Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Brigitte Ziobrowski

Dr. Brigitte Ziobrowski, professor of finance, began teaching at Augusta State University in 1991, shortly before she began her nationally-acclaimed, ongoing research on stock earnings of Congressional representatives with her husband, Alan.

The study was reported in media such as The Wall Street Journal, CNN, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, the Financial Times, The Hill, the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, and Money magazine. The entire study will be published in the December issue of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, a top academic journal in finance.

Dr. Ziobrowski’s research team found that U.S. Senators' common stock investments significantly outperformed the earnings of other investors by almost 12 percent per year.

“According to the study, based on data from 1993-1998, the stocks in which the senators invested yielded unusually high profits, beginning shortly after the senators bought them,” says Dr. Ziobrowski. “The senators continued to earn extraordinarily large returns for a full year. The stocks' performance returned to normal when sold.”

Dr. Ziobrowski says, however, that despite the fact that the senators have a definite advantage over other investors, this type of investing “does not constitute any illegal activity since current laws do not prohibit senators from trading stock on the basis of information acquired in the course of performing their normal senatorial functions.”

The research project is one of many for Dr. Ziobrowski. She has more than 10 academic publications to her credit and numerous proceedings and presentations at national meetings. She is also active in university service. She has been a member of University Council, Cullum Committee, Employee Benefits Committee, Post-Tenure Review Committee, College of Business Administration Curriculum Committee, and many more. She has also chaired the Scholarship Committee, Finance Search Committee, College of Business Administration Promotion and Tenure Committee, Teaching Evaluation Work Group, Master’s of Business Administration Admissions and Appeals Committee, and more.

Dr. Ziobrowski’s community involvement is also extensive. She is or has been active in Junior Achievement, Adopt-A-Highway, Special Olympics, Toys for Tots, Ronald McDonald House and Golden Harvest Food Bank fundraisers, Festival of Trees, Girl Scouts of America, and the American Heart Association. She also serves on real estate board of directors and provides financial advice to community groups.   

Dr. Ziobrowski was born in Belgium, but came to the U.S. as a foreign exchange student. She received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas, a master’s degree in international economics from the University of Akron, and a doctoral degree in finance from Kent State University. She worked in Ohio until her family moved to Augusta in 1991. Dr. Ziobrowski says she loves living in Georgia and particularly likes her many non-traditional students who, she says, are highly motivated.

She is married to Dr. Alan Ziobrowski, associate professor of real estate at Georgia State University, whom she met in graduate school. They have five children.

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