CSEM charges ahead with two new positions

CSEM has named two tenured WSSU professors to new research positions, expanding its outreach into the community on crucial issues of economic mobility.  

Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi has been named Senior Research Fellow for Regional Economics. M. Dee Guillory has been named Senior Research Fellow for Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Guillory said: “My role is to support the mission of CSEM through the evaluation of currently supported CSEM courses that confirm the impact of their programming on the target entrepreneurial community with Winston-Salem.  Simultaneously, I plan to conduct research that evaluates the perceived ‘digital inequalities’ of start-up and small businesses both in and out of the Winston-Salem ‘fragile communities’ and ascertains the opportunities and challenges that arise for these businesses during a pandemic. This research will support CSEM in further understanding the ‘missing rungs on the ladder’ that need to be rebuilt in order to assure upward mobility for all of Winston-Salem.” 

 A South Carolina native, Guillory is an associate professor in the Management, Marketing and Management Information Systems department and has worked with more than 100 small businesses through her marketing classes. She worked in business management before founding her own business management and consulting firm, and was educated at Stanford University, the University of Michigan and Georgia State University. She taught on the faculty of the University Of South Carolina–Beaufort, as well as at Georgia State University, while pursuing her doctorate degree. 

Dr. Madjd-Sadjadi studies data and provides detailed analysis that sheds light on our local economy and its trajectory, providing information that elected officials and business leaders can use to meet economic challenges. He comes well-suited to the work. He has consulted for HanesBrands, Inc. and the Banker’s Roundtable, a collation of the top financial institutions in the country. He co-authored a study that helped get the I-74 project funded, and published an analysis of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan that proposes changes to it. 

He is a professor of economics and chairman of the department of Accounting, Economics and Finance. He was also in the inaugural class of 2017-18 CSEM Faculty Fellows, and is the former Chief Economist for the city and county of San Francisco. He holds a Ph.D in political economy and public policy from the University of Southern California. 

With these two new positions, CSEM continues its push to work with the community beyond the campus walls, providing state-of-the-art data from its research.