Speakers
Bo S. Brault, RSM
Plenary: Industry Panel to Inform Accounting Curriculum for the Next Decade
Friday, November 8, 2019, 1:30 pm- 2:30 pm
Bo is an audit partner in St. Petersburg with nearly 15 years of experience in public accounting. She is primarily responsible for audits, reviews, and compilations for a wide range of clientele including nonprofit organizations, insurance underwriters, financial service providers, professional employer organizations, real estate and mortgage banking investment companies and other service providers, both publicly and privately held.
As a leader of the St. Petersburg office nonprofit industry team, Bo works with a wide variety of nonprofit organizations leading assurance teams in the preparation of financial statements, performance of audit fieldwork, review of results and supervision of staff on engagements. She also conducts and oversees federal and Florida single audits under OMB Circular A-133 and the Florida Single Audit Act.
Bo is also a member of the office’s insurance industry team, working with property & casualty and life insurance companies. She has experience assisting clients with both Yellow Book and Blue Book statutory annual filings. Her experience also includes planning, performing and supervising control testing, claims, annuities and investments for insurance companies.
Maureen Butler, Owner - Vistra Communications
Plenary: Industry Panel to Inform Accounting Curriculum for the Next Decade
Friday, November 8, 2019, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Maureen G. Butler, PhD, CPA is Executive Vice President of Business Strategy for Vistra Communications (Vistra), an integrated marketing communications agency providing communications and professional service solutions to corporate, government and nonprofit organizations. Since the founding of Vistra, Maureen has been instrumental in designing and developing the administrative operations of the company, previously serving as CFO.
A former U.S. Army Finance Officer, Maureen has worked in public accounting, corporate accounting, and academia, earning tenure at The University of Tampa (UT) prior to joining Vistra full time. She teaches nonprofit financial management at UT as an adjunct professor. Maureen started her academic career as an assistant professor of accounting at the University of South Florida.
Maureen’s experiences include consulting for-profit and nonprofit businesses, managing U.S. Treasury financial resources and military financial operations, publishing research in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Accounting Education, and the Journal of Accountancy, teaching undergraduate and graduate students, coordinating curriculum assessment programs and advising students on academic and career preparation.
Maureen received the AICPA Mark Chain/FSA Innovation in Graduate Teaching Award and the National Society for Experiential Education Certificate. She was also named The University of Tampa Sykes College of Business 2017 Graduate Faculty of the Year. Maureen is a former board member and former treasurer of the Nonprofit Leadership Center where she continues volunteering as an instructor. She also volunteers with Trinity Café, the Laundry Project and Mort Elementary School. Maureen is currently enrolled in Leadership Tampa, a leadership development program sponsored by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.
Maureen is a certified public accountant licensed in Virginia and Florida. She earned a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Arkansas and a Bachelor of Science in accounting, from Syracuse University.
Joni Wilson Ferguson
Plenary: Industry Panel to Inform Accounting Curriculum for the Next Decade
Friday, November 8, 2019, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Joni Ferguson is the founder of Leaders Amplify (a professional development organization) and a 15-year Cast Member with The Walt Disney Company. She is the senior leader for the company's sales incentive plans supporting Walt Disney World (FL), Disneyland (CA), Aulani Resort (HI), Disney Cruise Line, and Adventures by Disney. Her 20-year career has included corporate finance, financial auditing, project management, data analytics, consumer insights and time as an adjunct
professor.
Her organization, Leaders Amplify, creates workshops, group coaching and training sessions for organizations, conferences and universities to develop skills in leadership, data/finance, and problem solving. Her educational background includes degrees from The Florida State University in Accounting and Finance, and an MBA from the Crummer School of Management at Rollins College.
Martin Nash, Protiviti – Tampa
Plenary: Industry Panel to Inform Accounting Curriculum for the Next Decade
Friday, November 8, 2019, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Martin has over 18 years of experience in IT consulting and internal audit. Prior to joining Protiviti, Martin spent roughly 5 years within the PeopleSoft practice of another consulting company. There he participated in full life cycle implementations of PeopleSoft Financials and Human Capital Management at major Fortune 500 companies. At Protiviti, Martin leads the EAS practice for Florida and serves as the Firm’s Oracle and PeopleSoft SME for the US. Martin manages EAS related services focused on software selection, solution design, control optimization, pre and post-implementation reviews, sensitive access and segregation of duty reviews, security redesign, and project risk management activities related to new system implementations at Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, Martin manages audit and compliance services including Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance, General Computer Controls, ERP Audits, Internal Control Reviews, SDLC Reviews, and other IT Audits. Martin is currently on the board and finance committees for Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay.
