Asli Ascioglu, Ph.D., will receive the Outstanding Faculty Alumni Achievement Award on Friday, April 12 at the Alumni Achievement Awards Dinner. Other award winners include Todd Gustafson ’86, Michael Oliveri ’08, Lisa Waynelovich McCarthy ’01, Eric Emerson ’91MBA, Bruce Messier ’14, and Amanda Dunne ’07.

In Professor Asli Ascioglu, Ph.D.’s 24-year career teaching at Bryant, she has helped thousands of her students go on to successful careers in the finance industry.

“It’s so rewarding,” she says. “Getting students into the business world, and then having them come back as graduates — that’s the most rewarding part of the job."

Ascioglu has spent her entire professional career at Bryant University, and she has witnessed a great deal of change in that time. When she first came to Smithfield, the George E. Bello Center for Information and Technology (Bello) was not built, and one of her first major responsibilities was to help design its C.V. Starr Financial Markets Center (FMC) in Bello in 2002. 

“That was a great start for me as an assistant professor,” she says. “I saw that I could get things done, and that Bryant had trust in me. I had the chance to change my course curriculum to incorporate the new experiential learning opportunities we had in the Financial Markets Center.” 

Now, as the FMC prepares to relocate to Bryant’s new Business Entrepreneurship Leadership Center (BELC), Ascioglu is lending her experience and expertise to ensure that the new FMC builds on more than two decades of success.

“I have always been proud of my students. They work hard, they create and capitalize on opportunities for themselves, and I try my best to help them move on to fulfilling careers in finance. I’m beyond honored to be recognized by them with this award.”

Born and raised in Türkiye (Turkey), Ascioglu says an outstanding high school math teacher inspired her love of learning. She went on to study at Middle East Technical University in Türkiye, then came to the United States for her master’s degree in finance at Texas Tech and her Ph.D. in finance at the University of Memphis. 

“I had a very enjoyable time during my Ph.D. studies,” she says, “largely due to my advisors, Dr. Tom McInish and Dr. Bob Wood. They were very kind individuals and approached their students with humility. They made sure their students stayed on track, worked on meaningful projects, and took good jobs.” 

Now, as an advisor herself to the next generation of finance students, Ascioglu follows her advisors’ examples. 

“I have always been proud of my students,” she says. “They work hard, they create and capitalize on opportunities for themselves, and I try my best to help them move on to fulfilling careers in finance. I’m beyond honored to be recognized by them with this award.”