Who are the Center’s Faculty Affiliates?
The Center for Applied Finance relies on the strategic leadership and deep academic expertise of our faculty affiliates to bridge classroom learning with institutional industry practice. Our affiliates play a vital role in planning, designing and organizing the Center’s advanced bootcamps, workshops and immersive Wall Street activities. Bringing a powerful mix of cutting-edge research and corporate industry experience, they ensure our curriculum remains highly aligned with the fast-evolving expectations of top-tier global finance firms.
Meet Our Faculty
Olena Nikolsko-Rzhevska
Teaching Assistant Professor, Perella Department of Finance
Olena Nikolsko-Rzhevska joined the Perella Department of Finance at Lehigh University as an adjunct lecturer in 2015 and was subsequently appointed as a full-time professor. Her primary research and teaching interests lie in market microstructure, investments, stock exchange operations, financial literacy, and financial regulations. Her scholarly work has been published in elite financial journals, including the Journal of Banking & Finance and Financial Management. Recognized for her dedication to pedagogical excellence, Nikolsko-Rzhevska was awarded the prestigious Robert & Christine Staub Faculty Excellence Award for Outstanding Teaching in the College of Business in 2024. Her industry experience includes time as an investment banking intern at Morgan Keegan and as a research department intern for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance and a B.A. in Business Economics (with Honors) from the University of Memphis.
Learn more about Olena Nikolsko-Rzhevska.
Ke Shen
Associate Professor, Perella Department of Finance
Ke Shen joined the Perella Department of Finance in 2017. His research focuses on asset management, institutional investors, and financial intermediation, with particular emphasis on exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, and bond market investors. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Journal of Real Estate Research. Before joining academia, Shen gained industry experience at Goldman Sachs as a Collateral Analyst in MBS Fixed Income and at Bank of America as a Risk Analyst in the Home Loan and Equity division. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Iowa, an M.S. in Statistics from Northern Illinois University, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Shanghai University.
Qianqian Yu
Associate Professor, Perella Department of Finance
Qianqian Yu's research primarily focuses on corporate finance, entrepreneurial finance, venture capital, and financial intermediation. She has published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and has presented her work at top-tier finance conferences including the American Finance Association Meeting, the Western Finance Association Meeting, the Financial Management Association Meeting, and the Northern Finance Association Meeting. Yu joined Lehigh University's Perella Department of Finance in 2017. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Boston College, an M.Sc. in Finance and an M.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia, and a B.A. in Economics from Beijing Foreign Studies University.