Press Releases for the 2015 AAA Award Recipients

Each stained glass award is a one-of-a-kind, kiln formed, fused glass artwork. Each piece has been custom designed and hand crafted by Hungarian artist, Csaba Osvath.


Tracie Miller-Nobles, Joe Hoyle, and Mark W. Nelson receive the 2015 J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook Prize Award

Sarasota, FL - August 18, 2015 – The American Accounting Association (AAA) would like to congratulate Tracie Miller-Nobles, Joe Hoyle, and Mark W. Nelson as recipients of the inaugural J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook Prize Award. Tracie Miller-Nobles is the recipient of the two-year college award, Joe Hoyle is the recipient of the undergraduate award, and Mark W. Nelson is the recipient of the graduate award.  The awards were presented to each recipient in the form of a solid silver medal and a monetary prize of $25,000 on Monday, August 10th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Tracie L. Miller-Nobles, CPA, received her master’s degree in accounting from Texas A&M University and is working on her doctoral degree in Adult Education also from Texas A&M University. She is an Associate Professor at Austin Community College. Previously she was a Senior Lecturer at Texas State University and has taught as an adjunct at University of Texas-Austin. Professor Miller-Nobles is a coauthor of Horngren's Accounting textbook. She has public accounting experience with Deloitte LLP. Tracie is a recipient of the Texas Society of CPAs Rising Star award, TSCPAs Outstanding Accounting Educator, and NISOD Teaching Excellence award. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors of Teachers of Accounting at Two Year Colleges and has served in leadership roles with both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and American Accounting Association. In addition, she served on the Pathway’s Commission on Accounting Higher Education. 

Joe Hoyle is an associate professor of accounting in the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond. He recently completed his 44th year of teaching. In 2006, he was named one of 22 favorite professors in the US by Business Week. In 2007, he was named the Virginia Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In 2012, he was named one of nine favorite professors in the US by Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2013, he was one of several college teachers highlighted in the book Cheating Lessons by James Lang and published by Harvard University Press. Hoyle is a coauthor of two textbooks:   Advanced Accounting (in its 12th edition) and Financial Accounting (in its 2nd edition).  He has written a free online book titled Tips and Thoughts on Improving the Teaching Process in College—A Personal Diary.  He has written over 210 entries for his teaching blog which has had more than 150,000 page views.  The video of his Last Lecture at the University of Richmond has been viewed more than 17,000 times. He coauthored an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education about his experiences in joining a governmental accounting course with a course on Victorian literature.

Mark W. Nelson is the Eleanora and George Landew Professor of Accounting at Cornell University’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. He holds a BBA from Iowa State University and a PhD from Ohio State University. Nelson teaches intermediate financial accounting to MBA and undergraduate students, and he has received ten awards in recognition of his teaching. He is a coauthor (with Spiceland, Sepe and Thomas) of Intermediate Accounting. Nelson’s research examines psychological and economic factors that influence how people make decisions in accounting settings. His research has been acknowledged with the AAA's Notable Contribution to Accounting Literature Award, the AAA’s Wildman Medal, and AJPT’s inaugural Best Paper Award.  Nelson’s service includes a  four-year term on FASAC, three terms as an area editor of the Accounting Review, and a term as the Johnson School’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, overseeing the tenure-track faculty and research functions of the School.

The J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook Prize is the foremost recognition of an individual who consistently demonstrates the attributes of a superior teacher in the discipline of accounting.   The Cook Prize will serve to recognize, inspire and motivate members to achieve the status of a superior teacher.  Each year up to three awards of $25,000 each can be made in the categories of graduate, undergraduate, and two-year accounting degree programs.  For 2015, the AAA is honored to bestow this award to Tracie Miller-Nobles, Joe Hoyle, and Mark W. Nelson.


G. Bradley Bennett and Richard C. Hatfield receive the AAA/Deloitte Foundation 2015 Wildman Medal Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) would like to congratulate G. Bradley Bennett and Richard C. Hatfield as recipients of the 2015 AAA/Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal Award for their paper, “The Effect of the Social Mismatch Between Staff Auditors and Client Management on the Collection of Audit Evidence,” published in the January 2013 issue of The Accounting Review. This AAA award, which is sponsored by the Deloitte Foundation, was presented to each recipient in the form of a medal and monetary prize on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

G. Bradley Bennett, PhD, CPA, is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He focuses primarily on researching auditing topics using experimental methods. His current research includes examining auditor-client communications; audit-client negotiations; materiality judgments; and corporate use of electronic mediums to disseminate information. His work has been published in The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research, and he has been awarded competitive research grants from KPMG and the University of Alabama to support his research efforts. Bradley currently serves on the editorial board for Behavioral Research in Accounting. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama in 2012, Bradley was an audit manager at KPMG.

