UCSB Economics

Giving

William Thormahlen Junior Faculty Fellowship

William Thormahlen William J. Thormahlen is a member of SARES·REGIS Group's Executive Committee and is responsible for overseeing operations and directing all legal, finance, tax and administrative functions. Mr. Thormahlen joined The Sammis Company (predecessor to the SARES Company) in 1980 where, as an Executive Vice President, he was responsible for its accounting, finance, legal and administrative functions as well as coordinating its regional office network. After the formation of the SARES Company, Mr. Thormahlen was instrumental in orchestrating the SARES Company's merger with The Regis Group in 1993. Mr. Thormahlen obtained his undergraduate degree in Business Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a life member of the Alumni Association. Mr. and Mrs. Thormahlen are members of the Chancellor's Council and the Storke Associates.

The Thormahlen family is giving back to UCSB by providing a fellowship that serves to attract to this campus one of the brightest and most capable young economists in the nation to teach and conduct research.

Heather Royer The current holder of the Thormahlen Junior Faculty Fellowship is Heather Royer. Heather, a health economist, joined the department in 2008, from Case Western Reserve University, where she was an Assistant Professor. She earned her PhD from UC Berkeley in 2004, and went on to become a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar.

The goal of Heather's research is to understand the factors that determine infant health. She's developed new statistical methods to estimate the effect of the mother's age, education and prenatal care. More recently she has also begun investigating how in utero health and health during infancy are primary factors in chronic conditions, such as heart disease, later in life.