Jill McCullough, an assistant professor of finance at Youngstown State University, was chosen as the research fellow for women and finance at the American College State Farm Center for Women and Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
“They came to me for it,” McCullough said. “Everything I write will also credit YSU, so it’s good publicity for the university also.”
A State Farm Insurance grant funds the Center for Women and Financial Services.
McCullough said she hopes research will provide insight for what companies need to do to better the financial experience for women, as both consumers and employees.
In her new position, McCullough said she wants to create research reports for financial academic journals.
“She obviously has done some pretty amazing things to be where she is at,” said Ron Cole, director of university communications at YSU.
McCullough returned to YSU in 2007 after leaving in 1992 to pursue her own financial business. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Ohio University in business administration, and she later received her Master of Business Administration from YSU. McCullough was originally hired at YSU in 1987.
She also serves as an adviser for the Williamson investment fund, which invests money given from the YSU Foundation to YSU students and the stock market.
“It all kind of fits together,” McCullough said. “I teach finance, and I am a certified financial planner, so I am heavily involved.”
McCullough said it is important for college students to efficiently manage their finances. She said the university offers a personal financial planning course, which tackles topics like financial planning basics and risk management, investment selection and retirement planning.
The course used to require a corporate finance class as a pre-requisite, but it “is now wide open for any students to come in and learn about finance,” McCullough said.
McCullough said women are important in finance because most other majors are equally represented.
“Engineering and finance are two of the few fields that are so under-represented for women,” she said. “We have a lot of female accounting majors, though.”
McCullough said a lot of women have found success in finance careers.
“It’s a great career and a very flexible career,” she said. “Women would like to have other women to work with. It brings compassion to the field.”