Release Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2000

SANDRA GUSTAVSON NAMED ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR FACULTY AND RESEARCH IN UGA'S TERRY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

ATHENS, Ga. — Sandra G. Gustavson, who for 14 years has headed the Department of Insurance, Legal Studies and Real Estate, has been named associate dean for faculty and research in the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, announced Dean P. George Benson.

She succeeds James S. Trieschmann, who will return to the insurance faculty after 14 years as associate dean. For 12 of those years, Trieschmann was the college's only associate dean. In 1998, a second associate dean for academic programs was added. This summer, two newly created associate deans positions will be filled - one for executive programs and the other for the college's external relations.

"We are remaking the Terry College of Business to move it into the top tier of U.S. public business schools," Benson said. "With this more sophisticated administrative structure, we will be able to develop and deliver executive education and reach out to the business community and our alumni as never before."

Primary among Gustavson's responsibilities will be her role as the college's chief financial officer. Her duties will include budgeting, hiring, merit review and promotion, and enhancing research funding. She will work jointly with Trieschmann for the next three months and will assume full responsibilities on July 1.

"Sandra has been a department head since 1986 and the Bradford McFadden Professor of Personal Financial Management since 1994," Benson said. "Her background includes significant experience in budgeting and planning."

"We will miss Jim Trieschmann's skill and experience in this critical job. He was the right-hand man for three deans and the institutional memory for the whole college. He was personally responsible for facilitating my transition into the day-to-day operation of the Terry College," Benson said. "But having undergone three significant spinal surgeries in the past two years, Jim's reasons for stepping down are certainly understandable. We're glad to still have him as a colleague and faculty member."

Trieschmann, who joined the faculty in 1973, will continue to hold the Dudley L. Moore Jr. Chair of Insurance.

Gustavson's appointment marks the second time she has followed Trieschmann into a new administrative post. She also succeeded him in 1986 when she was named acting department head and assumed the job permanently in 1988.

"As a department head, it has been a privilege to work for so many years with Associate Dean Jim Trieschmann," Gustavson said. "I anticipate working closely with him in the transition months ahead. There are many exciting initiatives beginning to happen in the Terry College, and I look forward to working with Dean Benson and the faculty as we continue to move ahead."

Gustavson joined the insurance faculty in 1981 after receiving her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Illinois. She taught for a short time at Illinois but decided to return to Georgia, having grown up in DeKalb County.

She has published research in the areas of retirement planning, employee benefits and long-term care insurance. And she has been the recipient of both the Shorter Article Award and the Feature Article Award from the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the premiere research journal for the risk management field. Gustavson, Trieschmann and UGA insurance professor Robert Hoyt also are co-authors of the textbook Risk Management and Insurance, which will be published in its 11th edition this summer.

The Terry College's risk management and insurance program, where Gustavson is one of five faculty members, was ranked fourth in the country by U.S. News and World Report last fall.

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