Students are challenged by their course material, but often, a discussion from a class reading or a specific project requires them to wrestle with hard ideas. “In Principles of Marketing we have a whole chapter on ethical theories and corporate social responsibility,” explains Dr. Arwen Matos-Wood, assistant professor of marketing. “I teach my students to be above reproach in everything they say and do, because as Christians in business, their testimony could be damaged by one slightly unethical decision they make.” In his Principles of Finance course, Dr. Babin gives his students a project which he describes as one of his favorite assignments. Students are required to solicit three biblical financial principles from Christians in their lives and then write an essay and present at least one principle with the class. Even in introductory courses like Principles of Marketing or Principles of Finance, professors take every opportunity to enable deep discussion about business from a biblical perspective.

Chris Dodson, professor emeritus of business who served as faculty from 1982 to 2020, confirms that biblical principles and lessons of integrity were always taught in his classroom as part of students’ rigorous education. He says, “I wanted to convey to my students that their work would be a spiritual matter, as Christians are needed to be salt and light in the marketplace.” In his class on investing, Chris recalls discussing how one cannot serve two masters: God and riches. “This warning was especially important in a class that was designed to teach the principles of acquiring and managing wealth,” he states, “but we are to serve God with our possessions, as the scripture says to instruct the rich to be generous and ready to share.”

Accomplished And Experienced Christian Faculty

The faculty in the department approach their disciplines with a biblical perspective in mind, yet they also bring their education and field experience to their classrooms, making them well-equipped to teach in their areas of expertise.

Nearly all of the full time professors have either completed PhDs or are in the process of doing so. They are also publishing in journals, such as The Global Journal of Management and Business Research and Journal of Biblical Integration in Business, as well as serving on boards and presenting research at conferences. However, it is their backgrounds in industry that lend a real- world edge to the material they teach.

“Because of my experience in the sports industry, when I saw the opportunity to work at Covenant, I felt a strong pull to help provide individuals with a biblical foundation who could then go out—or be sent out—into the sports world to make a positive impact for Christ,” says Michaela Kourmoulis. Assistant professor of sport management, Professor Kourmoulis brings a breadth of experience to the classroom, including working with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Talladega Superspeedway.

Assistant professor of accounting, Mark Slavovsky, is a CPA with a focus in taxation who worked as a tax manager and senior tax accountant for nearly 20 years before joining on as faculty at Covenant. Dr. Quatro, even after coming to Covenant, remained an active consultant to industry with current and past clients including Chattem/Sanofi, Southern Champion Tray, Signal Energy, Johnson & Johnson, and M&M Industries.

Dr. Matos-Wood’s experience in brand management and product management of over 30 years provides her with many stories to tell her students. In one story, Dr. Matos-Wood describes a shoot for a sleep aid commercial that involved a married couple’s nighttime routine. After half a day of work, she realized the actors had not been wearing the wedding bands. While the agency partner was eager to move forward, Dr. Matos-Wood pushed for a reshoot, standing by her principles and the principles of the company. “I share my experiences to convey to my students that you can be a Christian in marketing,” she says.

Dr. Babin, the department’s most recent full-time hire, has 40 years of industry experience. His professional background includes working in product optimization, innovation, and sustainability. “I thank God daily for my calling to Covenant College,” he says. “I prayed for this for years and now see God’s hand in each step.” With their many skill sets and wisdom they have acquired as Christians in their fields, our faculty make it their personal calling to equip the next generation with relevant, quantitative skills.

Experiential Learning And Career Preparation

Throughout each semester, their experiences in industry lead the business department professors to encourage— and often require—their students to participate in experiential learning opportunities as well as hear from other professionals in the field to complement their classroom curriculum. This may look like presenting at conferences, participating in research, touring local facilities, listening to guest speakers, interning with relevant companies, or working sporting events.

Last year, the department took a group of students to the Kingdom Advisor Conference, where they heard from Ron Blue, Alistair Begg, John Cortines, and other leaders who spoke about integrating faith into their financial planning practices. Business majors also participate in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) research challenge, where student teams evaluate a single stock, as well as the TVA investment challenge, where student teams manage a portfolio of $500,000 of asset retirement trust funds. Through these opportunities, students experience real-life portfolio management and trading with real money.

