The Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Corporation Finance recently selected Professor Betty Chavis as the Academic Accounting Fellow for a one-year term beginning August 2001. Currently, Professor Chavis is chair of the accounting department at California State University, Fullerton. She is also the Co-director of the Center for the Study of Emerging Financial Markets at CSU Fullerton. Prior to joining the faculty at CSU Fullerton in 1996, Professor Chavis was an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, an assistant professor at California State University Los Angeles and a lecturer at the University of Southern California. She also conducted summer seminars on International Financial Statement Analysis and International Business at Lingnon College in Guangzhou, China and Saratov University in Russia. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, an MS in Accountancy from the University of Denver, and a BS from Kent State University. She has served as president of the Western Region of the American Accounting Association.

Professor Chavis's current research interests include quality of earnings issues involving revenue recognition concerns and the value relevance of the measurement of assets and liabilities. She also researches in the areas of international accounting and tax. Her research findings have been published in The Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, The Journal of International Taxation, The Journal of Financial Statement Analysis, and a number of other journals.

At the Commission, the Academic Accounting Fellow serves as a research resource for the staff by interpreting and communicating research materials as they relate to various areas of interest to the SEC. In addition, the Academic Fellow has been assigned to ongoing projects in the Division of Corporate Finance office, including rulemaking, researching financial reporting issues in connection with Division policy or program initiatives, and consultation with registrants on accounting and reporting matters. Professor Chavis will replace the current academic accounting fellow, Professor Thornton who will return to Queen's School of Business in Canada.