Dr. Haley joined the faculty at Cumberland University in the fall of 1983. She has taught most of the accounting classes offered at Cumberland, as well as the Managerial Accounting and Corporate Finance courses in the Master of Business Administration program. Her main areas of interest include financial accounting and tax. Dr. Haley has been recognized for teaching excellence by receiving the Teacher of the Year award at Cumberland in 1995 and 2017 and by most recently being recognized by the Mid-South Athletic Conference as a member of the All Conference Faculty Team for 2017-2018. Dr. Haley is also the holder of the W.P. Bone Professorship in Business Administration 

Dr. Haley holds professional memberships in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Management Accountants, the Tennessee Society of Accounting Educators, Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society in Business, and Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences. In addition, she is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the State of Tennessee, a Certified Management Accountant, and is Certified in Financial Management.

Dr. Haley and her husband have one daughter who is a graduate of Cumberland University and is a teacher in the Wilson County School System.

Richard J. Grant is Professor of Finance and Economics at Cumberland University, a writer and consulting economist, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Beacon Center of Tennessee. At Cumberland University he teaches Statistics, Finance, and Managerial Economics.

In academia he has taught in several countries at universities ranging in size from Hillsdale College to Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and the University of the Witwatersrand. In business, he was Chief Economist of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, a Contributing Editor and columnist at the Financial Mail, and the Director of Research and Publications at the Free Market Foundation. He has also worked in mining and materials fabrication, has been a contributor at Forbes.com and, for four years, wrote a column that appeared each Sunday in The Tennessean. He was also an infantry officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.

His book, Nationalisation, was published in South Africa in 1994 and warned of the dangers to individuals and the country of excessive government control. His 1999 book, Real Money, explained inflation, business cycles, and monetary policy to a broad audience. He has also edited other books and has written numerous monographs and articles.

He met Nelson Mandela in the future president’s first year of freedom, as well as several of the top members of government, and the opposition, who were instrumental in bringing about the transition in South Africa.

He is a graduate of McMaster University and studied at the Center for Study of Public Choice at Virginia Tech and George Mason University, where he earned a Ph.D. in economics with fields in finance, public finance, and public choice.

Links to archived publications can be found at < www.richardjgrant.com >

Dr. Christi Griffin is Associate Professor and Program Director for the Health Care Administration program in the Labry School of Science, Technology and Business.  Dr. Griffin teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in health care administration, business ethics, employment law, and business law.

Under Dr. Griffin’s leadership, the Health Care Administration program was admitted as a participant in the prestigious American College of Health Care Executives’ Higher Education Network.  She has also developed a network of health care industry leaders who provide experiential internships to students, as well as a distinguished guest lecturer series that brings business leaders directly into the classroom.

Dr. Griffin’s service to the University includes Faculty Senate, chair of the Academic Integrity Board, faculty for an on-site cultural field study exploration of the New Mexico Pueblos, and member of the University’s inaugural Institutional Review Board.

Dr. Griffin brings three decades of private health care company and government experience to the classroom, including executive officer, corporate general counsel and hospital management positions in Nashville, Washington, D.C. and Boston.  She has served as panelist and guest speaker to a variety of business, civic and academic organizations.  Dr. Griffin has also been selected to judge national and regional academic competitions.

Dr. Griffin holds a Juris Doctor (Law) degree from Creighton University, a Master of Health Services Administration (Health Services Financial Management) from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Finance) from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.  Dr. Griffin is a published author and was on the editorial staffs for the Creighton University Law Review and the District of Columbia Bar Digest.

Dr. Griffin is founder and owner of Griffin Law Office, a boutique health law practice representing health systems, physicians, and non-physician providers.  She is three-time recipient of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Attorneys for Justice Pro Bono Service Award.  Dr. Griffin is a member of the Tennessee (active), Maryland (inactive), District of Columbia (inactive), and U.S. Supreme Court Bars.

Additionally, she is involved in a number of community and not-for-profit activities.

Zachary Brown joined Cumberland University as a full-time faculty member in Fall of 2020. Before this, he worked as a mathematics instructor at Tennessee Technological University for four years. 

Zachary received two bachelor degrees in mathematics and computer science as well as a Master’s degree in mathematics, all from Tennessee Technological University. Because of this background, he often likes to help students with programming problems as well as math-related issues.

Dr. Laura Bechard attended Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in music in 2004.  She then moved on to graduate school in the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia, where she received a PhD in Genetics in 2010.  While pursuing her PhD, she worked in the field of telomere dynamics, with a focus on how telomeres relate to cancer.  After receiving her PhD, she moved to Nashville, where she spent 4 years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University, continuing her studies on telomeres.  She has worked at Cumberland University since 2014, where she teaches several biology courses. Dr. Bechard currently serves as President of the Faculty Senate.

Eric Alspaugh joined Cumberland University as a full-time faculty member in 2019. Prior to this he served as an adjunct instructor the previous five years at Cumberland. While serving as an adjunct, he taught math and was the High School Principal at McClain Christian Academy in Lebanon Tennessee. Eric has taught middle and high school mathematics for twelve years. Prior to being in education, he has held positions as a Finance Manager and Controller in the private sector. 

Eric Alspaugh graduated from University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a Bachelor’s degree in Business, Operations Management December 1987. While returning to school to earn his teaching certification in mathematics, he also received his Master’s in Education from Tennessee State University in December 2003.