Sport management majors not only get to hear from guest speakers, most of whom are Christians, from world-renowned companies and teams like Under Armour, Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, and NASCAR, but they also have the opportunity to work at some of the largest sporting events in the country, such as the Daytona 500, the NCAA Men’s Final Four, the CFP National Championship, and even the Super Bowl. At these, students get hands-on experience working ticket sales, fan fests, 5k runs, sponsor- related activities, and other events leading up to the game. Throughout a given year, sport management students have the opportunity to volunteer at around 64 unique, local sporting events—this number increases to over 100 including all University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sporting events, which students have the opportunity to work—as well as two week-long trips, which require an interview with the department. “These are great opportunities for them to get their hands in all the different elements that surround sports,” says Professor Kourmoulis. “I also try to coordinate tours or opportunities to network with professionals in those areas when we’re not working.”

Business majors are also highly encouraged to pursue relevant hands-on experience through internships during their undergrad. Business students have completed internships at well-known institutions like Unum, Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, and Disney. Apart from these opportunities, Covenant has a business club, sport management association, and economics club where students can remain involved in their fields and continue learning and challenging themselves outside of the classroom. Covenant professors go out of their way to help students make connections with local and national organizations for possible internships and career opportunities.

Mission-Mindedness In Business

The department’s mission statement is to prepare students to fulfill the cultural mandate and the great commandment through business, which is to love God and love neighbor. Dr. Quatro expounds, saying, “We celebrate God’s good design in business as the major means by which the world is prospered in a holistic way—not just financially, but including financially.”

As part of its theology for the Christian study of business, the department holds to the mandate in Genesis 1:28 as God’s creation of an economy through which daily needs are met. “Profit-seeking businesses are fundamentally a part of what makes that economy optimally run,” states Dr. Quatro. People all over the world receive their daily bread needs through business. In that sense, business is a major means by which God showers goodness on the world.

This biblical view of profit is taught across the department. For example, in Dr. Babin’s Cost Accounting class, students use the cost-volume-profit equation to model companies that produce a good product, serve mankind, and sell for profit. “When we break even and make a profit, great things happen!” Dr. Babin says. “Profits matter! Past breakeven, you have a business that can sustainably provide jobs for employees to feed their families.”

Often, the idea of profit-seeking tends to make Christians uncomfortable. “But God’s good design includes profit!” Dr. Quatro exclaims, “Not in the sense of a ‘someone wins, someone loses’ or an ‘I get as much out of the other party in the transaction as possible’ way, but profit in a mutually beneficial way.” The focus in the business department is that when a business profits, everybody who is touched by that business benefits. And if the owner happens to be a Christian, benevolence can flow out of that profit. “If God’s people in profitable businesses hold what’s given them with open hands and let God work through those resources, then amen, right?” declares Dr. Quatro.

In Matthew 25, Jesus sits on the Mount of Olives, encouraging the disciples to anticipate the Kingdom of Heaven. In this teaching, He tells the parable of the talents, advising his disciples to be wise—yet bold—with what they have been entrusted. “The parable of the talents applies to all humans, but squarely to God’s people who are called to work in business,” says Dr. Quatro. “A talent is a big sum of money, like a capital investment, that God has entrusted to us. The steward who is told ‘away from me’ is complacent, fearful, and risk averse.” With this in mind, the business program guides students in making sure they are confidently serving God with all that they have, being agents of prosperity, stewardship, and renewal in the business sphere of God’s world.

“The Bible has a lot to say about finance, our heart position about money and riches, and practical advice about risk, stewardship, and commerce,” says Dr. Babin, “From what I’ve seen, our students are here for the right reason— to share in our mission.” As a part of God’s creation, business is essential as it runs our economy and connects the world through trade, causing the global market to thrive. The Covenant business department prepares students to make the world more accessible and prosperous by loving God and neighbor through business—which is a remarkable calling.

Our Alumni Say

"My Covenant classes prepared me to think logically and critically, the environment taught me how to take initiative and lead, and the personal relationships with teachers and administrators guided my steps. President Frank Brock invested in me personally and explained to me, a sophomore, that accounting is the ‘language of business,’ and because of that I concentrated my electives in accounting. Professor Dodson brought an amazing balance of ‘no-nonsense hard-knocks’ mixed with humor and a demand for excellence without exception. This foundation has been a huge blessing in my career as I began managing a P&L [Profit and Loss Statement] within a few years of graduation and continue that responsibility to this day."

DAVID CAINES ’02
Chief Operating Officer Kenco

"Covenant stands out from the several academic institutions I have attended because of the college’s deep commitment to its students. My professors knew my name and personified an unwavering faithfulness to the gospel. The rigor of the courses combined with the quality of the instructors prepared me to excel in both my professional and academic careers. My accounting courses went a long way in helping me pass the CPA exam—more so than my graduate classes. After receiving my master’s from the University of Virginia, I worked as an auditor at Ernst & Young before going back to school for economics. Because of Covenant, I felt the conviction to do for others what my professors had done for me."

