An ISU professor is getting a helping hand in her research from a fellowship from the Principal Financial Group.Cynthia Campbell, associate professor of finance, has been awarded the Principal Financial Group Faculty Fellowship in Finance.The endowed fellowship will provide a financial stipend for three years, she said.”The fellowship helps facilitate keeping current in the trends of the finance field,” Campbell said. “It’ll save me a month out of the year, and this allows me to prepare and research new things that are happening in finance.”One of the advantages of receiving something like this is that it helps attract good faculty, she said”Faculty are critical and with a competitive market, it is essential to attract and keep good people,” she said.Receiving the fellowship was a “total surprise,” Campbell said.”Principal has been a great supporter, and the department and the college really does appreciate this,” she said.Campbell’s previous work experience has included a job as a senior financial economist for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which she said has been a great help in her job as a teacher and researcher.She said her main area of research is in the area of private placement of securities and executive compensation of CEOs and boards of directors.”I learned a lot about the field with the SEC,” Campbell said. “It was a great lesson in governance, among other things, and it prepared me well in knowing about how things work.”David Smith, professor and chairman of accounting, said Campbell has been a “credit to the institution.””She’s very well trained, and I think from the perspective of her experience, that makes her very valuable,” he said.He also said her work in the areas of outreach and teaching, along with research, has been good for the department.”I think her research provides us with a lot of visibility,” he said. “She has been published in some of the best journals.”The fellowship was established by David Drury and the Principal Life Insurance Company and will end August of 2004.