Richard C. Hatfield, PhD, is the EY Professor of Accounting in the Culverhouse School of Accountancy at The University of Alabama and a CPA in the state of Texas. He received a B.B.A. and M.S. Accounting from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. from The University of Florida. Professor Hatfield’s primary research interests have been in the area of experimental auditing and tax. He has published several articles in academic journals including: The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, The Journal of the American Taxation Association, and Behavioral Research in Accounting. Dr. Hatfield is currently the senior editor of Behavioral Research in Accounting, a past editor for Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, and on the editorial board of Contemporary Accounting Research and Accounting, Organizations and Society.

The Wildman Medal Award was founded in 1978 to commemorate John Wildman and to encourage research relevant to the professional practice of accounting to which much of Mr. Wildman's life was devoted. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/Deloitte-Wildman-Award-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the AAA and the Deloitte Foundation are honored to be able to bestow this award to G. Bradley Bennett and Richard C. Hatfield.


Jace Garrett, Shelley Li, Kara Obermire, Steven Savoy, and Kelly Wentland receive the 2015 AAA/Grant Thornton Doctoral Dissertation Awards for Innovation in Accounting Education

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) would like to congratulate Jace Garrett, Shelley Li, Kara Obermire, Steven Savoy, and Kelly Wentland as recipients of the 2015 AAA/Grant Thornton Doctoral Dissertation Awards for Innovation in Accounting Education. These AAA awards, which are sponsored by Grant Thornton, were presented to each recipient in the form of unique glass art pieces and a monetary prize on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.


For 2015, the award committee has chosen the following five award winners:

Jace Garrett is an Assistant Professor in the College of Business and Behavioral Science at Clemson University. He recently completed his Ph.D. at Bentley University, where Professor Jean C. Bedard served as his Chair, and he received his B.S. and MAcc degrees at Brigham Young University in 2011. Jace’s research focuses on the interplay between trust and accounting, with particular emphases on the role of organizational trust in firms’ financial reporting processes and the effect of formal control systems on employee attitudes and behavior.

Shelley Xin Li is a doctoral candidate in the Accounting and Management unit at Harvard Business School. She studies how firms use management control and corporate governance mechanisms to drive learning, innovation, and long-term performance by: (1) examining the effect of management control mechanisms and information disclosure through econometric analysis of archival data or field experiments within the boundary of a firm; (2) studying the effect of corporate governance or high-level management control mechanisms in a cross-section of firms. She is expected to graduate in May 2016.

Kara Obermire is a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to pursuing a PhD, Kara received her B.S. in Business Administration and her MAcc from the University of Montana. Kara began her career as an auditor in Deloitte’s Seattle office and primarily worked on public clients in the financial services industry. Following Deloitte, Kara spent one year as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Montana and one year as a Lecturer at The Ohio State University.  Kara’s primary research interests include corporate governance and audit quality using mixed research methods. In her dissertation she seeks to understand how audit committee members’ social identities and their corporate governance roles influence the audit committee's judgments and decisions and ultimately the overall effectiveness of the audit committee.

Steven Savoy was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin where he obtained a bachelors and masters in accounting. Throughout his college years, he taught classes for a test preparation company, and it was this teaching experience that inspired him to become a professor.  After graduating, Steven moved back to Houston to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers. He spent three and a half years there mainly working in the Federal Tax group. In 2011, Steven decided to retire his 10-key and pursue a PhD in Accounting at the University of Iowa.  His primary research focus is empirical tax research.  Steven loves to travel in his spare time and enjoys the outdoors. You can also find him cheering on the Hawkeyes at all of the home football games.

