Faculty and Staff Profiles

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      Dr. Albert A. Okunade is a Professor of Economics, Senior Research Fellow at the Methodist Le Bonheur Center for Healthcare Economics, and Coordinator of the Ph. D. (Business Administration) Economics Program, in The Fogelman College of Business & Economics (FCBE) at the University of Memphis. He earned his 1986 Ph.D. Economics degree at (The Sam M. Walton College of Business) The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. (Previously, he earned the MS Economics, MBA and BS degrees at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.) He later served a faculty research sabbatical at Harvard University School of Public Health (Boston, MA). The Review of Black Political Economy nationally ranked his published research quality, measured as publications in peer-review economics journals indexed in the Journal of Economic Literature, in  the ‘TOP 3’ among all Black economists earning their Ph. D. degrees from US academic institutions since 1969. Professor Okunade is the inaugural FCBE faculty to receive both the University Provost’s First Tennessee Professorship Award (2007-2010) and the FCBE’s Palmer Research Professorship Award (2002) for Research. He was awarded the University’s Distinguished Research Award in Social Sciences & Business (2001), and twice (1995, 1992) received the SPUR (Superior Performance in University Research) Award. He is 1^st and 2^nd Place competitive recipient of several annual “Best Peer-Refereed Journal Paper Awards” in The FCBE.  Professor Okunade’s teaching quality signals include finalist (1993, 1997, 2008, 2009) and semi-finalist (1991, 1992, 1997) for the University’s ‘Distinguished Teaching Award’ and the inaugural FCBE faculty recipient of the ‘Teaching and Research Mentoring Award for Engaged Creative Teaching Excellence, Graduate, 2011-12’ for teaching MBA Economics. Professor Okunade’s additional professional honors and awards, at the University of Memphis, include (but are not limited to) recipient of the University’s Honors Program Teaching Fellowship Award, University College Mentoring Award, and ‘Top 3 Finalist’ for the Eminent Faculty Award (2007, 2008, 2009, 2014). He received a 2004 Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellowship (The Jack Shewmaker SIFE World Headquarters, Springfield, MO) and the SHAZAM Econometrics Hall of Fame Award (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada).

       Professor Okunade conducts applied econometrics research broadly on the economics of healthcare (finance, and public health policy), labor, industrial organization, non-profit higher education financing, and applied microeconomics in general. He is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Community Health (College of Arts & Sciences) and the African & African American Studies (AAAS, interdisciplinary) Program (College of Arts & Sciences) at the University of Memphis. He teaches graduate MA/Ph.D. Economics courses in Decision Economics, Applied Healthcare Economics, Pharmaceutical Economics, MBA Economics for Global Executives, and undergraduate Managerial (Organizational) Economics, Economic Forecasting, and Microeconomics Principles (Honors). He has Chaired and served as members of several Honors and MA Thesis and Ph.D. Dissertation Committees. Recently (May, 2012), he was appointed lead faculty for the University’s Executive MBA Program students on Study Abroad travels to foreign multinational corporations and government offices in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. He received the “Dean’s Service Award” in 2010.

       Albert has received several (internal university and externally) funded research grants, authored over 100 articles in encyclopedia, book/book chapters, …, and in some of the leading (or highly ranked) peer-refereed journals including, but not limited to, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Economics Letters (multiple), Journal of Health Economics, Review of Quantitative Finance & Accounting, Journal of Productivity Analysis, The American Statistician, Health Economics (multiple), Quarterly Review of Economics & Finance, Applied Economics (multiple), Journal of Labor Research, Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurial Journal (multiple), American Journal of Economics & Sociology (multiple), Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Health Care Finance (multiple), Journal of Health & Social Policy, Health Policy, Health Care Management Science (multiple), Ageing International, Managed Care Quarterly, Journal of Education Finance, ..... He has presented over 50 conference research papers in the US and globally in Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Portugal, Senegal, UK, etc.,

       Citations to Dr. Okunade’s work numbering in several hundreds, are in well regarded and prestigious journals, e.g., Journal of Finance & Quantitative Analysis (JFQA), Journal of Applied Econometrics, NBER Papers, Southern Economic Journal, Economic Modelling, Journal of Health Economics, Handbook of Health Economics, The Annals of Regional Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Health Economics, Policy & Law, International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, Southern Economic Journal, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Applied Economics, Health Affairs, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, American Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Medicine, Expert Reviews of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, Health Policy & Planning, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, European Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Surgical Education, Health Economics, Neuromodulation, Journal of Life Care Planning, Applied Health Economics & Health Policy, International Journal of Health Care Finance & Economics, …, etc.,

         Professor Okunade is a founding Board of Trustees member of The American Society of Health Economists (the leading US professional association of health economists), and an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis (Berkeley Electronics Press). He has guest edited “Special Issues” of The Quarterly Review of Economics & Finance and Journal of Health Care Finance, served as a past Editorial Board member of the Journal of Health Care Finance and on the Board of Christ Community Medical Clinic (Memphis, TN). He is an 'ad hoc' referee of manuscripts for well recognized peer-refereed journals, e.g., Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Health Economics, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Higher Education, Contemporary Economic Policy, Southern Economic Journal, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Advertising Clinical Breast Cancer, Health Economics, European Journal of Health Economics, Bio-Med Central journals including Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, BMC Public Health, BMC Health Services Research, International Journal for Equity in Health, The Lancet, ….

       Dr. Albert Okunade, Chair of the Local Organizing Committees for national (1996) and regional (2011) health care economics conferences, held at the University of Memphis, has also conducted dozens of invited interviews on several emerging health economics, financing and policy, as well as labor economics policy issues on TV and in print media (local and national popular press and trade publications).

•  Willis, James William, with Albert Okunade, REPORTING ON RISKS: The Practice and Ethics of Health and Safety Communication. Westport CT: Praeger Press, Greenwood Publishing Group (Nov., 1997).