KU School of Business welcomes six research faculty members

Six new researchers joined the University of Kansas School of Business at the start of the 2025–26 academic year. 

Their expertise spans accounting, artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems, and organizational behavior, strengthening the school’s research in areas relevant to the future of business education and practice.  

Will Ciconte
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Ph.D., University of Florida 

Will Ciconte joins the KU School of Business from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was an assistant professor of accountancy. 

Ciconte’s research explores the role of AI in accounting and finance. His work addresses the competitiveness of the audit market and implications for pricing and quality, time allocation among professionals and its implications for firm performance, and the impact of consultants on firms’ operating and financial reporting quality. He also investigates the usefulness of income tax accounting disclosures. 

Ciconte’s work has been published in top journals, including the Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory. 

Before pursuing his doctorate, he worked as a tax senior in public accounting in the financial services group for PwC. 

Carina Cuculiza
Assistant Professor of Finance
Ph.D., University of Miami 

Carina Cuculiza joins the School of Business from the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, where she was an assistant professor of finance. 

Her research centers on household finance and empirical asset pricing, with an emphasis on behavioral finance. She also examines how social and cultural influences, investor sentiment, and psychological factors shape financial decision-making and market outcomes. 

Before Oklahoma State University, Cuculiza served on the faculty at Marquette University. She previously has collaborated on research with KU Business finance faculty members William Bazley and Kevin Pisciotta. 

Kaushik Gala
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
Ph.D., Iowa State University 

Before pursuing his doctorate, Kaushik Gala gained more than 20 years of industry experience in the U.S. and India at early-stage technology startups, global corporations, boutique consulting firms, tech-transfer companies, and incubator accelerators. 

He brings a practitioner’s lens to his research on star performers, digital platform entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial cognition, and corporate entrepreneurship. 

Gala’s teaching focuses on developing entrepreneurial competency and fostering innovation. 

Jose Pius Nedumkallel
Assistant Professor of Information Systems
Ph.D., Clemson University 

Jose Pius Nedumkallel’s research explores digital privacy and security, advancing theoretical insights while delivering practical strategies to address pressing challenges faced by both academia and industry. His other research interests span digital platforms, and AI’s role in cybersecurity. 

Pius Nedumkallel’s research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals. He has taught management courses and is engaged in teaching topics that include information systems, data mining, business analytics, and information systems. 

Before transitioning to academia, he worked in information systems development and maintenance roles with leading U.S. firms in India and Singapore, experience that continues to inform his research and teaching. 

Judy Rady
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
Ph.D., Virginia Tech 

Judy Rady's research focuses on the impact of AI on various entrepreneurial decision-making processes and activities. She examines the intersection of AI with entrepreneurial cognition, knowledge problems, resource mobilization, entrepreneurial action, as well as governance. Together, Rady examines how the emergence of AI technologies reshapes venture creation and growth. 

Additionally, Rady’s research interests extend to nascent entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship in grey markets, entrepreneurial strategy, and hype. Rady’s dissertation work has already led to publications in a top global entrepreneurship journal, with several additional research publications. 

Lindsey Yonish
Assistant Professor of Management
Ph.D., Texas A&M University 

Lindsey Yonish joins the KU Business faculty after serving as a visiting professor at Texas A&M University.  

Her research centers on social responsibility, inequalities, and stakeholder theory. Drawing on stakeholder, sociological, and social psychological perspectives, she investigates the interface between organizations and their social environments. In particular, she explores organization-stakeholder relationships, as well as inequality as it occurs in and is perpetuated by organizations. 

Yonish’s work has been published in Organization Science, the Journal of Management, and The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Social Evaluations (forthcoming).