Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance

Joseph F. Freeman Distinguished Professor of Insurance

Dr. Lori Medders joined Appalachian State University in August, 2017, and serves as the Joseph F. Freeman Distinguished Professor of Risk & Insurance for the Walker College as well as the Chair for the Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance. Prior to joining ASU, she was on faculty at Florida State University (risk and insurance, 2009-17), Georgia State University (risk and insurance, 1998-2008), and Georgia Southern University (finance, 1994-98).

Dr. Medders is an active contributor to the risk management profession. She is a Board member for the American Association of Water Distribution and Management (AAWD&M) and chairs its Education Committee (2015-present). AAWD&M is a member-based 501(c)3 organization focused on education (especially risk education) within the water/wastewater sector. Medders spearheaded a collaboration between AAWD&M and Walker College to offer the nation's first professional designation program for water risk professionals. 

In 2009, Medders was appointed by the State of Florida CFO to the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Methodology as its Statistics Expert member, a position in which she served until she left Florida to move to North Carolina (2009-17). The Commission is charged with approving the hurricane loss models that can be used to set residential property insurance rates in the state. Notably, Lori led the Commission as Chair for the period (2013-17), during which the Commission developed its inaugural standards for flood loss model acceptability (2015-17).

Lori is also an active contributor within academia. She serves the American Risk & Insurance Association as chair of its Risk & Insurance Teaching Society (2021-present), an international organization devoted to excellence in the teaching-learning of risk economics and related disciplines. Additionally, Lori is a past president (2016-17) and Board member (2011-18) of the Southern Risk and Insurance Association, the premier organization in the Eastern half of the United States that supports research on topics related to risk and insurance.

Dr. Medders has many years teaching, research and speaking experience, and has taught in excess of 30 distinct academic risk-related courses, has served as an invited speaker on risk-related topics at more than 80 industry and civic events, and has published extensively in both the academic and industry press. She has been the recipient of multiple awards for her research, teaching and service from her college, university, research organizations, civic associations, and industry. A business risk consultant for 30 years, Lori has direct work experience in investment advisory, risk modeling, analytics and decision making, insurance coverage renewals and disputes, and risk management program review. She lives just outside Boone, NC and enjoys hiking, both in the local area and internationally.

Recent Publications:

Medders, Lorilee, Karen Epermanis, Stephen Avila and David Russell (2023). The importance of teaching within the ARIA mission. Risk Management and Insurance Review, vol. 26(4): 519-531.

Medders, Loilee and Kimberly Zahller (2023). Water capacity for the future - To repair or innovate. IMA Educational Case Journal, vol. 16(3), art. 2.

Medders, Loilee and Kimberly Zahller (2023). How good is good enough? Water quality versus affordability. IMA Educational Case Journal, vol. 16(4), art. 1.

Medders, Lorilee and Chris McNeil (2023). What’s mishappening here? Connecting loss development, reserving and rate indications. Journal of Risk Education, vol. 12(1): 281-287.

Williams, Rebecca, Lorilee Medders, David Marlett, Catherine Lattimore and David Evans (2023).  Flood Insurance redesigned: Regulatory considerations for a viable and sustainable private market. Journal of Insurance Regulation, vol. 42.

Medders, Lorilee and Steven Schwarcz (2023). Securitizing pandemic risk insurance. Risk Management & Insurance Review, vol. 25(4): 551-583.

Medders, Lorilee, Jamie Anderson-Parson and Matthew Thomas-Reid (2021). Gender X and auto insurance: Is gender rating unfairly discriminatory? Journal of Insurance Regulation.

Gatzlaff, Dean, Kathleen McCullough, Lorilee Medders and Charles Nyce (2018). The impact of hurricane mitigation features and inspection information on house prices. Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics.

Teaching:

FIN 4600 - Commercial Insurance; FIN 4700 - Insurance Operations; FIN 4548 - Risky Decisions; FIN 4950 - Enterprise Risk Management

Research Interests:

Accessing risk capital, catastrophe risk finance, climate change and (re)insurance, economic resilience, global risk challenges, psychology and economics of decisions under uncertainty, reputational/crisis risk management, risk modeling, strategic and enterprise risk management