’s primary research focus lies in the economics of cybersecurity and risk management. His recent research endeavors include projects such as “Red Teaming Analysis for Catastrophic Cyber Risk,” “A Systematic Review and Compendium of Cyber Risk for Actuaries,” and “Quantification of Cyber Risk for Actuaries.” Notably, Dr. Tatar has been recognized as a fellow by the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.

His research has garnered substantial support from various organizations, including the NSF, DOD, NSA, NATO, and the Society of Actuaries. Dr. Tatar holds a BS in Computer Science, an MS in Applied Mathematics, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering.

Dr. Tatar’s Fellows project is on response strategies for catastrophic cyber risks.

Steve Dimmock is a 2024 National Association of Insurance Commissioners Research Fellow and is Provost’s Chair Professor of Finance at the National University of Singapore.  He has previously held faculty positions at Michigan State University and Nanyang Technological University.  Dr. Dimmock’s research interests include household financial decision making, financial regulation, and the prevention of misconduct in financial markets.

Dr. Dimmock’s project is on how financial constraints affect misconduct and agent-carrier matching in insurance markets.