The School of Business is welcoming nine new faculty members this semester, continuing a trend of successful recruiting. Many of the new hires already have strong research accomplishments and awards for teaching excellence.

“I’m looking forward to the Fall semester and the opportunity to welcome nine new, enthusiastic and well-qualified faculty members to our team,” said Dean John A. Elliott. “This group continues several strong years of hiring. With recent retirements, I am excited by our ability to attract strong, new faculty.

“It is also exciting to see changes in the leadership cadre as well,” he said. “People are growing into new jobs and delivering exciting new perspectives on generating great education for our students.”

The new faculty, by department, are:

Accounting:

Vishal Baloria joins the accounting department as an associate professor based in Storrs. He comes to UConn with previous experience at Boston College, where he was a three-time recipient of teaching awards, and the University of Alberta. He earned a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Waterloo. A CPA, Baloria has also worked as an auditor in Canada.

Baloria’s research develops a fuller understanding of the extent to which political incentives affect the decisions of corporate managers and capital market participants. His current research projects focus on three interrelated actors: politicians, regulators, and the media. His work appears in leading management journals, including Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, and The Accounting Review.

William “Will” Docimo has joined the School of Business as an assistant professor of accounting, based in Storrs. Docimo earned a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Pittsburgh, and both bachelor and master’s degrees from University of Notre Dame. His research interests include audit quality, multinational group audits, and financial reporting quality. He was awarded several fellowships because of his graduate work, including the prestigious Deloitte Foundation Doctoral Fellowship Award in 2020.

Li Fang joins the accounting department as an assistant professor-in-residence, based in Storrs. Fang previously worked at Iowa State University. She earned her masters and Ph.D. degrees in accounting from The George Washington University. Her research interests include accounting standards, restatements, corporate governance, and managerial labor market. She is a reviewer for several professional journals.

Finance/Real Estate:

Frank “Fritz” Koger III has joined the finance department as an assistant professor-in-residence, based in Storrs. He previously worked at Peking University in China, where he earned several outstanding faculty awards. Koger earned a master’s degree in international business studies from the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. in finance from Tulane University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder. Koger has had five textbooks published in the last six years, and his next book is underway.

Attorney Kristen Haseney has joined the real estate faculty as an assistant extension professor, based in Storrs. She recently worked as a senior associate counsel for the Connecticut Association of Realtors. Haseney has served on various committees of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection Real Estate Commission and the Fair Housing Association of Connecticut. Her professional interests include fair housing, affordable housing, and how urban planning affects communities. Haseney was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 2008 after earning her law degree at Western New England University and her bachelor’s degree from Smith College.

Management:

Keith Pennington joins the faculty as an assistant professor of management, based in Storrs. Pennington earned his Ph.D. in strategic management and entrepreneurship from the University of Minnesota and recently completed a postdoctoral year at UCLA. His research interests include strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and the relationship of geographic proximity of people to innovation and knowledge spillovers. He has founded or co-founded three companies, including two in the medical industry and one in the food and beverage field.

Marketing:

Danielle Brick has joined the School of Business as an assistant professor of marketing, based in Storrs. Brick’s research focuses on consumer relationships, including the interplay of brands and people, brand relationships, and shared consumer decisions and experiences. Prior to joining the School of Business, she was an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a Ph.D. in marketing from Duke University. Her research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, among others.

OPIM:

Jisu Cao joins the School of Business as an assistant professor of OPIM, based in Stamford. She earned both a master’s and a Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of Southern California. Cao also completed post-doctoral research at the University of Southern California and Texas A&M University. Her research interests include user-generated content, social media, and digital platforms.

Jaeung Sim joins the School of Business as an assistant professor of OPIM, based in Stamford. Sim earned his Ph.D. from KAIST College of Business in Seoul, South Korea, where he was honored for outstanding research. His research interests include understanding how consumers interact with information technology and providing actionable insights into sustainable operations of online platforms and governments. His recent findings have appeared in several publications, including Marketing Science and Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.