Do you remember your professors talking about their research in class? Quite a few former BBA and MAcc students heard those stories and were inspired to take the leap into academia by pursuing PhDs in accounting. Their journeys are a testament to the strength of our programs, and to the mentors who helped spark their interest in research, teaching and discovery.
Whether inspired by the complexity of audit, the impact of accounting in global markets or the potential for research to shape policy and practice, these alumni are carving out exciting careers as accounting scholars. Here are the stories of a few of the many graduates whose intellectual curiosity and academic ambition have taken them from the classrooms at Terry to PhD programs around the world — and on to the head of the class.
Sarah Bibler credits the introductory accounting class at Tull for sparking her interest in the field, and she completed her MAcc in 2016. “It seemed like a good fit,” she says. “Also, I liked the idea of auditing as a way to keep companies accountable.” Upon graduation, Bibler joined PwC in Atlanta as an auditor, and within a couple years moved to their Amsterdam office, gaining experience working in both countries on international audits.
As the Netherlands was now her home, she chose to pursue her PhD at Vrije University in Amsterdam and is in her fourth year of the program, where she serves as a teaching assistant for master’s accounting courses and works on her dissertation, which focuses on auditors and innovations and how this influences their judgements. Additionally, she is working on a paper with Margaret Christ and Tina Carpenter on how an innovation mindset can improve auditor fraud identification. This project received the Best Paper award at the 2023 EARnet conference.
“When I was a student at Tull, Tina was amazing,” says Bibler. “I really loved her forensic accounting class. I reached out to her when I was considering getting a PhD, and she eventually linked me to my supervisor in Amsterdam. Also, since I have been working with Margaret, she has become a huge mentor and role model.”
Bibler plans to finish her PhD this summer and has accepted a position as an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam starting in the fall.
Jesse Chan grew up amidst a series of accounting-related scandals like Enron, Worldcom and Arthur Andersen and was college-aged at the time of the 2008 financial crisis. “My thought was that accounting had to be pretty cool if it could be so integral to the collapse of these extremely large, well-known companies,” he says. “I wanted to understand why it was so important in each of these scenarios. I realized studying accounting would be the best way for me to understand how businesses operated.”
Chan applied at a variety of colleges and universities, public and private, but ultimately chose Tull, noting its reputation as “an extremely high-quality training ground for accounting.” After completing his MAcc in 2014, Chan spent several years as a consultant with McKinsey before pursuing a PhD at the McCombs School of Business and graduating in 2022. He is an assistant professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, teaching introduction to financial accounting.
“My research centers around two themes of emerging topics in accounting: how financial markets are assessing and incorporating information about firms’ environmental-related issues, particularly their exposure to climate change and climate-related policies, into their financial expectations; and gender-related issues in accounting labor settings,” says Chan. “It’s fascinating to see how accounting as a way of organization and thinking can help us understand firms’ activities and exposure to these emerging issues.”
Chan says John Campbell and Margaret Christ were particularly instrumental in his transition to a doctoral program and academia. “They both provided endless guidance, support and advice,” he says. “I’m so glad to have continued to stay in touch with them to be able to discuss research topics, career issues and teaching techniques. More broadly, all of my Tull faculty who were there for my undergraduate experience were instrumental in helping me develop as an accounting researcher, and for that I am incredibly grateful.”
“I was a pragmatic 18-year-old,” says Shannon Chen of her decision to pursue an accounting degree at Tull. “I didn’t know anything about business but knew the Terry College was one of the top programs at UGA and accounting was the most selective major, so that’s what I picked. I couldn’t be happier with my decision, many years later.” Chen completed her MAcc at Tull in 2009, and while she enjoyed her time working in public accounting, she felt a long-term career in academia would be most fulfilling. She completed her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin in 2017 and is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona teaching principles of federal taxation to undergraduate and graduate students.
She teamed up with Tull PhD alum Steve Utke on a research project that uses IRS data to explore the determinants of corporate organizational structure. “I was put in touch with Steve when I decided to apply to PhD programs, and he’s been a great source of wisdom ever since!”
At the University of Arizona, students selected Chen for the Dhaliwal-Reidy School of Accountancy Undergraduate Program Most Valuable Faculty Award and the Eller College Dean’s Council Outstanding Accounting Faculty Award. She says her UGA professors, particularly Tina Carpenter, are her inspirations in the classroom.
2014 Tull MAcc graduate Elizabeth Tori credits Steve Baginski’s financial statement analysis graduate class with sparking her interest in accounting academia. “He talked enthusiastically about his research on disclosure. I was surprised and intrigued by the research possibilities in the field and the implications for investors and regulators.”
Tori went on to earn her PhD at Texas A&M University in 2021 and teaches Accounting Ethics at Oklahoma State University. “I have begun researching disclosure in the private equity industry,” says Tori. “The industry has experienced rapid growth and is of interest to regulators, yet due to the inherent lack of publicly available information on private equity firms, there is much to learn about the role of disclosure in this space.”
The paper on this topic Tori co-authored with Rachel W. Flam and Lisa Tiplady received the London Business School Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital Research Grant and has been presented at a variety of conferences and workshops, including MIT and Stanford. Tori presented the paper at the 2024 Fox and Haskayne Accounting Research Conference in Philadelphia, the American Accounting Association’s Financial Accounting and Reporting Section Midyear in Atlanta, and at Auburn University.
“Steve was instrumental in guiding me through the decision to pursue a PhD and preparing for the application process,” says Tori. “He, along with John Campbell and Ted Christensen, helped me decide on a PhD program and have continued to be valuable resources as my academic career has progressed.”