Kelly Wentland will be joining the accounting faculty at George Mason University this fall. She was an AICPA Accounting Doctoral Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her primary research interests are in taxation, accounting information, and firm decision making. Her dissertation examines the role of industrial diversification in firm taxation. Before entering her PhD program, she completed her bachelor’s in accounting at Miami University of Ohio and worked in KPMG’s Washington, D.C. and Tysons Corner, VA offices both in tax and audit. She is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Virginia.

The AAA/Grant Thornton Doctoral Dissertation Awards for Innovation in Accounting Education were created to encourage innovation in accounting research starting at the doctoral level. In order to be considered for the award the student must demonstrate a substantial degree of innovation relative to the current state of a given area of accounting research. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/AAA-Grant-Thornton-Doctoral-Dissertation-Awards-for-Innovation-in-Accounting-Education-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the American Accounting Association and Grant Thornton are very proud to give this award to Jace Garrett, Shelley Li, Kara Obermire, Steven Savoy, and Kelly Wentland for their exceptional work.


Paul F. Williams receives the 2015 AAA Accounting Horizons Best Paper Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) would like to congratulate Paul F. Williams as recipient of the 2015 Accounting Horizons Best Paper Award for his article, "The Myth of Rigorous Accounting Research," which was published in the December 2014 issue. This AAA award was presented to Professor Williams in the form of a unique glass art piece and a $2,500 prize on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Paul F. Williams earned a BSF from WVU and MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He joined the N.C. State faculty in 1985 after spending 1977-1985 at Florida State.  Paul’s teaching interests include GNP, managerial accounting and accounting theory.  His research interests include accounting ethics, theory, and critical perspectives in accounting.  His publications have appeared in Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Accounting, Organizations and Society, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Accounting and the Public Interest, among many other journals.He has served as chairperson of the Public Interest Section of the AAA and as editor of Accounting and the Public Interest.   He received the Public Interest Section Accounting Exemplar Award in 2013.  He is currently the Ernst & Young Faculty Research Fellow at N.C. State.  He is a member of the NC State Academy of Outstanding Teachers.

The Accounting Horizons Best Paper Award is presented to the best paper published each calendar year. The award winner is selected by online voting open to all Accounting Horizons subscribing members of the American Accounting Association. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/Education/Awards/2015-Best-Paper-Awards.  For 2015, the American Accounting Association is honored to be able to bestow this award to Paul F. Williams.


Youli Zou receives the 2015 AAA Competitive Manuscript Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) would like to congratulate Youli Zou as recipient of the 2015 Competitive Manuscript Award for her manuscript, “Strategic Entry Decisions, Accounting Signals, and Risk Management Disclosure.” This AAA award was presented to Youli Zou in the form of a unique glass art piece on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Youli Zou is an Assistant Professor at the George Washington School of Business. Her research focuses on the effect of various stakeholders such as competitors, employees, and large shareholders on firms’ financial reporting incentives. Her work has won the FARS Best Dissertation Award and she has published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics. In her award-winning paper, Zou examines strategic entry decisions in response to competitors’ cash flow hedging outcomes and related disclosure in the airline industry using an innovative identification strategy. Professor Zou teaches Intro Financial Accounting to undergraduate students. She completed her PhD at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto in 2013 where Professor Ole-Kristian Hope served as her Chair. In addition, she has a Master of Arts in Economics from University of Guelph, Canada and a Bachelor in Finance from Peking University, China.

The Competitive Manuscript Award was created to encourage research among AAA regular, life, and student members who have earned their Ph.D. within the past five years. The winner is chosen annually in a blind review by the AAA Competitive Manuscript Award Committee.  More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/Competitive-Manuscript-Award-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the American Accounting Association is very proud to give this award to Youli Zou for her exceptional work.


Patricia M. Dechow and Ilia D. Dichev receive the 2015 AAA Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Literature Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) is pleased to announce that the 2015 Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Literature Award was given to Patricia M. Dechow and Ilia D. Dichev for their work entitled, “The Quality of Accruals and Earnings: The Role of Accrual Estimation Errors.” This AAA award was presented to Professors Dechow and Dichev in the form of unique glass art pieces and a monetary prize on Monday, August 10th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Patricia M. Dechow holds the Donald H. and Ruth F. Seiler Chair in Public Accounting at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.  She has held positions at the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  She has a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honors from the University of Western Australia and a PhD in Accounting and Finance from the University of Rochester. Professor Dechow’s research interests focus on the nature and purpose of accounting accruals, evaluating the quality of earnings and the informativeness of earnings to capital markets, the use of accounting information in predicting stock returns, and the effect of analysts' forecasts on investors’ perceptions of firm value. She has also developed measures to evaluate the likelihood that a firm has manipulated its financial statements. Professor Dechow is an Editor for the Review of Accounting Studies and an Associate Editor for Management Science.

