Michael J. Highfield

Michael J. Highfield, PhD, CFA, CTP, ChBP is the Provost and Executive Vice President at Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi.

Mike earned his BBA and MBA from Mississippi State University and later earned his MS in Economics and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Kentucky. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) designation from the CFA Institute, the Certified Treasury Professional (CTP®) designation from the Association for Financial Professionals, and the Chartered Banking Professional (ChBP) designation from the Graduate School of Banking at LSU. A former finance professor at Louisiana Tech University (2002-2005) and Mississippi State University (2005-2023), Mike served as the Department Head of Finance and Economics (2009-2018), Robert W. Warren Chair of Real Estate Finance (2015-2023), Chair of the Research Conflict of Interest Committee (2016-2023), and Chair of the Academic Department Head Executive Committee (2012-2018).

Mike's teaching interests are corporate finance, real estate finance, and financial modeling in Microsoft Excel®. Mike has published in over 20 peer-reviewed journals including Financial Management, the Journal of Corporate Finance, Real Estate Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and the Journal of Real Estate Research. He is a past president (2017-2018) of the American Real Estate Society (ARES), a past member of the ARES Board of Directors (2018-2023), a past member of the Southern Finance Association Board of Directors (2020-2023), and the former national Treasurer for the James R. Webb ARES Foundation (2019-2023). He is a current member of the ARES Foundation Board of Directors (2017-Present).

Professionally, he is a consultant and active volunteer (2004-Present) for the CFA Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia., and he has taught at the Graduate School of Banking at LSU since 2011 where he was recognized with the T. Eugen Spragens, III President's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2021. He has served as the Senior Academic Consultant (VP of Curriculum) at the Graduate School of Banking at LSU since 2017.