J. Reid Cummings

J. Reid Cummings is an Assistant Professor of Finance and Real Estate, and serves as the Director of the Center for Real Estate and Economic Development in the Mitchell College of Business at the University of South Alabama. Dr. Cummings earned a Doctorate of Business Administration in Finance from Kennesaw State University, a Master of Business Administration in Management from the University of Mobile, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Cummings won the Mitchell College of Business Professor of the Year award in 2016.

Dr. Cummings has over 36 years of experience in real estate development, leasing, management, brokerage, financial consulting, mortgage lending, and construction services. He has completed multiple large-scale commercial, residential, and resort development projects throughout the country. He founded and operated numerous companies, including The Cummings Company and The Chamberlin Company, earned real estate brokers’ licenses in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina, and holds the CCIM, CSM, ALC, CRB, RML, SFR, CIPS, and CDEI professional designations.

Dr. Cummings is a graduate of Leadership Mobile and The Buckley School for Public Speaking. As a long-time member, director, and executive leader of the Mobile Area Association of Realtors, he served as its President in 2000 and won its 2001 Realtor of the Year Award. From 1999-2011, he served as a Member of the City of Mobile Board of Zoning Adjustment, and was Chairman from 2003-2011. In 2011, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley appointed Dr. Cummings to the 1 st Congressional District Seat on the Alabama Real Estate, reappointing him to a second term in 2016. Also in 2016, Governor Bentley appointed Dr. Cummings to the Advisory Board of the Alabama Center for Insurance Information and Research based at the University of Alabama. In 2016, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson appointed Dr. Cummings to the Board of Commissioners of the Mobile Housing Authority.

Dr. Cummings has authored/co-authored publications appearing in The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Applied Economics Letters, Asian Journal of Finance, Real Estate Finance, The Appraisal Journal, Tourism Economics, and The Southern Business and Economic Journal. He has presented academic papers, and served as a panelist or discussant at national conferences of the American Real Estate Society, the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, the Financial Management Association, the Academy of Economics and Finance, and the Academy of Business Research. He has served the American Real Estate Society in numerous capacities, including membership on the Board of Directors since 2016, Chairman of the Practitioner’s Research Award Committee from 2013-2016, Vice Chairman of the Research Committee from 2012-2016, President of the Future Leaders of the American Real Estate Society from 2015-2016, and Case Study Editor for the Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education since 2015.

A frequent speaker and presenter, Dr. Cummings has been featured in numerous print, magazine, internet, and television media outlets. His current research interests include agency, brokerage, and housing markets, geo-spatial relationships, real estate development, economic development and impact analysis, and Monte Carlo simulation and scenario analysis.