Dr. Lori Medders

Dr. Lori Medders serves as the Joseph F. Freeman Distinguished Professor of Insurance (since August 2017) and chair of the Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance (since July 2023) for the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University. She also served as director of the Walker College of Business honors program (2018-23). Prior to joining App State, she was on faculty at Florida State University (risk and insurance, 2009-17), Georgia State University (risk and insurance, 1999-2008) and Georgia Southern University (finance and economics, 1994-98).

Medders serves on the board of directors for the American Association of Water Distribution and Management and chairs its education committee (2016-present). She also serves as chair of the American Risk and Insurance Association’s Risk and Insurance Teaching Society (2021-present), an international organization devoted to excellence in the teaching-learning of risk economics and related disciplines. Additionally, Medders is a past president and board member of the Southern Risk and Insurance Association (2011-17) that supports research on topics related to risk and insurance, as well as past chair of the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology (2013-17) and its statistics expert member (2009-17). 

A business risk consultant for more than 25 years, Medders has direct work experience in investment advisory and financial analysis, climate risk adaptation and finance, risk modeling and decision analytics, critical infrastructure risk management (e.g., education, gas, local/regional government, power, telecommunications, water-wastewater) and enterprise risk management program planning and review.

Areas of expertise

• Climate risk and finance and/or insurance
• Catastrophe risk and finance and/or insurance
• The future of risk and insurance
• Risky applications of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies
• Corporate risk management (business ethics, scandals, reputation loss, high profile loss events)
• Risk analytics and modeling
• Infrastructure finance and risk (energy, water, food/agribusiness, education, financial sectors)
• Scenario analysis in risk management
• The economics and psychology of risky decisions
• Pedagogy in finance, risk management and insurance