KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business received a $3 million gift from the Boyd Foundation. The gift includes $2 million to expand the existing Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research Endowment and $1 million to to create two distinguished professorships.

The Boyd Center is a nonpartisan research hub that conducts national and state economic trends for UT, state agencies as well as public and private organizations. The center has provided the university with resources to hire new faculty, recruit top graduate students and support overall research environments.

The initial endowment created the Randy and Jenny Boyd Distinguished Professorship in relation to the directorship of the Boyd Center held by Bill Fox.

“This latest investment allows us to build on the breadth and quality of the center’s work, including hiring a faculty member who will deepen our strength in researching education, particularly K-12,” said Fox.

The newest distinguished professorships have been awarded to Celeste K. Carruthers of Labor Economics and Matt Harris of Health Economics.

“We are deeply grateful to the Boyds for their ongoing support of the Boyd Center and the Haslam College of Business,” said Dean of Haslam College of Business Stephen L. Mangum. “With this gift, they continue to demonstrate their dedication to changing both individual lives and the economic trajectory of the state of Tennessee through education.”

The Boyd Center strives to research and inform conversations around the key public policy issues of the day. Faculty focuses on academic research across a wide range of public policy projects regarding education, health, e-commerce, taxation, welfare and labor.