Rate My Professor David Palmer

Dr. David W. Palmer is Dean and Tenured Professor of Business in the Hans A. Nielsen College of Business at Charleston Southern University. He holds a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in computer science from Samford University (1981), an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Alabama (1991), and a Doctor of Philosophy in marketing from the University of Alabama (2002). Prior to entering academia, Palmer worked in information technology roles in the life and health insurance industry, serving as Vice President of Information Systems at Southland National Insurance Corporation and earning the Fellow, Life Management Institute designation. He is an alumnus of Leadership Tuscaloosa.

Palmer's academic career includes serving as an instructor in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Alabama's Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. From 2005 to 2017, he was at Jacksonville State University, advancing from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in the Department of Management and Marketing and directing graduate programs. There, he received extensive recognition, including Jacksonville State University Excellence in Research Awards (2009, 2016), multiple Dean’s Faculty Awards for Excellence in Teaching (2008, 2009), Service (2010, 2014), College of Commerce and Business Administration Excellence Awards in Teaching, Research, and Service annually from 2006 to 2014, and induction into Sigma Beta Delta. Joining Charleston Southern University in 2016 as Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Programs, he became Interim Dean in 2017 and was promoted to Dean and Professor in 2020. Under his leadership, the college secured a multimillion-dollar naming gift from the Nielsen family (2022), an endowment for the Breland/Adams Chair in Business, launched programs including BBA in Personal Financial Management and Global Marketplace Engagement, established the Center for Personal Financial Management and Board of Advisors, achieved ACBSP reaccreditation, and supported study abroad and business-as-mission initiatives. His peer-reviewed publications include "Disintegrating Business Degree Curricula by Skipping Prerequisite Courses" with James M. Wilkerson and Janet C. Meyer (Journal for Excellence in Business & Education, 2019), "A Longitudinal Examination of Internet-based Customer Service System Usage in Small Companies" with Arthur Allaway, Giles D’Souza, and Alexander E. Ellinger (Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 2012), "Building Blocks of Nonprofit Health Care Success" with Jeffrey A. Parker and Burt F. Arthur (Academy of Health Care Management Journal, 2008), and others. Palmer has presented at conferences such as the IACBE Annual Conference, Society for Marketing Advances, and Southern Finance Association, and contributes to university service including the Graduate Council.