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Faculty News & Accomplishments

• Professor Emeritus Don Kieso Honored by 10 Former Students and Friends (June 2013)
  Ten former students of Northern Illinois University's nationally respected accounting program -- along with their spouses -- have joined together to raise more than $1 million to create the Donald E. Kieso Endowed Chair in Accountancy at NIU. Kieso, a member of the faculty at NIU from 1963 until 1992, currently holds the title of Peat Marwick Emeritus Professor in the NIU College of Business. During his career he taught thousands of NIU students and helped build the program to national prominence. Under his leadership, in 1985, the program's graduates achieved the top pass rate in the nation on the CPA Exam, and have continued to place in the top 25 almost every year since. In addition to teaching students at NIU and nurturing their careers, Kieso also wrote an intermediate accounting textbook (co-authored by his former student Jerry Weygandt) which is now in its 14th edition, has been a top seller for more than two decades and is used in accounting classes across the globe. Kieso also is credited with developing one of the first accountancy internship programs in the country. During his time at NIU, he helped more than 600 students land internships, which many of those alumni credit with launching their professional careers. Such devotion to student success made an impact on those he taught and those who worked alongside of him.


• Deloitte Professor of Accounting Receives Prestigious National Accounting Award (May 2013)
  The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) named NIU Deloitte Professor of Accounting Dr. Donald Tidrick a recipient of the 2013 Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award. Presented since 1985, the award recognizes full-time college accounting professors who excel as educators and who have achieved national prominence in the accounting profession. Tidrick is honored for his long-standing dedication to innovate in the classroom while remaining committed to the core values of the accounting profession. Within the profession, he is one of two accounting professors to serve since 2004 on the Comptroller General of the United States' Educators Advisory Panel. Tidrick has also served on the Illinois Society of CPAs Ethics Committee as well as the Editorial Board for the Texas Society of CPAs membership publication Today's CPA. more...


• University Recognizes Director of College of Business BELIEF Initiative (April 2013)
  NIU's Unity in Diversity committee awards the college's BELIEF Director, Dr. Bill McCoy, the "Commitment to Diversity" designation for 2013. The committee exists to recognize and coordinate the university's diversity events and related programs. This award specifically recognizes groups or individuals who have shown an outstanding acknowledgment, education, and/or celebration relative to diversity at NIU during the 2012-13 academic year. To find out more about Dr. Bill McCoy and the BELIEF Initiative go to www.cob.niu.edu/belief/.


• Illinois CPA Society Recognize Outstanding Faculty (April 2013)
  Tim West, Associate Professor of Accountancy for the NIU College of Business, received the Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator award for 2013. Each year, the Illinois CPA Society honors educators who make "...continuous and outstanding contributions to the education of accounting students." NIU's Department of Accountancy enjoys a strong history over the years of receiving this honor. Recent honorees from the college's Department of Accountancy include Jim Young (2012), Donald Tidrick (2010) and Pam Smith (2008).


• OM&IS Professor receives the 2013 Deacon Davis Diversity Award (April 15, 2013)
  Dr. Nancy Russo, Professor of Operations Management & Information Systems, has been named a recipient of the 2013 Deacon Davis Diversity Award. The award was created to recognize the significant contributions made to the improvement of the status of minorities on campus by members of the university community. In describing her contributions, Russo's nominator said she "demonstrates teaching excellence as she shows her students the types of diversity they may encounter after they graduate and begin their careers." more...


• Two NIU Marketing Professors win Overall Best Paper at National Sales Conference (April 6, 2013)
  White Lodging Professor of Sales and Associate Professor of Marketing Robert Peterson and his co-author Assistant Professor of Marketing Mark Groza won the "Pearson Best Paper Award" given to the overall best paper submitted to the 2013 National Conference in Sales Management. Their award-winning paper is entitled, "Encouraging the Sales Force to Leverage Social Media." The National Conference in Sales Management is the nation's preeminent academic sales conference. NCSM brings together sales researchers and educators from around the world.


• NIU Business Dean wins the Prestigious 2013 Wilma Stricklin Award (March 2013)
  Dean and Marketing Professor Denise Schoenbachler was selected in 2013 to win the university's prestigious Wilma Stricklin Award. The Wilma Stricklin Award is given to an NIU affiliated individual who has made lasting changes university-wide to improve the NIU campus and make it a better place for women. The Wilma Stricklin Award was named after Dr. Wilma Stricklin, who arrived at NIU in 1976 as the Chair of the Department of Management. During her NIU career, Dr. Stricklin held many leadership roles, including that of Associate Dean of the College of Business as well as Acting Vice President and Provost of the university, among others. Shortly after her arrival on campus, she was asked to chair a committee that was charged with reviewing the Title IX program in intercollegiate athletics. The committee's work culminated in the "Stricklin Report," which established the structure that eventually brought men's and women's athletics together at NIU. Later in her career, Dr. Stricklin chaired a task force that was instrumental in establishing NIU's Office of University Resources for Women (known today as NIU's Women's Resource Center). While serving as Acting Vice President and Provost, Dr. Stricklin oversaw the integration of the then newly-formed College of Law into the overall university. The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women was established in 1981 and elected Dr. Stricklin as its first chair. The impact of Dr. Stricklin's efforts continues to be felt to this very day, with women following the path she blazed to create genuine change and to improve the lives of all women university-wide. The selection of Dr. Stricklin as this award's namesake was the unanimous choice of the Commission members. Dr. Stricklin was described as a member of the pathfinder generation of women at the university. She took it as an obligation to make the way easier for those who follow. Receiving this award is a very high honor; recipients uphold the values and actions of fairness, equality, and support that Dr. Stricklin gave life to all those years ago.


