Pam Smith, KPMG Endowed Professor of the Department of Accountancy, has been designated as the first NIU College of Business faculty member to hold the title KPMG Endowed Professor. Smith joined the faculty of the NIU Department of Accountancy in 1994. She teaches advanced financial accounting at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. She has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, and in 2008 she received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Illinois CPA Society. Smith also was the catalyst behind the creation of the honor pledge and code of conduct for accountancy majors and was one of the primary authors of the NIU College of Business BELIEF initiative, which creates a framework to build ethics into all business classes. She has been the KPMG Professor (a term rather than endowed position) for the last five years. Previous holders of the KPMG Term Professorship at NIU were Donald Kieso and John Engstrom. The KPMG endowed professorship establishes an ongoing source of funding to support the teaching and scholarship of Smith. Endowed professorships are the highest form of faculty honor and live on into perpetuity within the honored college. The KPMG Endowed Professorship represents the first-ever endowed professorship at NIU.
Rick Ridnour, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Professor of Sales, promotes video-taping of classroom role-playing lessons. More >>
Sally Webber, formerly HSBC Professor of Accountancy, was one of three women from the faculty and staff ranks to be honored by the NIU Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Webber received the honor before her passing in 2008. The NIU Presidential Commission gave Webber the 2008 NIU Outstanding Mentor designation for her tireless commitment over the years to mentoring students and fellow faculty members. Webber had been an NIU business faculty member for nine years and was also an alumnus of the business college, having earned both a B.S. in Accountancy and an M.A.S. in Accountancy. Because of her experiences in the university as both a student and a faculty member, Webber possessed a unique insight into the NIU culture and educational environment that proved to be invaluable to both students and faculty. A much beloved colleague, friend, and mentor, Webber was also an accomplished scholar-teacher whose intellectual contributions were highly respected. More >>
Nancy L. Russo was named the Pavlović Professor of Information Systems in 2008. The sponsors are Mike and Mira Pavlović. There are currently 18 named professorships/ fellowships held by College of Business faculty.
Dan Weilbaker, McKesson Pharmaceutical Group Professor of Sales in the Marketing Department, was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the Professional Society for Sales and Marketing Training (SMT) (2008). The SMT is the only association that is dedicated exclusively to improving sales and marketing performance through training, thereby accelerating overall business results. SMT's membership consists of corporate sales trainers as well as consultants who do sales training. Weilbaker is the only academic member seated on the board. Other board members include corporate presidents and senior-level executives. Along with his academic duties, Weilbaker also directs the NIU College of Business Professional Sales Program, which has the distinction of being the first collegiate program ever accredited by the SMT. The college's Professional Sales Program was also named one of 15 "incubators for greatness" by Selling Power Magazine.
NIU faculty from four colleges, including the university's business college, are collaborating together to create an interdisciplinary approach to certain aspects of health care education. This interdisciplinary approach would touch upon a number of issues that are pulling at a rapidly-evolving healthcare industry. The issues run the gamut from new technologies in the health industry and greater expectations for quality control and regulation, changes in the physician-hospital relationship, to evolving health-benefit structures and integrated electronic patient records, among many others. Currently, the NIU faculty members are surveying healthcare executives nationwide to learn their changing education needs. The outcome from this effort could lead to new certificate programs in healthcare or a new interdisciplinary degree in the healthcare field. NIU faculty members involved in this high-profile university initiative are: Kathleen McFadden, professor of operations in the Operations Management & Information Systems in the College of Business; Donna Munroe, professor of nursing in the College of Health and Human Sciences; Gary Chen, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology; and, Jay Naftgzer, visiting associate professor in the College of Law and former vice president of legal services for Well-Point, Inc., in Chicago. The NIU Healthcare Policy and Management Initiative was created through a six-figure investment made by Board of Trustees Chair Cherilyn Murer and her husband Michael Murer (2007). See "Health Execs Surveyed on Education Needs...NIU Initiative to Address Changing Needs in Health Care Industry."
Professor Chih-Chen Lee was named the recipient of the Michael and Patricia Strachan Professorship (2007). Michael Strachan is a 1976 ACCY alumnus and is currently the Pacific Northwest Area Managing Partner for Ernst & Young (managing E&Y's offices in northern California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and Washington). Mike was selected as one of the outstanding accountancy alums in 2003. Besides the professorship, Mike and Tricia made a substantial financial commitment to the Accountancy Department in 2003 – establishing an endowed scholarship fund and providing continuing support to the Department via the Ernst & Young Excellence Fund.
Professor Rebecca Shortridge was named the recipient of the Gaylen and Joanne Larson Professorship (2007). Gaylen is a 1962 ACCY alumnus, was a partner with Deloitte, chief accounting officer for Household International (where he was instrumental in establishing what is now the HSBC Professorship in the Accountancy Department) and then served on Financial Accounting Standards Board before his retirement. He was selected as an outstanding accountancy alumnus in 1988 and Gaylen continues his dedication to the Department through his efforts on the Advisory Council. The Larsons pledged one million dollars to NIU via the True North drive, which will go to student scholarships and international study abroad initiatives.
Charles Downing – of the college's Operations Management & Information Systems Department (OM&IS) – has been named the Wal-Mart Professor in Enterprise Technology Innovation (2007). Wal-Mart has partnered with the OM&IS Department because of its strong academic program that combines information systems with the operations management function, unusual in an undergraduate program. As part of its relationship with the NIU College of Business, Wal-Mart also committed resources to fund Experiential Learning Center projects, under Professor Downing's facilitation, for the next 5 semesters.
Douglas Clinton, Professor of Accountancy and Alta Via Consulting Professorship was named the Burge Family Faculty Fellow in Fall 2007.