Ph.D. Program

Tyler DeGroot is a Ph.D. student in accounting. His research interests comprise a variety of tax related topics, including the impact of individual level taxes on corporate decisions and how taxpayers interact with tax authorities. Prior to entering the Ph.D. program, he worked in public accounting where he focused on the needs of high net worth individuals, including individual tax planning and compliance, gift, estate, and trust taxation, nonprofits, and pass-through entities. Tyler is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant and earned a Master of Business Taxation degree from the University of Southern California.

Jung Koo Kang is a PhD student in Accounting. He graduated from Korea University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business and earned a Master's Degree in Statistics from University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the Marshall PhD Program, he worked as an auditor, credit rating analyst and loan officer. His research interests are in debt contracting, credit rating agency, financial institutions and bank regulation.

Allison Kays is a Ph.D student in accounting. She is interested in the financial accounting of taxes and other tax related issues. She earned her bachelors and masters degrees in accounting from the University of Florida. Prior to entering the Ph.D program, Allison worked in the partnership and corporate tax groups at Ernst & Young’s Atlanta office.

Stacey Ritter is a Ph.D. student in the Leventhal School of Accounting. Her research interests include behavioral topics in auditing, financial reporting, and managerial accounting. She has professional experience in the Enterprise Risk Services practice at Deloitte, the Internal Audit department at Raytheon, and the Provost Office at the University of Cincinnati. Stacey is a licensed Certified Public Accountant with a master’s degree in Accounting and a minor in Management Information Systems from The University of Texas at Austin.

Satish Sahoo is a Ph.D. student in accounting. He is interested in empirical research in cost of
capital, equity valuation, accounting information and market efficiency, mergers and acquisition
and debt contracting. He earned his bachelor’s degree (B. Tech, Electrical Engineering) from
National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and master’s degree (MBA, Finance) from Asian
Institute of Management, Manila. He is a CFA charter holder and a certified FRM (Financial Risk
Manager). Prior to entering the Ph.D. program, Satish worked as a Research Associate at The
Indian School of Business.

Ventsi Stamenov is a PhD student in accounting. He is interested in accounting information and asset prices, accounting information and macroeconomy, and debt contracting. He earned his Masters in International Business at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria and Master in Business Administration at the University of Arkansas. Prior to entering the PhD program, Ventsi worked as a portfolio manager for a family wealth management office and University Endowment.