A High Calling

By Carolanne Roberts

Photo courtesy of Samford University

Charles “Chad” Carson recalls with great pride navigating the accountancy program at Mississippi State University, one held in high regard nationally and a true challenge for its students. He earned his BPA in 1995 and MBA in 1996.

“I’m certain none of my accounting professors remember me coming through those classes,” he says humbly.

But we wager that those professors and many others know and respect him today as the newly installed Dean of Samford University’s Brock School of Business in Birmingham, AL.

If there’s any doubt about the new dean’s roots, he’s quick to say, “I was maroon and white from day one, from birth and family. Every memory I have is from Mississippi State.”

A highlight among his memories is the trip to Omaha in June with his dad, brother and son for the baseball National Championship, keeping the family Bulldog spirit strong.

“I always knew I would go to State – there was no doubt,” Carson says.

As a youngster growing up in Houston, MS, Carson had eyed a career in sports broadcasting but, as a college student, opted instead for accounting.

“I needed and wanted a solid career choice, and accounting is the language of business,” he shares. “If you can survive the accounting program at State, you are very marketable!”

Having enrolled after two years at Itawamba Community College in Fulton, MS, Carson plunged into the MSU accounting community. Classes with Dr. Gilda Agacer planted the notion that a career in governmental or not-for-profit work could be a route beyond public accounting.

Carson was actually marketable before he left campus. While working toward his MBA, he joined the University’s human resources office as a Benefits Generalist.

I got to work on retirement and signing up people for their benefits, which was a wonderful experience,” he recalls. “My MBA program also helped me explore the possibility of a career in academics. Faculty members like Dr. Allen Amason, Dr. Allison Pearson, and Dr. Kirk Arnett really opened my eyes to a career as a professor.

Meanwhile, life had something else in store, something that would keep Carson connected to MSU even longer.

“I was recruited by the Office of the State Auditor to work for them – auditing Mississippi State,” he shares. “I had an office on campus as External Auditor and, while I wasn’t an employee of the University, I was still there. This was a big part of my learning about education and the budget and fiscal aspects of higher education.”

At this point, adding up the experiences and the knowledge, Carson felt a calling.

“I think the Lord was leading me in the direction of academics,” he says. “I don’t think it was by accident or by chance. I realized that becoming a professor would mean stopping my career and committing full-time to a PhD. My wife, Merry Gillespie Carson, an MSU alumnus from the College of Education, was fully supportive.”

So the stage was set. Four years would be spent earning the doctoral degree at Ole Miss and then...possibly a return to Mississippi State?

But I ended up finding Samford, and it has been a perfect fit,” he marvels. “I realized Christian higher education was really important to me, a place I could share my faith. I could be outward with it as well as be a professor.

That was back in 2004 when, still completing his dissertation, Carson started as a Samford instructor. Over the years he has served as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor of Management, then Associate Dean, Interim Dean and as of July 1, Dean of the business school.

“Becoming Dean was the furthest thing from my mind,” Carson admits. “At Samford, teaching is the emphasis, so you’ve got to be really good in the classroom. The students have high expectations, and you strive to meet those. I was teaching undergraduate and MBA students, and in those days the average class size was in the low 20s. You needed to be on your A-game, and I focused on that for the first seven years. Then Dr. Howard Finch came on as the new Dean and needed an Associate Dean.”

Finch saw great promise in the young professor.

“Somehow, my name was put in front of him,” Carson explains. “All my experiences came into play, like my time in human resources, the auditing and my understanding of finances and higher education. Handling the budget, working closely with faculty and recruiting staff – these were things that fit my skill sets and interest.”

Of course he got the job. Carson served under Dean Finch for eight years and assumed the role of Interim Dean in 2019. All the while, he continued to teach.

“You stay connected to the students,” Carson says. “You can’t teach as much as a faculty member, but I feel it’s important to teach as much as I can even though the administrative duties do take me out of the classroom.”

In the administrative arena, good things are happening at Samford. The program itself has grown 41.4 percent in the past 10 years.

“There’s a large market for Christian higher education,” Carson remarks. “We’re selling a different experience of smaller classrooms and the Christian perspective. And we want to do some things not everybody’s doing. For instance, we are doing a lot of data analytics at the undergraduate level where most schools don’t offer it until master’s or PhD levels. We are requiring our students to take four classes in data analytics and have invested in new curriculum, which puts us at the forefront.”

Among the more recent program additions are Professional Sales, Sports Business and a Student Business Incubator.

He notes that the sales program thrives with an advisory board of excellent salespeople “to enable us to stay current. There is no shortage of industry experts in Birmingham who are willing to come speak to classes or even teach them. We leverage the relationships in the Birmingham business community when we need expertise outside our program.”

Then there’s the excellent sports curriculum.

“The University has started a Center for Sports Analytics that has been a great partner for us,” says the Dean. “This allows students to get into project-based work. Recently, our sports marketing students did a project for Chick-fil-A to assess the impact of the company’s sponsorship of the annual Iron Bowl football game.”

Carson chats with students in front of the Brock School of Business.

Photo courtesy of Samford University

During his tenure as the faculty member holding the School’s Brock Family Chair in Entrepreneurship, Carson was heavily involved in the formation of the Student Business Incubator.

“We’ve already been able to spin off several student owned businesses,” he says. “It’s gratifying to see their success – and there’s a possible cross-campus involvement between us and Mississippi State’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Outreach.”

With this overflowing plate of responsibility and achievement, the new dean vows to continue teaching and, when possible, conducting academic research. And then there’s tending to the undergraduate and MBA programs with their record numbers enrolled this year. Being named 2020’s Number 1 Online MBA at a Christian business school by online ranking site College Consensus provides another banner to take forward.

“We’ve experienced a tremendous growth in the last decade and want to continue to move the School in a positive direction,” he says. “I will always be thankful for the faculty and staff of the College of Business at Mississippi State who invested in me.”

Following their lead, he says, “My goal is to invest in students here at Samford who can have a positive impact on the world.”