Dr. Krzysztof Ostaszewski, FSA, CERA, FSAS, CFA, MAAA
Professor and Actuarial Program Director
Our program director, Dr. Krzysztof Ostaszewski, received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Washington. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst, Fellow of the Singapore Actuarial Society, Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, Member of the American Academy of Social Insurance, and a Chartered Financial Analyst. In the period 2011-2013,, hewas also the Research Director for Life Insurance and Pensions at the Geneva Association. He has taught actuarial science, mathematics, and investments at New England Actuarial Seminars, Olin School of Business at the Washington University in St. Louis, University of Ulm in Germany, EM Lyon Business School in France, University of Louisville, University of California at Davis, University of Warsaw in Poland, Technical University of Lodz in Poland, and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. He was a research visitor to many universities worldwide, e.g., University of Ulm in Germany, University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, Universite Catholique de Louvaine-la-Neuve in Belgium, Fudan University and Shanghai Second Polytechnic University in China, EM Lyon Business School in France, University of Warsaw, Technical University of Wroclaw, and Technical University of Lodz in Poland. He has published research papers in actuarial science, mathematics, economics and finance in leading journals, such as American Economic Review, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Journal of Business, North American Actuarial Journal, Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, and Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, as well as research monographs with Elsevier, Society of Actuaries, and American Mathematical Society. He was the 1995 Fulbright Research Fellow in actuarial science and a Fulbright Specialist in 2003-2004, and is also a Fulbright Specialist currently. He worked as an actuary at The Hartford and Providian Capital Management (now part of Aegon USA). Dr. Ostaszewski received numerous awards for his research, including the 2018 Society of Actuaries first place award (jointly with Jim Jones) for the best essay on environmental sustainabiliy, 2016 Society of Actuaries second place award for the best essays on retirement policy, 2005 Mehr Award of the American Risk and Insurance Association, the 2004 Hardigree Award of the Western Risk and Insurance Association, and the 1999 Best Research Paper award from the Kentucky Economic Association.
Dr. Ranee Thiagarajah, ASA, MAAA
Professor
Dr. Ranee Thiagarajah holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Windsor and is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. She has previously taught actuarial science and statistics at the University of Windsor, University of Waterloo, Concordia University, and the University of Iowa. She also holds a Master degree in actuarial science from the University of Iowa. She worked as an actuary at Swiss Re and Lincoln National insurance companies. She has published numerous research papers in actuarial science and statistics.
Dr. Xing (Clara) Wang, ASA
Assistant Professor
Dr. Xing Wang received her Ph.D. in Risk Management and Insurance in J. Mack Robinson College of Business from Georgia State University where she also served as an instructor for course Risk Modeling during her Ph.D. studies. She received M.S. in Statistics from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2014, and a B.S. in Mathematics from Tsinghua University in 2013. Her doctoral studied were supported by the prestigious James C. Hickman Scholarship from the Society of Actuaries..Her research interests include risk measures, mortality, annuities and their statistical inference. Her research work focuses on statistical inference about risk measures under the heavy-tailed losses and the valuation processes for the large portfolios of the variable annuities.
Dr. Ostaszewski, Dr. Thiagarajah and Dr. Wang work as full time faculty in the Actuarial Program in the Department of Mathematics. Other actuaries involved in our program are:
- Dr. Kevin Ahlgrim, ASA, MAAA, Associate Professor of Finance, Insurance and Law at Illinois State University, who teaches insurance and investments classes required of actuarial students.
- Mr. Matthew Berry, FCAS, MAAA, Allstate Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Erich Brandt, FCAS, MAAA, Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Chien Che (Ben) Huang, FCAS, MAAA,State Farm Insurance, who teaches actuarial computing.
- Mr. Jeffrey Cole, FCAS, MAAA, CPCU, AIAF, ARC, AIS, Sentry Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board and on our Predictive Analytics Competition Committee.
- Mr. Joshua Collier, FCAS, CNA Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Dr. Wei Hao, FSA, CFA, MAAA, State Farm Insurance, who is involved in teaching of asset-liability management, pension funding and reserving.
- Mr. Nathan Johnson, FCSA, MAAA, Auto Owners Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Ms. Stacey Kidd, FCAS, MAAA, Zurich Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board, and as a Casualty Actuarial Society Liaison for Illinois State University.
- Mr. Jeffrey Kinsey, CSPA, FCAS, MAAA, State Farm Insurance, who serves a Casualty Actuarial Society Liaison for Illinois State University.
- Mr. Chad Kleindorfer, FSA, MAAA,Reinsurance Group of America, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Ms. Dorothy Leemhuis, FCAS, Erie Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Thomas Mazzotti, ACAS, The Horace Mann Insurance Companies, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Joseph McDonald, FSA, retired actuary from State Farm Insurance who teaches Financial Mathematics.
- Mr. Justin McGetrick, FSA, MAAA, BCS Financial who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Roosevelt Mosley, FCAS, MAAA, Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, who serves on our Predictive Analytics Competition Committee.
- Mr. Klayton Southwood, FCAS, MAAA, Willis Towers-Watson, who serves on our Advisory Board and on our Predictive Analytics Competition Committee.
- Mr. Michael Suess, FCAS, COUNTRY Financial, who serves on our Advisory Board, and on our Predictive Analytics Competition Committee.
- Ms. Laura Sutter, FCAS, MAAA, RLI Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Adam Swope, FCAS, MAAA, State Farm Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Matthew Varitek, FSA, MAAA, Centene, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Andrew Wieduwilt, FSA, MAAA, State Farm Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Mr. Ken Williams, FCAS, MAAA, Casualty Actuarial Society, who is involved in teaching Actuarial Models II and property/casualty insurance pricing and reserving.
- Mr. Micah Zart, ACAS, American Family Insurance, who serves on our Advisory Board.
- Ms. Lauren Zhang, FSA, MAAA, CVS Health, who serves on our Advisory Board.