»Faculty & Staff

MBA, University of California, Los Angeles

A former tax partner at Deloitte & Touche, Mr. Adler’s research has been published by The Wall Street Journal, Tax Notes, Prentice Hall, and Tax Magazine. His interests include theories of taxation and board governance.

Expertise: Accounting; Individual and Corporate Taxes; Board of Directors; Real Estate Tax

MS in Artificial Intelligence, University of Texas at Austin

Tim Frenzel has nearly 20 years of experience in finance, with a specialization in data science, AI, and quantitative modeling. His work focuses on AI-driven alpha generation, risk analytics, and predictive modeling, and he has managed $1.6 billion across multi-asset and hedge fund strategies. He also teaches machine learning and quantitative finance.

Expertise:Data Science; Real Estate Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; Quantitative Finance; Risk Management; Algorithmic Trading

Ph.D., Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania 

Jessica Kim-Gina earned a Ph.D. and M.S. from the Wharton School and a Master's in Law from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines the economic effects of inter-firm information sharing, financial reporting, and corporate intangibles. She previously taught at UCLA Anderson and held positions at Cornell University and Goldman Sachs.

Expertise: Financial Accounting; Real Estate Investments; Information Economics; Corporate Intangibles; Intellectual Property

Joel Kotkin is the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Executive Director of the Center for Demographics and Policy. He is an internationally recognized authority on global economic, political, and social trends and the author of The Coming of Neo Feudalism and The New Class Conflict. He also serves as executive editor of NewGeography.com and writes regularly for national and international publications.

Expertise: Urban Futures; Demographics; Global Trends; Economic and Social Analysis; Policy Research

Ph.D., Cornell University

Dr. Warachka earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. His research focuses on asset pricing and household finance, with publications in leading finance journals, including the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Management Science. He has taught corporate finance, derivatives, and international finance in the U.S., China, and Singapore.

Dr. Smith co-authored “Rethinking Housing Bubbles: The Role of Household and Bank Balance Sheets in Modeling Economic Cycles,” which documented the link between housing bubbles and the Great Depression, as well as other deep recessions, over more than 100 years of data.

Dr. Smith is a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association, an Andersen Consulting Professor of the Year, and the 1995 Adam Smith Award recipient conferred by the Association for Private Enterprise Education. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and received Caltech's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996

Ph.D., University of Minnesota 

Steven Gjerstad is a Presidential Fellow in the Economic Science Institute at Chapman University with a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on experimental economics, market self-regulation, and the application of AI in financial markets. He has published inGames and Economic Behavior, Economic Theory, and the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. Dr. Gjerstad co-authored with Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith “Rethinking Housing Bubbles: The Role of Household and Bank Balance Sheets inModeling Economic Cycles”.

Expertise: Experimental Economics; Real Estate Bubbles; Market Self-Regulation; AI in Finance; Financial Crises; Time Series Analysis

Ph.D., University of Michigan

Dr. Nyer is a Professor of Marketing with a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His research focuses on consumer behavior, including satisfaction, attitude change, and cross-cultural differences, and has been published in journals such as the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and the International Journal of Research in Marketing. He has taught marketing and advertising management and previously worked in product management in the consumer products and industrial electronics industries.  Dr. Nyer is also an expert on the economics of residential solar panels.

Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara 

Raymond Sfeir is Director of the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University, with a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He teaches microeconomics, statistics, and forecasting, and his research focuses on operations research, capital asset pricing, and applied economics. Dr. Sfeir produces the economic forecasts for California, Orange County, and the Inland Empire, and conducts the quarterly survey of purchasing managers in California.  His macroeconomic forecasting work focuses on real estate market conditions, construction activity, and mortgage rates, as well as indicators of employment and economic growth.

Expertise: Economic Forecasting; Real Estate Market Conditions; Applied Economics; Operations Research; Capital Asset Pricing; Statistics

MBA, Harvard University

With an MBA from Harvard University, Marshall Toplansky teaches and researches analytics, AI, and machine learning, focusing on strategies that drive competitive advantage and economic growth. Previously, he co-founded two companies, led KPMG’s Lighthouse Center of Excellence in Data and Analytics, and was inducted into the Computer Industry Association's Technology Hall of Fame.Professor Toplansky is a Research Fellow of the Center for Demographics and Policy, with research focusing on the economic vitality and housing markets in California housing markets, economic vitality, public policy to promote innovation, and demographic and migration trends in the United States.

Expertise: Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; Housing Market Trends;Machine Learning; Business Strategy; Data-Driven Decision Making