Outstanding Faculty Award: J. Daniel Chi

When he left his native China to pursue his MBA in the United States nearly three decades ago, J. Daniel Chi wasn’t exactly sure what his future held.

Although he was gravitating toward finance, Chi didn’t have a definitive career plan. Nor did he know if he would plant roots in America or return to his homeland.

All options were on the table — that is, until Chi got to know some of his professors while studying for his graduate degree at Idaho State University.

That’s when the first of several life and career dominos fell.

“That made a profound impact on me,” Chi says. “I got to see what an academic life looked like from their viewpoint and the meaning of it.”

Rather than dive into academia after finishing at Idaho State, though, Chi first decided to dip his toes in the corporate finance waters. It didn’t take long before he put down his briefcase, picked up his backpack again, and began studying for his Ph.D. in finance at Texas A&M.

The end goal: to become a professor.

“At that point in my life, I knew myself,” he says. “I have to have sufficient intellectual challenges, otherwise I languish and am miserable. So I was confident that an academic career would fit me best.

“Over the years, that conviction has been confirmed.”

And for the last 15 of those years, the UNLV community has reaped the benefits of Chi’s vocational choice — so much so that Chi is the 2026 recipient of the UNLV Alumni Association’s Outstanding Faculty Award.

As much as anything, the honor recognizes Chi’s dogged commitment to student success via an education philosophy that goes far beyond lectures and textbooks.

Since arriving on campus as an assistant professor of finance in 2011, Chi has made it his mission to close what he calls a “financial education gap” that affects many young adults. Because, from his viewpoint, a person’s financial health is every bit as important as their physical and mental wellbeing.

“From birth to college, we spend about two decades educating students to build up their human capital to become some sort of a professional — engineering, medicine, art, business, you name it,” he says. “When they enter the labor force, the entire reward for that human capital — at least the entire monetary part of the reward — comes in the form of a paycheck. Yet we have taught them very little on how to manage money: how to budget, how to spend, how to save, how to invest, etc. 

“I find this jarring, and I believe it’s a disservice of our education system to our students and citizens.”

It’s why shortly after taking over as chair of the Finance Department in 2022, Chi went to work building a financial literacy curriculum geared not just toward finance majors or budding business professionals but the entire student body. The highlight: two lower-division undergraduate courses that offer a road map to financial health.

Suffice to say, the classes have proven popular, with thousands of Rebels completing them over the past several years.

Chi’s student-centric efforts hardly stopped there. Under his guidance, similar financial literacy programming has been extended to Southern Nevada high schools. And it comes with a bonus perk: Not only do students get a chance to build financial knowledge before entering college, those who successfully complete the program receive UNLV credit.

Back on campus, Chi also helped launch the UNLV President’s Investment Challenge. Open to all Rebels, the investment competition offers hands-on experience with investing, teamwork, portfolio management, risk, and presentation skills.

More than 200 students representing more than 80 teams participated in the inaugural competition, during which they connected with faculty, financial industry professionals, and alumni judges while also learning vital real-world decision-making skills.

Yet another non-classroom activity that Chi spearheaded: Rebels on Wall Street. Each year, select UNLV students travel to New York City for a one-week immersion program, visiting leading financial institutions and learning from professionals (including alumni) about careers in finance.

It all speaks to Chi’s strong belief in learning by doing.

“Classroom learning is only part of the education equation,” he says. “Experiential learning is another essential component. It is through experiential learning that students put theory to work. As has been said: ‘Practice without theory is blind; theory without practice is empty.’”

Chi’s determination to go above and beyond doesn’t end with students. Over the years — and particularly since taking over the Department of Finance — he has earned immense respect from his colleagues while working diligently to uplift not just the department, Lee Business School and the university, but the entire state.

A handful of examples:

• Chi supported the creation of UNLV’s Kerestesi Center for Insurance and Risk Management and a new major in Insurance and Risk Management that launched in fall 2025 as one of the few programs of its kind in the western United States. It’s a professional field that is particularly underserved in Southern Nevada.
• Under his leadership, the Department of Finance is involved in a multi-institutional study on college personal finance education with Stanford University and other university partners. By contributing a major student dataset to the project, UNLV is not just participating in a national conversation but helping to shape that conversation.
• Chi has given presentations at major national and international conferences, including serving as keynote speaker at the International Conference on Financial Risk and Corporate Finance Management in 2025. Also, as a frequent go-to media source, he has increased UNLV’s public visibility.
• In addition to earning several grant awards, Chi’s scholarship has been recognized with multiple Best Paper Awards semifinalist selections at Financial Management Association International conferences.
• Always willing to pitch in as needed, Chi also has served on numerous campus-based committees and student advisory boards, and this year was appointed to the Nevada Advisory Council for Financial Literacy.