Ilia D. Dichev is the Goizueta Chair and Professor of Accounting at the Goizueta Business School, Emory University.  A native of Bulgaria, Professor Dichev received a BS in Finance from Santa Clara University in 1991, and a PhD in Accounting from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1995.  Before Emory, he has been on the faculty at University of Michigan for 13 years.  Professor Dichev’s research includes issues in equity valuation, earnings management, earnings quality, dollar-weighted returns, and market efficiency.  His research has been published in in all top accounting journals, and in several leading journals in finance and economics.  Professor Dichev is the recipient of several research awards, including the Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award.  Professor Dichev teaches mostly financial accounting, and financial statement analysis and valuation at the undergraduate, MBA, and PhD level.  He has been the director of the PhD program in Accounting at University of Michigan and Emory University.

The Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Literature Award was created to recognize accounting research of exceptional merit that has significantly impacted the discipline over a period of at least five years. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/Distinguished-Contribution-to-Accounting-Literature-Award-Selection-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the AAA is honored to be able to bestow this award to Patricia M. Dechow and Ilia D. Dichev.


Poh-Sun Seow and Suay-Peng Wong receive the AAA, Ernst & Young Foundation-sponsored 2015 Innovation in Accounting Education Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) is pleased to announce that the 2015 Innovation in Accounting Education Award was given to Poh-Sun Seow and Suay-Peng Wong for their work "Accounting Challenge: Mobile-Gaming App for Learning Accounting."  This AAA award, which is sponsored by the Ernst & Young Foundation, was presented to Poh-Sun Seow and Suay-Peng Wong in the form of a unique glass art piece and a monetary prize on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Poh-Sun Seow is Associate Professor of Accounting (Education) and Associate Dean (Teaching and Curriculum) of the School of Accountancy at Singapore Management University. Prior to joining SMU, he was a lecturer at The University of Melbourne and worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore. Dr. Seow received his PhD in Accounting from The University of Melbourne and obtained his Masters of Business Administration and Bachelor of Accounting with First Class Honors, both from Nanyang Technological University. His teaching and research interests are in accounting information systems, behavioral issues in accounting and accounting education.

Suay-Peng Wong joined the School of Accountancy at Singapore Management University as a senior lecturer in 2010.  Her varied career experience included audit at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co (now KPMG), as well as finance and project management across cross-functional teams at IBM Singapore Pte Ltd.  She was also a member of the pioneer team that established the School of Business Management at Nanyang Polytechnic. Suay-Peng has a keen interest in innovation in education. She initiated a few e-learning projects at Singapore Polytechnic and Nanyang Polytechnic. At SMU, she was a member of the team that developed a mobile game to enhance the learning of accounting.

The annual Innovation in Accounting Education Award is intended to encourage innovation and improvement in accounting education, and submissions are judged by their innovation, demonstrated educational benefits, and adaptability by other academic institutions or to other situations. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/Innovation-in-Accounting-Education-Award-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the American Accounting Association and the Ernst & Young Foundation are very pleased to give this award to Poh-Sun Seow and Suay-Peng Wong.


D. Kip Holderness, Jr., Noah M. Myers, Scott L. Summers, and David A. Wood  receive 2015 Issues in Accounting Education Best Paper Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) is pleased to congratulate D. Kip Holderness, Jr., Noah M. Myers, Scott L. Summers, and David A. Wood as co-recipients of the Issues in Accounting Education Best Paper Award for their paper, “Accounting Education Research: Ranking Institutions and Individual Scholars."  This AAA award was presented to the authors in the form of a unique glass art piece and a $2,500 prize on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

D. Kip Holderness, Jr., PhD, CPA, CMA, CFE is an assistant professor at West Virginia University. Kip received his PhD from Bentley University, as well as BS and MAcc degrees from Brigham Young University. Kip’s research focuses primarily on the impact of fraud and employee deviance on individuals and organizations, as well as improving detection methods. He and his wife Carolyn are the parents of five daughters.