French Taylor, KPMG
Plenary: Industry Panel to Inform Accounting Curriculum for the Next Decade
Friday, November 8, 2019, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
French Taylor is a Senior Lead Tax Partner in KPMG’s Business Tax Services practice. He currently serves as the National Service Line Leader for Business Tax Services. He previously served as West Region Leader for KPMG’s Tax Revenue Recognition, Section 199, and Tax Accounting Services Practice. During his tenure with KPMG, French spent three years in KPMG’s Washington National Tax (WNT) practice, where he worked in the Accounting Methods practice. In addition, he works extensively in the ASC740 practice as well as leading the outsourcing tax practice
Betsy Haywood-Sullivan, Rider University
Research 1.01: An Article Reviewing Exercise to Inform Your Own Manuscript Development…A Hands-on Activity
Friday, November 8, 2019, 2:45 pm – 4:15 pm
Betsy Haywood-Sullivan, Ph.D., CPA, CMA, CISA, is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Rider University. She teaches graduate and undergraduate managerial accounting courses as well as the accounting information systems course in the undergraduate program. Her research is primarily in the areas of managerial accounting, accounting information systems and accounting education. Her work has appeared in Issues in Accounting Education, Journal of Accounting Education, and Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and Curriculum Innovations. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the AIS Educator Journal. In 2005, she received the University Award for Distinguished Teaching. She has also been recognized as an Outstanding Student Advisor
Chelley Vician, University of St. Thomas
Research 1.01: An Article Reviewing Exercise to Inform Your Own Manuscript Development…A Hands-on Activity
Friday, November 8, 2019, 2:45 pm – 4:15 pm
Chelley Vician, PhD, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in information systems-related areas such as accounting information systems, business analytics, managerial accounting and focused learning opportunities related to SAP and analytics. She holds the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) credential, a globally recognized certification within the information systems audit, control, assurance and security profession. As faculty director of the undergraduate business analytics programs at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, she champions business analytics efforts at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Vician’s research focuses on how people interact with systems. In particular, she investigates why some people have more positive outcomes than others when using systems in various domains and environments. Specifically, she enjoys investigating human behavior within emerging collaborative systems that support decision-making, communication and education. Her research is published in DataBase, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Communications of the Association for Information Systems and IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, among others. She serves the academy as editor-in-chief for AIS Educator Journal and previously served as senior editor for DataBase and Associate Editor for Communications of the Association for Information Systems.
Ann C. Dzuranin, Northern Illinois University
Research 2.01: The How-to List…Types of Education Research by Award Winning Authors
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9:00 am – 10:40 am
Ann C. Dzuranin is the Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Analytics in Accounting at Northern Illinois University. She earned her B.S. from Fairleigh Dickinson University, her MBA from New York University, and her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. Ann is a CPA (NJ) with 15 years of experience in both public and corporate accounting. Ann conducts behavioral research in management accounting decision making and the ways in which accounting information systems interact with those decisions. Her publications include Issues in Accounting Education, Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Business Ethics, Management Accounting Quarterly, Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, and the Journal of Accounting Education. Ann received the 2018 American Accounting Association’s Innovation in Accounting Education Award for her work in data analytics curriculum development. Ann’s work in data analytics has resulted in invitations to present on Data Analytics and Accounting curriculum at both academic and professional conferences. Her presentations have reached over 2,000 people and her materials have been shared with more than 70 universities.
Karen W. Braun, Case Western Reserve University
Research 2.01: The How-to List…Types of Education Research by Award Winning Authors
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9:00 am – 10:40 am
Karen W. Braun, CPA, is a professor of accountancy at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio. By vote of the business students at CWRU, Karen has become a four-time recipient of the Weatherhead Undergraduate Teaching Award. Karen was also the 2016 recipient of the Bea Sanders/AICPA Teaching Innovation Award and named the 2017 Business Professional of the Year in the category of Education by Beta Alpha Psi (National). In 2018 she was named one of the Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors in the country by Poets & Quants. Karen co-authors Managerial Accounting, a textbook published by Pearson Education that is used at over 200 colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada. Her publications have appeared in Issues in Accounting Education, Journal of Accounting Education, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Strategic Finance. In the classroom, Karen’s teaching philosophy encourages students to think like businesspeople first and then focus on how managerial accounting can help solve business problems.
