Spotlight on Professorships: DR. KIMBERLY GOODWIN PARHAM BRIDGES ENDOWED CHAIR OF REAL ESTATE

William Parham Bridges Jr. and two other prominent real estate colleagues decided to promote real estate education in Mississippi by creating endowed professorships at the three largest state universities. Even though Parham Bridges was a graduate of Millsaps College, he established an endowed chair of real estate at Southern Miss. After serving in World War II, Parham Bridges began his real estate career by assuming management of Bridges Loan and Investment Company. Over time, he grew the company to provide services in land development, home building, mortgage lending, and insurance services across eight states. During the 1950s, Mr. Bridges served as a director for the National Association of Real Estate Boards and as president of the Mississippi Real Estate Association. Mr. Bridges maintained an active real estate license until his death in 2021 at age 93. A lifelong resident of Jackson, Parham Bridges practiced a balanced lifestyle that included flying airplanes and boating along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. So, it is fitting that Parham Bridges continues to impact real estate education at Southern Miss.

Dr. Kimberly Goodwin has held the Parham Bridges Endowed Chair of Real Estate since 2011. She credits this professorship for assuring that real estate remains a part of the curriculum at Southern Miss. “It’s a lot harder to erase a discipline from existence in bad times when you have the power of an endowed professorship behind it, so Parham Bridges is part of the reason students at Southern Miss still have several courses in real estate finance,” says Goodwin. Real estate is a huge part of the economy in Mississippi and an area that provides great career opportunities for our students. Dr. Goodwin explains, “Over the past 10 years, I have had many opportunities to speak to and work with members of the real estate industry in south Mississippi. They are all wonderful people who love their work, and I know how important it is to them to support real estate education at Southern Miss.”

According to Dr. Goodwin, the Parham Bridges Endowed Chair of Real Estate has also provided her with the financial support needed to help establish her research portfolio in housing markets and real estate investment. She has used the funds from the endowment to purchase technology and survey data that were the basis for one of her most known articles on language and connotation in real estate listings. In addition, the endowment allows her to attend the annual meeting of the American Real Estate Society (ARES) each year so that she can present her current research to colleagues from around the world and build her network with academic and industry professionals.

Regular attendance and networking at these meetings resulted in Dr. Goodwin’s push into a variety of leadership roles in the American Real Estate Society. After serving on the Board of Directors for five years, she was elected to another five-year leadership term that included program chair of the 2021 annual conference. Dr. Goodwin is currently serving as the 2022-23 ARES president. She has served as an editor of the Journal of Housing Research since 2015. Last year, Dr. Goodwin was selected as the ARES publications director, which involves strategic management and oversight of the organization’s seven scholarly journals. Her reputation as an internationally respected real estate scholar and leader led her to receive the Kinnard Young Scholar Award in 2021. This award recognizes one real estate scholar from anywhere in the world each year for exceptional research contributions during the first decade of their career. Dr. Goodwin also received the Louis K. Brandt Publication Award from Southern Miss Business in 2022.