Noah Myers graduated with a MAcc from Brigham Young University in April of 2014, where he also completed the Ph.D. prep track program. He worked in the advisory practice of Ernst & Young, LLP for a year after graduation and currently works for Squire and Company, PC, a regional accounting and consulting firm. He lives with his wife and one-year old daughter in American Fork, Utah.

Scott L. Summers is the Andersen Foundation Professor at Brigham Young University having joined the faculty in 1999. Dr. Summers is active in the accounting information systems community, having served as the AAA-IS President among other roles. He focuses on accounting information systems processing and controls, with specific expertise in database and internal control. Dr. Summers received his PhD from Texas A&M University. His research has been published in many journals including: The Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Information Systems, Information Science, IEEE Systems Man and Cybernetics, Communications of the ACM, Decision Support Systems, and Behavioral Research in Accounting. Scott and his wife Kelly have eight children and five grandchildren.

David Wood currently works as an associate professor and Glen Ardis Fellow in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University.  David completed his Ph.D. at the Kelley School of Business, at Indiana University.  He received BS and MAcc degrees at Brigham Young University and a Masters of Business at Indiana University.  David has published in numerous academic and practitioner journals and his research has won multiple best paper awards.  He is married to the former Cindy Lunt, and they have four wonderful children.

The Issues in Accounting Education Best Paper Award is presented to the best paper published each calendar year. The award winner is selected by online voting open to all Issues in Accounting Education subscribing members of the AAA. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/Education/Awards/2015-Best-Paper-Awards. For 2015, the American Accounting Association is honored to be able to bestow this award on D. Kip Holderness, Jr., Noah M. Myers, Scott L. Summers, and David A. Wood.


Bernard J. Milano and W. Steve Albrecht receive the 2015 AAA Lifetime Service Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 —The American Accounting Association (AAA) is very proud to congratulate Bernard J. Milano and W. Steve Albrecht as recipients of the 2015 AAA Lifetime Service Award. This AAA award was presented in the form of unique glass art pieces to Bernard Milano and W. Steve Albrecht on Wednesday, August 12th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Bernard J. Milano, CPA, graduated from Temple University and started his career with KPMG in their Philadelphia audit practice. He holds honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from North Carolina A&T and Kent State. He is president of the KPMG Foundation, KPMG Disaster Relief Fund and The PhD Project and serves on boards of directors of several national nonprofits. Bernie served as AAA vice president, president of Beta Alpha Psi, board member of AACSB and is a board member and treasurer of Beta Gamma Sigma. Through the KPMG Foundation he established The PhD Project; since inception minority faculty has more than quadrupled. His awards include 2013 AAA Outstanding Service Award, 2006 AICPA Special Recognition Award, 2001 AAA Auditing Section Award of Merit, 1990 and 1996 Practitioner Service Award from Federation of Schools of Accounting, 1995 Beta Alpha Psi National Accountant of the Year, several diversity awards and Halls of Fame for Enactus, NC A&T Accounting Dept. and PhD Project.

W. Steve Albrecht is the Gunnell Endowed Professor and Wheatley Fellow at BYU.  He graduated from the U. of Wisconsin with his Ph.D. in 1975.  He is a CPA, CFE, and CIA.  He has been president of the AAA, Beta Alpha Psi, the Accounting Program Administrator’s Group and the ACFE.  He has served on the FAF, FASAC, COSO and held leadership positions in the AICPA, AACSB, IFA, and other organizations.  He was director of BYU’s School of Accountancy for 9 years and associate dean of the Marriott School for 10 years.  He has published over 25 books and 100 academic articles.  He has been an expert witness in 36 major fraud cases and has served on 8 corporate boards of directors.  He has received the ACFE’s Cressy Award, BYU’s highest faculty award and top research award and been named one of the top 50 corporate directors in the United States.

The Lifetime Service Award recognizes service contributions to accounting education over a sustained period of time through service to the AAA, service with the education efforts in the profession through involvement with the AICPA, IMA, and other accounting professional organizations, and service with the education efforts of public accounting firms, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations. More information about this award is available at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/Lifetime-Service-Award-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the American Accounting Association is extremely pleased to be able to bestow this award on Bernard J. Milano and W. Steve Albrecht in honor of their dedicated service to the education and practice of accounting.


