The Commission
James R. Powers - Chairman
Allen R. Gillespie, CFA - Vice Chairman
Converse A. Chellis, III, CPA, State Treasurer
Blaine Ewing, III
S. Travis Pritchett, Ph.D.
Reynolds Williams
S. Travis Pritchett, Ph.D.
S. Travis Pritchett, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina, was a full-time member of the Moore School of Business faculty for 27 years. He held the W. Frank Hipp Chair of Insurance from 1983 until his retirement in 2000. He also acted as the Chair of the Banking, Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate Department. Dr. Pritchett served as the Academic Director of the USC MBA and PMBA programs. In the 1980s, he was Director of a master’s degree program in health care finance. At South Carolina, he received the Alfred G. Smith Teaching Excellence Award, a Mortar Board Teaching Excellence Award, and the Moore School Faculty Service Award. He has worked with the Pension Trust and Employee Benefits Seminar over 30 years.
Professor Pritchett is a former Editor of The Journal of Risk and Insurance (the world’s leading academic journal in its field) and was an Associate Editor of Benefits Quarterly, Journal of Financial Service Professionals, Financial Services Review, Journal of Financial Planning, Journal of Business Research, and the American Journal of Small Business. He is author or co-author of a dozen books and monographs and over 50 journal articles. In 1988, the American Risk and Insurance Association selected his book entitled Stock Life Insurance Company Profitability and Workable Competition for the Elizur Wright Award. In 1989, the Professional Insurance Agents’ Insurance Foundation chose him as the first recipient of their national Insurance Educator of the Year Award based on excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.
Dr. Pritchett’s service work includes acting as the Governor’s Appointee to the Joint Insurance Study Committee of the South Carolina Legislature and acting as President of the American Risk and Insurance Association, the Risk Theory Society, the Academy of Financial Services, and the Southern Risk and Insurance Association.
Dr. Pritchett currently resides in Charleston, SC. He is an active consultant and expert witness on pensions and life-health insurance topics and has acted as the retiree representative with the South Carolina Retirement Systems Investment Commission since 2005.