This fall, CBE welcomes 8 new faculty members — here’s what you need to know.
Steve Isberg
Department Chair and Professor
Department of Accounting
Education:
Ph.D. and MA
Binghamton University
BA
Cortland State College
What are your research interests?
My research interests are tied very closely to my role as Senior Fellow at the Credit Research Foundation (CRF). CRF is an organization of business-to-business (B2B) credit directors from over 600 major companies. As Senior Fellow, I engage in research of interest to the B2B credit community, including the connections between the macro and micro economies and business credit risk, the impact of financial economic policies on business performance, B2B credit risk modeling with financial statement data, and the impact of technology, specifically automation and robotics, on business process management. I recently co-authored and edited a book on the transformation of B2B credit operations into shared service center structures. In addition to the book, I have authored numerous articles and made dozens of presentations to national and global business credit organizations over the years.
What are you looking forward to in your new role at Towson University?
As Chair of the Accounting Department here at Towson, I am looking forward to creating futures in which our students and my faculty colleagues will become leaders in their professional and personal lives. This will involve development of a very forward-looking mindset in which we see what is happening today with an eye toward what we will need to know in order to lead change in the future. While it is important for us to understand what has and is currently happening in our lives, it is much more important to our success that we understand where we will need to be in that future, and to develop the path to getting there.
What is something few people know about you that might be surprising to some?
I tap-dance! I used to practice with my daughters.
How do you spend your free time?
I spend my free time by getting outside as much as I can. I enjoy hiking and trail running, and when I get near a beach, ocean kayak surfing. I also enjoy spending time with my family, which now includes two grandsons (2 ½ years and six months old). I am also a big baseball fan: I get out to about 30 games a year as an Orioles season ticket holder.
What is your favorite memory from your undergraduate days?
The “Pool Fellowship.” Cortland State College had two pool facilities, the older of which was in the center of all of the academic buildings. It was open for lap swimming between 11 am and 1 pm every day. There was a group of eight of us who would all come in and do one to two miles per day—every day. We would usually all finish by noon, and then we’d just hang out and talk until the pool closed. Four were faculty/staff, and four were students: mixed genders. We talked about everything. I still miss those times.
If you could give your students one piece of advice from your life experiences, what would it be?
Be intentional in everything you think, say and do (in that order).