Pamela J. Schmidt, Washburn School of Business
Research 2.01: The How-to List…Types of Education Research by Award Winning Authors
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9:00 am – 10:40 am
Pamela J. Schmidt is on the faculty of the Washburn School of Business. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas, also holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. She received the 2016 American Accounting Association's TLC Section's Best Educational Case Award, and her student team was awarded the 2017 Midwest Region's Best Undergraduate Paper Award. In a prior academic position at Wayne State University, she was awarded the Sue Garr Innovative Teaching Award. Her teaching approach gives students exposure to business situations by incorporating simulation, active learning and interactions with the business community. She is a member of the AAA's Advisory Board for the annual Accounting IS Big Data Conference and serves on Washburn University's Advisory Committee for the Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning. Dr. Schmidt's research interests include Data Analytics, Enterprise Systems (ERP) knowledge acquisition, accounting information systems, IT controls and IT auditing. Her prior business experience includes positions of project manager and technical manager at AT&T Bell Labs, and as product manager at SBC/Ameritech in Chicago. At AT&T Bell Laboratories, she received the AT&T Transmission Systems President's Award for product design achievements.
Markus Ahrens, St. Louis Community College, Meramec
Teaching 2.02: The Changing Landscape of Accounting Education: Level Up Your Teaching Effectiveness with Technology
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9:00 am – 10:40 am
Markus Ahrens is a Professor of Accounting at STLCC and currently serves as Program Chair. Markus has received national awards for his teaching and his innovation in the classroom, including the 2019-AAA Innovation in Accounting Education Award, the 2018-MOCPA Outstanding Educator Award, the 2017-AAA-TYC Educator of the Year Award, the 2016-AAA/Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize, the AICPA-Bea Sanders Innovation Award and the Innovation of the Year awarded by the League for Innovation. Markus speaks throughout the country on effectively utilizing technology to engage students and he co-founded the free educator focused website TeachingandLearningToolbox.com. Furthermore, Markus serves on numerous accounting professional and educational boards/committees.
Cathy Scott, University of North Dallas
Teaching 2.02: The Changing Landscape of Accounting Education: Level Up Your Teaching Effectiveness with Technology
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 9:00 am – 10:40 am
Cathy Scott is an Associate Professor of Business Accounting at the University of North Texas - Dallas. She is passionate about improving accounting education and has published and spoken on numerous occasions about emerging technologies, effectively use of technology, improving online education, engaging students in active learning, data analytics and bridging the accounting education pipeline. Cathy is also the author of a career focused, College Accounting textbook, and the co-founder of the TeachingAndLearningToolbox.com, a website and blog that links technology to pedagogy as well as provides tips to successfully incorporate technology into courses. Cathy serves as the 2019 AAA TLC Midyear Meeting Colloquium Planning Committee Chair, TLC Treasurer, TLC Webmaster, AAA TYC President and is on the AAA Membership Committee. Cathy is also a proud recipient of the AAA Innovation in Education Award, the Bea Sanders/AICPA Teaching Innovative Award, the AAA/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize, the TBTEA Postsecondary Business Teacher of the Year Award, the TXCPA Outstanding Accounting Educator Award, the AAA TYC Educator of the Year Award, and Navarro College’s Teaching of Excellence Award.
Zach Webb, University of Arkansas
Research 3.01: Tackling Reviewer Comments…How to Manage Your Revise and Resubmit
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 11:00 am – 12;15 pm
Zach Webb, PhD, CPA, is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Patterson School of Accountancy at The University of Mississippi. Zach received his Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Arkansas. He has a Masters of Accountancy and Masters of Business Administration both from The University of Mississippi. His Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting is from the College of William and Mary. Zach’s research interests include auditing and governmental/non-profit accounting. His work has been published in Accounting Horizons, ATA's Journal of Legal Tax Research, Issues in Accounting Education, Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting, and the CPA Journal. Zach is a Certified Public Accountant in Mississippi. Prior to his doctoral studies, Zach served in both the audit and Total State Tax Solutions practices of Deloitte
Angela Wheeler Spencer, Oklahoma State University
Research 3.01: Tackling Reviewer Comments…How to Manage Your Revise and Resubmit
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 11:00 am – 12;15 pm
Angela Wheeler Spencer, PhD, CPA, is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Oklahoma State University where she holds the Lanny Chasteen Chair and Haskell Cudd Professorship. Angela joined the faculty at OSU in 2006 after completing her PhD at the University of Arkansas. She currently teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, including courses on financial accounting and accounting theory. She has supervised a number of honors theses and currently serves as the coordinator of the undergraduate accounting program at Oklahoma State. Her research interests primarily focus on issues related to financial reporting, including off-balance sheet items and disclosure. She has published work in both research publications, such as The Accounting Review, and practitioner-focused publications, such as The CPA Journal. She is also the recipient of teaching awards at the local and national levels. Angela maintains an active CPA license in both Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Ethan Kinory, Rutgers University Camden
Teaching 3.02: Blockchain: Bridging the Profession-Education Gap with Instructional Scaffolding
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 11:00 am – 12:15 pm
Ethan Kinory, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of accounting at Rutgers University Camden. His research interests include information systems, accounting standards, and financial reporting. Current research projects include implementation of blockchain curriculum in the classroom, and the state of blockchain development and implementation by businesses. He has presented on the topic of Blockchain at regional and national conferences. Dr. Kinory earned his Ph.D. at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). As a CPA (inactive), he has gained professional work experience in the fields of audit, tax, and financial planning.
