Welcome from the AAA President, Anne Christensen
It is a pleasure and honor to invite each of you to the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association in National Harbor, Maryland just outside Washington, DC. This year’s meeting theme, “Pathways to a Sustainable Future,” focuses on how we can advance our research and teaching and move forward as thought leaders in accounting despite our environment being continuously disrupted by rapidly changing technology, expanding data sources, and increasing concerns about information security. In addition, this theme recognizes that a sustainable future requires that the academy, profession, and society build strong ties with each other. As we work together with our global communities, we can integrate accounting research and teaching more fully with practice to insure our work is relevant not just today, but tomorrow as well. The annual meeting also offers many opportunities to network with leading researchers, educators, and professionals along with friends, colleagues, sponsors, and exhibitors.
Pre-meeting activities begin on Friday, August 3, with the Transformative Technologies Workshop and continue with a variety of sessions and workshops on Saturday and Sunday including the Conference on Teaching and Learning before the meeting officially gets underway on Monday, August 6.
The plenaries and concurrent sessions will take place from Monday morning, August 6, through the evening of Wednesday, August 8, and will feature an array of discussions, panels, and events. The Monday morning plenary will feature Bruce Mau, who is the Chief Design Officer of Freeman, as well as the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Massive Change Network (MCN), a global design consultancy based in the Chicago area.
The 2018 Presidential Scholars, Christine Botosan and Lillian Mills, will be the speakers at the Tuesday morning plenary session. Christine Botosan is a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and she was a professor at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah prior to joining the FASB. She served as president of the AAA from 2014-2015 and is the recipient of research awards for excellence including the AAA Competitive Manuscript Award and the AAA Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award. Lillian Mills is the Beverly H. and William P. O’Hara Chair in Business in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. She has served as the Stanley Surrey Senior Research Fellow at the Office of Tax Analysis for the U.S. Department of Treasury and is a consultant on corporate tax compliance issues for the Large Business & International division of IRS Research. She is the recipient of research and teaching awards including the AAA Deloitte Wildman Award and the Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award.
The Tuesday luncheon speaker will be Don Reed, an acclaimed actor, writer, producer, director, and comedian who has performed at top clubs, universities, and businesses, and has been seen on Comedy Central, NBC, CBS, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. In 2016 he won an award from Snap Judgment for NPR/WNYC Performance of the Year.
Wednesday’s plenary will feature Richard Howitt, CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council, and Baruch Lev, author and the Philip Bardes Professor of Accounting and Finance at New York University Stern School of Business. Marc Rubin, the AAA’s 2017-2018 President-Elect, will be our featured Wednesday luncheon speaker.
In addition to the exciting above-listed plenary and lunch speakers, the concurrent sessions during the Annual Meeting will include some thought-provoking At-Large panel sessions, which we hope you will be able to attend. The meeting will also feature the fifth annual Global Emerging Scholars Research Workshop, which will be held on Sunday, and the Faculty-Student Collaborations in Accounting (FASTCA-18), which will be held on Wednesday.
The AAA will once again be partnering with ShelterBox USA, an international disaster relief charity, for our Service Project. ShelterBox provides emergency shelter and aid to people affected by hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and other disasters throughout the world. Donations to this worthy cause can be made with your AAA registration or in person at the Service Project desk at the Annual Meeting.
The Annual Meeting is a major undertaking from a content and logistics standpoint that would not be possible without the incredible efforts of our member volunteers and the AAA professional staff. I would like to thank each of the section-sponsored concurrent session teams along with, our Education Chairs, Cassy Budd (Brigham Young University), Jeff Lark (University of Georgia), and Cathy Scott (Navarro College); CTLA Chairs, Billie Cunningham (University of Missouri-Columbia) and Gail Hoover King (Purdue University Northwest); Ethics Research Symposium Chairs, Tara Sawver (King’s College), William F. Miller (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and Joan Lee (Fairfield University), FASTCA Chair, Marsha Huber (Youngstown State University), and Global Emerging Scholars Research Workshop Chairs, Wayne Landsman (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) and Recep Pekdemir (Istanbul University) for all the time and effort they have invested in creating a terrific Annual Meeting. I also appreciate the tireless efforts of the AAA professional staff in Sarasota, who coordinate and insure all aspects of the meeting run smoothly.
Whether you are interested in insightful academic accounting research, dynamic new teaching methods, or developing a deeper understanding of the forces shaping the accounting profession and business world, the 2018 Annual Meeting will offer numerous opportunities to develop your knowledge, collaborate, and build connections with new and old friends.
I look forward to seeing you in National Harbor as we work together to build, "Sustainable Pathways to the Future."