AAA Innovation in Accounting Education Award
Thank you to the Ernst & Young Foundation for generously supporting the Innovation in Accounting Education Award!
Call for Nominations and Award Criteria
Nominations Deadline: January 31 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time
The Innovation in Accounting Education Award Committee is currently accepting nominations for the 2025 Innovation in Accounting Education Award.
Award Intent
- The award is intended to encourage innovation and improvement in accounting education.
- Further, it recognizes significant programmatic changes or a significant activity, concept, or set of educational materials.
- The recipient may be an individual, a group of individuals, or an institution.
- To be considered for the award, at least one individual must be a member of the American Accounting Association.
- Normally, this award is given in recognition of a single-item initiative, which could have been developed and implemented over a several-year period.
Award Selection Criteria
The primary criteria used to judge nominations include:
- Innovation (for purposes of this award, an educational innovation is something new or different that will spur interest in the study of accounting or that will improve the effectiveness of accounting education. The innovation aspect must be something that allows for instruction and learning to take a path different from the usual/traditional.)
- Demonstrated educational benefits, value, or impact (i.e., evidence of the educational merit of the innovation); and
- Adaptability by other educational institutions or to other situations (thus, the quality of a nomination is enhanced to the extent that the innovation has been adopted elsewhere)
Instructions for Submitting Nominations
- Any person or group may make nominations.
- Self-nominations are encouraged.
- Members of the committee are encouraged to solicit and submit nominations.
- Current committee members who are nominated for the award will be asked to either recuse themselves from the committee or remove their nomination from consideration.
- Beginning with the 2025 submissions, nominations may include work that was not selected for the award in a prior year, as long as the eligibility requirements continue to be met.
- Eligible nominations will not automatically roll-forward to the following year, although the award committee has the option to recommend eligible nominations be rolled forward. The nominator will be informed of the nomination status at the completion of the award cycle, and updates to the nomination letter are encouraged even for nominations that are selected to be rolled forward.
- Adequate materials must be submitted so that the Innovation in Accounting Education Award Committee can make an assessment on the three dimensions listed above in "Award Criteria."
- Please see nomination packet and additional information (Zip file) from recipients of 2024 Innovation in Accounting Education Award - A. Faye Borthick and Lucia M. Smeal - who granted permission for their nomination information to be posted for the purpose of assisting future nominators.
- The nomination packet should include the following:
- A nomination letter. Nomination letters will be accepted for two days after the submission deadline. If a nomination letter is not received, then the nomination will not be evaluated.
- The nomination letter must include a statement indicating which individual(s) being nominated is a member of the American Accounting Association. To be considered for the award, at least one individual must be a member of the American Accounting Association, and
- A 200-word summary of the activity, concept, or materials, and
- A detailed statement, not to exceed six (6) pages (double-spaced), in Word or PDF format, which responds to the three dimensions listed above in "Award Criteria".
- Nomination letters should be organized by sections that correspond to the applicable criteria and successful nominees will excel in multiple criteria.
- Each nomination can be accompanied by:
- No more than five (5) attachments (tables of data/implementation results, DVDs, CDs, letters of support, results of adaptations at other institutions or settings, books, monographs, PowerPoint slides, etc.).
- Please attach the nomination letter and material to an email and send to Barbara Gutierrez, Professional Staff Liaison, at awards@aaahq.org with "Innovation in Accounting Education Award" in the subject line of your email.
- Upon receipt of your nomination you will receive an acknowledgment message from Barbara Gutierrez, Professional Staff Liaison.
- All documents submitted in support of your nomination become the property of the American Accounting Association.
- Deadline: January 31st (11:59 pm Eastern Time)
Award Presentation
- The recipient(s) will receive an award and $5,000 at the AAA Annual Meeting. If multiple recipients, the amount is divided equally.
- The recipient(s) will be announced on the AAA website and in multi-topic mass emails.
- The award recipient's innovation will be eligible for publication in Issues in Accounting Education as a scholarly article, subject to the normal manuscript review process and acceptance of a suitable manuscript by the editor of the journal.
- The selected recipient(s) will be invited to present their innovation at a 90-minute concurrent session during the Annual Meeting, to be moderated by the Chair of the Committee.