Sean Stein Smith, Lehman College- CUNY
Teaching 3.02: Blockchain: Bridging the Profession-Education Gap with Instructional Scaffolding
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 11:00 am – 12:15 pm
Dr Sean Stein Smith is an assistant professor of Accounting in the Economics and Business Department at Lehman College. His research includes blockchain applications, cryptoassets – including but not limited to decentralized cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and other blockchain related applications. Additional areas of focus include robotic process automation and its impact on accounting, as well as how integrated financial reporting can change disclosure and reporting at various organizations. He has presented his work at dozens of national and international conferences, both practitioner and scholarly in nature, including the Annual Conference of the American Accounting Association on multiple occasions. Sean also serves on the Advisory Board of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, where he also leads the Accounting Working Group, focusing on the creation and dissemination of thought leadership connected to the blockchain and financial services space. He is also the chairperson on the New Jersey Society of CPAs Emerging Technology Interest Group, spearheading efforts and initiatives to more effectively integrate emerging technology tools into practice. Bringing this expertise to Lehman, and in addition to serving as a faculty liaison to the Freshman Year Initiative, Sean is in the process of developing a blockchain certificate project in conjunction with the School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies. Sean will be serving as the E.C. Harwood Visiting Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research during 2019, and has had books published, or that are in the publication process, at Taylor and Francis, Springer, and Palgrave-MacMillan.
Kimberly Swanson Church, University of Missouri Kansas City
Closing Session: The Gen Z Worldview
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Kimberly Swanson Church, Ph.D., is an accounting faculty member at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management, University of Missouri Kansas City. She has a Master's in AIS from Kansas State and a Ph.D. in AIS from the University of Arkansas. Dr. Church has received several national teaching awards including the Mark Chain/FSA Innovation in Graduate Teaching Award, the Jim Bulloch Award for Innovations in Management Accounting Education, the Bea Sanders/AICPA Innovation in Teaching Award Honorable Mention, a National AAA-TLC Best Education Paper award, several University Excellence in Teaching awards, as well as a University Favorite Faculty Member award voted by the Dean's Student Advisory Board. She is currently a member of the AICPA training team for the Accounting Pilot and Bridge Project (AICPA AP Accounting initiative) and coordinates an annual regional Accounting Educators' Seminar held at UMKC each spring.
Jeff Wright, Rockhurst University
Closing Session: The Gen Z Worldview
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Jeff Wright, CPA, joined the faculty of Rockhurst University in 2012 and teaches Financial, Managerial and Intermediate Accounting as well as Accounting Information Systems. He is also very actively involved in career and professional development with students at Rockhurst. Jeff spent the prior thirty years at Johnson County Community College as an Accounting Professor and now holds the title of Professor Emeritus there. Jeff's first teaching position was at the University of Kansas as an Associate Instructor of Accounting. Jeff also has diverse experience as a practitioner. He was a member of the audit staff at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell (KPMG) where he left as a Senior Accountant, was the first corporate controller for Beaver Creek Resort Company in Colorado and was a cost engineer/project auditor on the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Jeff is a CPA and has a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration and an M.B.A. from the University of Kansas. Jeff’s publications and presentations deal with engaging practitioners in academia and are geared towards promoting and supporting student leadership and excellence. Past presentations include Building a Successful Mentorship Program and Engaging Professional Practitioners to Enhance Accounting Programs. His most recent article details the Magis Leaders Program, an innovative practitioner approach to developing future leaders in the accounting profession and appears in the January 2018 Journal of Accountancy.