Rajiv D. Banker, Dmitri Byzalov, and Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich receive the 2015 AAA Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) would like to congratulate Rajiv D. Banker, Dmitri Byzalov, and Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich as the recipients of the 2015 Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award for their work entitled, “Demand Uncertainty and Cost Behavior.” This AAA award, which is sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), was presented in the form of unique glass art pieces and a $2,500 prize on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Rajiv Banker is the Merves Chair in Accounting and Information Technology at the Fox School of Management at Temple University. He is internationally recognized as a leader in interdisciplinary research in management and as one of the most highly cited researchers in business and economics. Many organizations and regulators have implemented his innovative ideas.  He has published more than 150 articles in prestigious research journals in Accounting, Economics, Information Systems, Management Science, Operations Management, Operations Research, Organizational Behavior, Software Engineering and Strategic Management.  He has received many prestigious awards for his research in several different fields.  He has served in senior editorial capacity on leading research journals.  He has been the recipient of three teaching awards voted by students.  He received a DBA from Harvard University and awards for top ranks from the University of Bombay, the Institute of Cost Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Dmitri Byzalov is an assistant professor at the Fox School of Business at Temple University. He is interested in economics-based empirical research at the boundary between managerial and financial accounting, which integrates multiple areas such as cost behavior, conditional conservatism, and executive compensation. His papers have been published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Journal of Management Accounting Research. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 2009.

Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich is the Executive Director and Accounting Professor of the Center for Financial Reporting & Management (CFRM) at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, and the Earl Smith Professor of Accounting at Saint Mary’s College of California. Jose has published in leading accounting, economics, and management journals, including The Accounting Review, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Review of Economic Dynamics, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Small Business Economics, and Economics Letters. Jose earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and B.S. degrees in economics and management science from MIT.

The Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award is given annually to that work which has withstood a rigorous process of screening and scrutiny based on certain criteria, such as originality, breadth of potential interest, soundness of methodology, and potential impact on accounting education. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/Notable-Contributions-to-Accounting-Literature-Award-Selection-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the American Accounting Association and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants are very pleased to give this award to Rajiv D. Banker, Dmitri Byzalov, and Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich.


David E. Stout and William F. Messier receive AAA, PricewaterhouseCoopers Foundation-sponsored 2015 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) is very pleased to congratulate David E. Stout and William F. Messier, recipients of the 2015 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award. This AAA award, which is sponsored by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Foundation, was presented to Professors Stout and Messier in the form of unique glass art pieces, citations, and a $2,500 prize for each recipient. There is also an additional $2,500 donation given to the AAA on behalf of each recipient which will be used according to both Professor Stout’s and Messier’s wishes. This award was presented on Tuesday, August 11th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

David E. Stout is the Andrews Professor of Accounting, Youngstown State University. Previously, he held the position of the Cooney Professor of Accounting at Villanova University. He has served as editor of Issues in Accounting Education and as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Accounting Education. David has published 100 articles invarious professional and academic journals. He is a co-author of Cost Management: A Strategic Emphasis, 6th edition (McGraw-Hill, 2013). David is past president of the AAA Ohio Region, the AAA Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum (TLC) Section, and the Academy of Business Education (ABE). He recently completed a three-year term as a member of the AAA Board of Directors. He is the recipient of the 2007 Brummet Award from the IMA, the 2007 Ohio Outstanding Accounting Educator Award, and the 2008 Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award (AICPA). In 2008 David was inducted into the TLC Section’s Hall of Honor.

William F. Messier, Jr. holds the Kenneth and Tracy Knauss Endowed Chair in Accounting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is an Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics. Professor Messier holds a B.B.A. from Siena College, an M.S. from Clarkson University, and an M.B.A. and D.B.A. from Indiana University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Norwegian School of Economics. Professor Messier has held faculty positions at the University of Florida and Georgia State University, and was a visiting professor at SDA Bocconi, and the Universities of Michigan and Luxembourg. Professor Messier received the AICPA’s Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award, AAA Auditing Section’s Outstanding Educator Award and Distinguished Service in Auditing Award. He served as the Academic Member of the AICPA’s Auditing Standards Board and he is a Past-Editor of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory and formerly President of the Auditing Section. He has authored or coauthored numerous articles in auditing, accounting, decision and computer science journals.

