Baylor Business School Names Taylor Associate Dean
Dr. Terry S. Maness, dean of the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, today announced the appointment of Dr. Beck A. Taylor to the newly created position of associate dean for research and faculty development.
"Beck is perfectly suited to this new post," said Maness. "He has already been serving as the chair of the committee responsible for accreditation issues related to scholarship and faculty development and will continue leading this function as part of his new duties. His teaching is exceptional and his research accomplishments are prolific and significant. His insight and leadership in these areas will be respected."
In the new position, Taylor will give leadership to faculty development initiatives, identifying and deploying best practices in research and faculty development, overseeing the School's sabbatical and research leave programs, developing strategies and resources for grant writing and developing faculty excellence initiatives. In addition, he will develop a faculty mentoring program, student research initiatives and community extension programs. Taylor also will continue to teach in the economics department.
"Faculty members in the School of Business are one of its greatest assets," said Taylor. "In my new position, I will serve faculty members as they engage in the fruitful and rewarding enterprises of scholarship, teaching and service to the university and to the broader community."
As a researcher, Taylor has published in prestigious economics journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Labor Economics and Journal of Human Resources, as well as in the premier publications in public health and child developmental psychology, American Journal of Public Health and Child Development. His primary research interests are in the areas of applied microeconomics, industrial organization, health economics, regional economic development and the economics of child development and child care.
Taylor's research has been featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, CFO Magazine, The Harvard University Gazette and Chief Executive Magazine. His research also has been hailed by organizations as diverse as The National Center for Children and Poverty at Columbia University, The Center for Law and Social Policy, The Center for the Advancement of Health, The National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and The Heritage Foundation. He has appeared numerous times on various network television and radio outlets.
Taylor is considered to be an expert on the oil and gasoline, convenience store and agricultural services industries, and he is called upon regularly to meet with company presidents from these industries. In 2002, Taylor presented research findings concerning retail gasoline pricing before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC.
Taylor is a member of numerous professional and academic organizations and serves on the editorial board of the Atlantic Economic Journal. In addition, he is an ad hoc reviewer for many other journals and organizations.
He received the Young Researcher Award from the Hankamer School of Business in 2000 and was subsequently named the first holder of The W.H. Smith Professorship in Economics at Baylor. Taylor also was named Visiting Scholar by Harvard University in 2002 and spent a year in-residence at the prestigious Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Additionally, he has been a consultant for organizations such as ARCO, CITGO, ABB Vetco Gray and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.