BRUNO KÖMEL ’17
Phd Student University Of Pittsburgh

"While at Covenant, the mentorship I received gave me a love for college athletics and affirmed my calling to pursue a career within the sports world. After graduating, I enrolled in a sports management graduate program and was later given an opportunity to work at Duke University as the compliance assistant. I have since served as the compliance assistant, compliance coordinator, and assistant director of compliance, to finally the associate director of compliance. Covenant prepared me not only for my career but to be a source of the gospel in a secular work setting."

KAITLYN PURDY ’17
Associate Director Of Compliance, Duke University Athletics

"Business is a very practical major. I loved how my Covenant professors incorporated their professional experiences from the business realm into the classroom. It made the concepts easier to understand and more desirable to learn when I knew that they were actually used in the business world. Dr. Quatro and Professor Matos-Wood impacted my thinking greatly. Taking Business Ethics with Quatro constantly challenged me to consider what it looked like to be a Christian in the realm of business. Both of these professors shaped my thinking by providing real-life applications of topics in business while incorporating our higher calling in them."

CAMERON CORTMAN ’22
Director Of Digital Marketing, Great American Media

"Covenant’s education was rigorous and prepared me for that next professional step. During a May term one summer, I took an investments class and we went to New York City for three weeks. We were in class from around eight to noon each day, and then we had afternoon field trips to banks, investment shops, and financial institutions. It was both fun and educational to have that exposure. I feel so fortunate to have my faith in my career and to have learned about the creation mandate at Covenant. We, image- bearers of God, should bring order to chaos, and the financial markets are no different."

WILL DYER ’11
Portfolio Manager, Unum

"Covenant was a great place for me, an international student from Kazakhstan. Faculty like Professor Dodson and Dr. Fikkert were exceptional and personally invested in me. Professor Dodson always helped students identify career paths, connecting us to other graduates. He even made the call to Chattanooga’s Ernst & Young office, encouraging them to consider hiring me. It is unusual for EY, a global accounting firm, to have people in tax without a graduate degree. However, I was successful due to Covenant’s liberal arts foundation where I learned to process information, think critically, and write well. It helped me confidently navigate the ever-changing global tax landscape and adapt to emerging technologies. I started with EY right out of Covenant, made partner in 2016, and now work with multinational clients coordinating broader teams across the globe. I also have the chance to shape our strategy and market activities around tax and finance managed services."

ANYA (RUSSINOVA) PARKHURST ’04
Americas Tax And Finance Operate Leader, Ernst & Young

"I received my MBA and masters of sport administration at Ohio University and then took a full-time position with the Hall of Fame Village before transitioning into my current role. Covenant helped prepare me by cultivating opportunities for me to grow inside and outside the classroom. Professors crafted challenging course materials, but also equipped me with connections and tools to be successful. I really appreciated the faculty and staff who truly cared about my personal, professional, and spiritual growth. Covenant helped me understand that my role in the sports industry is an incredible platform to serve clients, coworkers, and fans with whom I would not typically cross paths or share the gospel."

COLBY PEPPER ’20
Business Development Manager Sporting Kansas City

"Through my interactions with faculty and students at Covenant, I was taught how to think, which prepared me for my work in a Fortune 500 company, an advertising agency, the athletic department of a major university, and a CPA firm, as well as pursuing my PhD. Business isn’t just about making money, although there is nothing wrong with making money since it’s the love of money and not money itself that is the root of all kinds of evil. But accounting is very orderly, and ethics are extremely important. Understanding this helps me view my role in terms of how I can help people manage the resources God has given them."

STEVE DAVENPORT ’92
Associate Professor Of Accounting University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga

"After graduating, I did two years of campus ministry with Mission to the World in East Asia, although I had thought I would go into business. I began to do some accounting for Cru, who we partnered with, and soon became a finance manager for East Asia, Hong Kong, and Macau. Later, I returned to the US and became the internal audit director for Cru’s global finance division. I have 200 plus different entities that fall under my scope and about 40 auditors around the globe. I really loved all of my classes at Covenant, but the focus on having a holistic worldview was very impactful. I learned about how Christ influences not just your relationship with Him, but everything, including worldview."

EMILY (LODERHOSE) BANTOLA ’06
Internal Audit Director For Global Finance, Cru International