The proof of Chi’s immense impact on campus? It’s in the numbers: Since he took the reins of the Finance Department in spring 2022 through fall 2026, total enrollment in finance classes more than tripled.

“Daniel has built a career as a respected finance scholar, an effective teacher, a department leader, a program builder, and a public-facing educator whose work now reaches students, faculty, industry partners, high school students, and the broader Nevada community,” says John Starkey, Chi’s colleague and the associate director of the Kerestesi Center for Insurance and Risk Management. “His service reflects the best of UNLV: practical, ambitious, student-centered, community-minded, and built for long-term impact.”

What sparked your interest in studying finance?

I was interested in business and the economy from an early age. As I studied different areas of business, finance gradually became my main interest.

You completed your undergraduate degree in your native China in the mid-1990s, then relocated to the United States to attend graduate school at Idaho State. What was the impetus for that move? Was there any trepidation?

There was very little trepidation. I suppose I was still young at that time, and ignorance ameliorates fear. But I was genuinely interested in knowing more about the world, especially the U.S. and especially an MBA program. It was just a strong desire to explore.

Upon arriving here, what was your long-term plan?

I really didn’t know what to expect, and looking back, I was more excited about each day and the next day than years down the road. I was open to returning to China or staying in the U.S., wherever an opportunity would lead me.

You spent your first six years teaching at North Dakota State and Arizona State. When and how did UNLV enter the picture?

Academics move quite often, especially early in their career, for a better fit or various other reasons. Once a good fit is found, they tend to settle down for decades to come. During my early years as a professor, I looked for that perfect match and I found it with UNLV — and I knew it from the very beginning.

Before I moved to Las Vegas, I visited regularly and even got married here (in the courthouse, with the security guard as our witness). So you could say I was always somehow connected to the city. Then my brother moved to Vegas. Then I thought maybe I should look at UNLV, because if my brother and I were both in the same place, it would be easier for our parents — who lived in China at the time — to visit us.

When I saw the job opening at UNLV, I was quite excited.

How would you characterize your teaching style?

Teaching is to kindle a fire rather than to fill a pail. Learning does not stop when a class ends; the class should be the beginning of the learning process.

My intention is that at the end of a class, students will continue to think about the topic and want to learn more and start to learn more on their own. So I try to tell my students the “why” — that is, show them the big picture like a jigsaw puzzle, what the pieces of the puzzle are, and how they all fit together. And each class is just one piece. 

I may not be able to teach them all the pieces, but once they’re able to identify the pieces and understand how they fit together, they can start to learn about other pieces and put the puzzle together on their own. 

To develop that capacity for independent learning as well as a passion for lifelong learning – that I believe is the ultimate goal of education and something every teacher should strive to achieve.

You took over as Finance Department chair in 2022. Was that a natural professional progression or something you had to be talked into?

I suppose it was kind of a natural progression for an academic career. But I knew that being a chair is [an act of] service. I understood that I would have to reduce my teaching and research, both of which I dearly love and treasure. But I was willing to do so for an opportunity to serve the department — that is, my students and colleagues. It’s a duty I now fully embrace.

Under your guidance, the department has experienced tremendous growth the past four years. To what do you attribute that?

My job is to serve – to outline a vision and provide the resources to enable my colleagues to reach their potential. And in that process they will be able to best help our students to reach their potential.

Growth can be quantitative or qualitative. To us, quantitative growth is the outcome of qualitative growth. We do not pursue growth of enrollment numbers. The Finance Department’s vision is “improving lives through finance education.” We pursue that vision, and we do so with meaning and purpose — which can lead to, and has led to, enrollment growth.

What is something one of your college professors did that irked you and led you to say to yourself, “If I become a professor, I’ll never do that to my students”?

I wouldn’t say any of my professors irked me. But I would say that those who had the greatest impact were those who built up their students — who not only taught specific academic knowledge but also showed, through words and deeds, how to grow into a holistic person. 

I am afraid that holistic teaching has been somewhat lost or even discouraged nowadays. Academic faculty have been explicitly or implicitly told to stick to the academic topics. As a result, universities have become more like trade schools.

This is a tragic trend for all involved: faculty, community, society, and most of all, students.

What are three fundamental financial literacy tips you would give to a recent UNLV graduate who is about to embark on their career?

I actually offered five such tips several years ago in a UNLV article on forging your personal financial path. Those tips still stand:

1. Live within your means
2. Use debt wisely
3. Automate your best financial behavior
4. Start saving and investing early
5. Stay diversified

What was your reaction upon learning you were receiving the 2026 Outstanding Faculty Award?

I am extremely humbled by the honor. I do not pursue accolades, but my colleagues have nominated me and I was fortunate to be selected. I consider this award not for myself alone but for my colleagues, who are the most amazing and gracious people.