{"id":252715,"date":"2026-09-08T15:15:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=252715"},"modified":"2026-09-11T09:47:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T13:47:33","slug":"three-new-faculty-members-join-the-school-of-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/09\/three-new-faculty-members-join-the-school-of-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Three New Faculty Members Join the School of Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

The School of Business is welcoming three new faculty members this Fall, who bring expertise in accounting, entrepreneurship, and real-estate research.<\/p>\n

\u201cHiring new business faculty is always exciting, because the nature of our field is to stay on the cutting-edge of innovation and its application in the real world,\u2019\u2019 said Interim Dean Bob Day<\/strong>. \u201cLooking at these three new hires and their current research programs I see innovation throughout: I see new taxation policies and new means of studying their implications; I see AI and autonomous-vehicle policy; I see research on manufactured homes and the impact of solar panels on real estate investment, among other topics.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are three scholars in the conversation of what is relevant to business and society today, with great promise to engage our students on these topics in the classroom. These perspectives both enhance and complement our existing expertise, so I am really excited about this incoming group,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

The new faculty are:<\/p>\n

Accounting <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Portrait
Austin Blake (contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Austin Blake<\/strong> joins the Accounting Department as an assistant professor. He will be based in Storrs and teach tax accounting to undergraduate students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited to work here because of UConn as a whole, and especially because the accounting department is collegial, friendly, and research active,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Blake earned a Ph.D. at Arizona State University, and both his bachelor\u2019s degree in accounting, summa cum laude, and his MBA from the University of Maine. His research interests include the economic implications of federal, state, and local tax policies and regulatory requirements.<\/p>\n

A CPA, he has worked as a staff accountant in the tax practice at Baker Newman Noyes in Portland, Maine. In 2025, he received a Deloitte Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, a prestigious award given to only 10 top accounting Ph.D. candidates across the country.<\/p>\n

In the classroom, Blake is excited to share the love of his profession. \u201cI hope to emphasize that taxes are important in students\u2019 lives and professions, no matter what specific career path they pursue. It is important to know how taxes impact the business world,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

With most of his family residing in Maine, Blake said that he is happy he will be able to see them without taking a cross-country flight.<\/p>\n

Management <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Portrait
Jue “Kate” Wang (contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jue \u201cKate\u2019\u2019 Wang<\/strong> joins the Boucher Management & Entrepreneurship Department as an assistant professor in-residence, based in Storrs. She previously taught at Pennsylvania State University in State College, Penn. Wang earned a Ph.D. in management and organization at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include organizational theory, entrepreneurial non-market strategies, and technological innovation.<\/p>\n

Wang will be teaching undergraduates this year, and one of her courses, titled \u201cThe Entrepreneurial Journey\u2019\u2019 will have 180 students. That doesn\u2019t concern her at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say my style is to have a lot of fun. With an entrepreneurship class the emphasis is on thinking. We have papers but no exams. As long as the students follow instructions, they\u2019ll do well,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cI hope to get students even more inspired to create something new.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Wang said she came to UConn because she was excited to work at a university that is so dedicated to entrepreneurship. A fan of human-AI collaboration, she will use simulated business cases to enhance some of her courses.<\/p>\n

Wang said she\u2019s excited to explore the campus and surrounding community, but first she has to get some of the mundane chores, like registering her car, out of the way.<\/p>\n

Finance\/Real Estate <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Portrait
Xiangxin Liu (contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Xiangxin Liu<\/strong> joins the Real Estate faculty as a postdoctoral research associate. He is no stranger to UConn, having earned a Ph.D. in finance here in 2024. Liu also earned a master\u2019s in economics from the University of California Irvine and a bachelors in mathematics and economics from the University of California San Diego.<\/p>\n

His first research project will address accessory dwelling units (ADUs)–small, self-contained secondary housing spaces on a residential lot–and housing liquidity. The focus of the research will be on the impact in Los Angeles County. \u201cThis is a popular topic that\u2019s on the forefront of many people\u2019s minds,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

He also has a proposal to examine solar panels and their value to different occupants, from homeowners to renters.<\/p>\n

Liu has previously worked as a Research Fellow with UConn\u2019s Eversource Energy Center, addressing real estate and renewable energy issues. Prior to that he worked on data analysis on investor ownership of single-family homes. His interests span real estate, spatial economics and corporate finance. He has worked closely with professors Jeff Cohen, Chinmoy Ghosh, and John Knopf in the past.<\/p>\n

The UConn Dairy Bar is Liu\u2019s favorite on-campus location. Although he tries to limit visits, he does occasionally try the newest Flavor of the Month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":252728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1862],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2160,2105],"class_list":["post-252715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-busn"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-07 01:25:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252715"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252934,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252715\/revisions\/252934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/252728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252715"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=252715"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=252715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}