Speakers

Travis Holt, Academic Fellow, KPMG
Friday, October 8, 2021, 12:00 pm–1:30 pm
Challenges and Opportunities in Behavioral Accounting Research

Travis Holt is an associate professor in the School of Accountancy in the Harbert College of Business. Holt is currently on a two-year academic fellowship serving as Director of Academic Research at KPMG's Global Solutions Group in New Jersey. In his role with the firm, he oversees academic research initiatives and serves on the global audit methodology implementation team.

Holt's current research focuses on governance transparency, auditor independence, and investor judgment and decision-making. His research has been published in a number of academic journals including Accounting Horizons, Accounting, Organizations, and Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Behavioral Research in Accounting, International Journal of Auditing, and Journal of Information Systems. He has also published articles in practitioner journals such as Internal Auditing, The CPA Journal, and The RMA Journal. Recognitions of Holt’s research include the receipt of a highly-competitive research grant from KPMG LLP and selections to present his research nationally and internationally.

Holt was previously on the faculty at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has taught courses in accounting information systems, auditing, and financial accounting.

Holt is a licensed CPA (Alabama) and worked for KPMG LLP before entering academia. Holt’s professional activities include membership in the Alabama Society of CPAs, the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Lisa Koonce, Deloitte Chair in Accounting, University of Texas at Austin
Friday, October 8, 2021, 12:00 pm–1:30 pm
Challenges and Opportunities in Behavioral Accounting Research

Dr. Koonce’s teaching interests are financial accounting and judgment and decision making in accounting. She teaches graduate and undergraduate Topics in Financial Reporting and Intermediate Accounting; additionally, she teaches a Behavioral PhD Seminar in Accounting. Prior to joining The University of Texas in 1990, she was a Senior In-Charge Auditor at Touche Ross & Company in Chicago, Illinois.

Koonce is a prolific financial accounting researcher, with more than 20 articles published in major academic journals. In 1993, she changed her research direction from auditing to financial accounting, mainly because she wanted to know the answers to the many questions her students had raised in class. Consequently, her research informs both the accounting discipline as a whole and her teaching.

Since joining the McCombs School of Business, she has earned a number of awards, including the prestigious University of Texas Texas Ex’s Teaching Award in 2013, the System Regents’ Teaching Award in 2009, and the University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 2007. She has been consistently elected to the McCombs MBA Program Faculty Honor Roll since 2000.

Nick Seybert, University of Maryland
Friday, October 8, 2021, 12:00 pm–1:30 pm
Challenges and Opportunities in Behavioral Accounting Research

Nick Seybert received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He conducts experimental and archival research in financial accounting with a focus on manager personality traits as well as on investors’ and managers’ decision-making biases. His research has been published in leading journals, including the Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Management Science, Review of Accounting Studies, and Accounting, Organizations and Society. Prior to joining the Smith School, he was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business.

David A. Wood, Brigham Young University
Friday, October 8, 2021, 12:00 pm–1:30 pm
Challenges and Opportunities in Behavioral Accounting Research

David A. Wood is passionate about understanding new technologies and implementing them into the curriculum of Brigham Young University (BYU), where he is the Glenn D. Ardis Professor and the Andersen Fellow. Dr. Wood received his Ph.D. at Indiana University and his B.S. and MAcc degrees at BYU. At BYU, he teaches accounting data analytics and accounting information systems. Dr. Wood has published nearly 100 articles in a combination of academic and practitioner journals, monographs, books, and education cases. His research has won multiple best paper awards. He is an editor at three journals and on the editorial board for six journals. He is the former chair of the Accounting Information Systems (AIS) section of the AAA. He is married to the former Cindy Lunt, and they have four children, Jessica, Bryan, Derek, and Emily. In addition to technology, Dr. Wood enjoys spending time with family, being outdoors, and woodworking.