The general criteria for the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award are based on contributions to accounting education from scholarly endeavors in teaching and research over a sustained period of time. More information about this award is available online at http://aaahq.org/About/Directories/2014-2015-AAA-Committees-Task-Forces/Award-Committees/Outstanding-Accounting-Educator-Award-Committee/Award-Criteria. For 2015, the American Accounting Association and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Foundation are very pleased to give this award to David E. Stout and William F. Messier.


William F. Ezzell, Mark Higgins, and Mary Stone receive the 2015 AAA Outstanding Service Award

Sarasota, FL, August 18, 2015 - The American Accounting Association (AAA) is very proud to congratulate William F. Ezzell, Mark Higgins, and Mary Stone as recipients of the 2015 AAA Outstanding Service Award. This AAA award, which may be awarded at any time by the Board of Directors, was presented in the form of unique glass art pieces to William F. Ezzell and Mark Higgins on Tuesday, August 11th, and to Mary Stone on Wednesday, August 12th at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

William (Bill) Ezzell was one of the original six members of the Pathways Commission which was formed in 2010 to study the future structure of accounting higher education.  He was actively involved in the concentrated two-year study and issuance in July 2012 of the Pathways Commission report.  Subsequent to the issuance of the report, Bill co-led efforts to implement recommendations from the report.  Bill has been an active volunteer for the accounting profession and served on the Board of Directors of the AICPA from 1998-2004 and as its Chairman from 2002-2003.  Subsequently, he served as President of the Board of Trustees of the AICPA Foundation.  In this capacity, he championed the establishment of the Accounting Doctoral Scholars program to increase the number of PhDs teaching auditing and tax in university accounting programs. He worked closely with the 80 largest accounting firms and the state CPA Societies to raise $17 million to fund this needed expansion of highly qualified PhD candidates.  In 2009 Bill received the AICPA's highest service recognition, the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service. In 2012, Bill retired from Deloitte LLP after 37 years as an audit professional.  During his career he served as audit partner on many financial institution engagements and led the firm’s national practice in financial institutions.  Bill received his BSBA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mark Higgins is the Dean of the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University, a position he assumed on January 1, 2015. From 2006 through 2014, he was the Dean and Alfred J. Verrecchia Hasbro Inc. Leadership Chair in Business at the University of Rhode Island.  Prior to his tenure at URI (1988-2014), he was a Tax Manager for EY in New York City. He has served as President of the American Taxation Association (2006-2007) and on the Executive Committee of the American Accounting Association as Vice President for Sections and Regions (2006-2008).  He has twice served as the Program Chair and as President for the Northeast Region. In 2006, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Northeast Region of the American Accounting Association and in 2009 received the American Taxation Association Outstanding Service Award. He is the co-author with Kevin Murphy of Concepts in Taxation, which is in its 23rd edition. His research has been published in the Journal of Accounting Education, Critical Perspectives in Accounting, The Accounting Historians Journal, The Tax Adviser, Journal of Legal Tax Research, and Tax Notes.

Mary Stone is the Hugh Culverhouse Endowed Chair of Accountancy at the University of Alabama. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, MS and BS degrees from the University of Central Florida, and CPA certificate in Florida.  Mary is a past recipient of the FSA Joseph A. Silvoso Faculty Merit Award, UCF College of Business Outstanding Alumni Award, Beta Alpha Psi Business Information Professional of the Year, AAA Outstanding Educator Award, Alabama Society of CPA’s Outstanding Educator Award, and University of Alabama National Alumni Association Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award. She has published in The Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, Auditing, and other journals. Her AAA service includes President (2000-2001) and Secretary-Treasurer (1994-1996).  She recently chaired the AAA Publication Ethics Task Force and has served on many AAA committees.  Mary served as President of Beta Alpha Psi (2011-2012) and currently is a member of the AICPA Board of Directors.

The Outstanding Service Award recognizes outstanding services to the Association other than educational and research contributions. The prestigious award is intended only for rare events or milestones achieved. More information about this award is available at http://aaahq.org/Education/Awards/Outstanding-Service-Award. For 2015, the American Accounting Association is extremely pleased to be able to bestow this award on William F. Ezzell, Mark Higgins, and Mary Stone in honor of their dedicated service to the education and practice of accounting.


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