• NIU Associate Professor of Marketing wins Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (March 2013)
  Associate Professor of Marketing Tim Aurand won the university's 2013 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Recipients of this award are among the most outstanding scholars-teachers university-wide. The award honors excellent undergraduate teaching in the university, encourages the improvement of instruction and promotes discussion among university members on the subject of teaching. NIU's College of Business has a strong tradition of winners in this category. This year, congratulations go to Dr. Aurand on a well-deserved win! The Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award is given by the university's Committee on the Improvement of Undergraduate Education.


• OM&IS Chair Earns the 2012 Citation of Excellence, one of the Highest Accolades for Research (February 2013)
  Chang Liu, chair of Operations Management & Information Systems, and his co-authors received the 2012 Citation of Excellence designation from Emerald. Their research paper was identified as one of the top 50 management, business, economics articles worldwide of 2008 by the Emerald Management Reviews Judging Panel. The research work is entitled "Determinants of accepting wireless mobile data services in China" and was published in Information & Management. Chang Liu's coauthors are June Lu, Chun-Sheng Yu and Kanliang Wang. Emerald Management Reviews is a vast database of 300,000+ article abstracts from the top 300 management publications worldwide. Receiving a Citation of Excellence is an extraordinary achievement and represents one of the highest accolades that an author can achieve.


• The Bill and Paula LeRoy Professor of Social Entrepreneurship (December 2012)
  Christine Mooney, Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, has been named the Bill and Paula LeRoy Professor of Social Entrepreneurship. NIU College of Business alumnus Bill LeRoy and NIU College of Education alumnus Paula LeRoy support NIU's College of Business, its faculty, and social entrepreneurship program and have generously funded this term professorship in the Department of Management.


• Assistant Finance Professor earns 2012 JMAR Best Paper Award (November 2012)
  Sukesh Patro, Assistant Professor of Finance, and his co-authors received the 2012 best paper award from the Journal of Management Accounting Research (JMAR). The JMAR Best Paper Award is presented annually to the JMAR paper deemed to have the greatest potential impact on management accounting research; papers published within the last three years are eligible. Patro's co-authored research was published in 2010 and is entitled "Nonfinancial Performance Measures and Physician Compensation."


• Assistant Management Professor invited to keynote HR conferences in the Netherlands (November 2012)
  NIU Assistant Professor of Management Don Kluemper -- whose research on Facebook and future job success received worldwide media coverage in early 2012 -- was invited to Amsterdam to give two research talks to both academics and human resource practitioners. The first presentation focused on self- and other-rated personality in employment selection and served as the keynote presentation to academics at the Dutch-Flemish Network for Recruitment and Selection Research. The second presentation focused on social network screening and was the keynote presentation attended by both academics and practitioners at a seminar entitled "Modern Assessment 2012: Co-creation in the cloud?" hosted by the Dutch Foundation for Psychological Aptitude-Testing Apparatus.


• 2012 Innovation in Education Designation (September 2012)
  Rob Peterson, Whitelodging Professor of Sales and Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing, won the 2012 Innovation in Education designation from the Mid American Innovation in Education Competition. His first-place project is entitled: "Building Student Networks with LinkedIn: The Potential for Alumni Connections, Internships, and Jobs."


• Named Professorship (September 2012)
  Tim West, Associate Professor in the Department of Accountancy, has been named the Grant Thornton Professor of Accountancy. Grant Thornton partners teamed up to fund this professorship.


• Department of Accountancy awards over $460,000 in merit-based scholarships (September 2012)
  At the beginning of the Fall 2012 semester, the college's Department of Accountancy held its 40th annual awards banquet for outstanding seniors and graduate students. Over 430 people attended the awards program -- the longest running of its kind on the NIU campus. This year, the Department awarded over $460,000 in merit-based financial support to almost 200 students. More than 80 firms, alumni, and friends of the Department participated as scholarship sponsors. The Department of Accountancy's scholarship initiative has seen tremendous growth in recent years, helping the Department towards its ultimate goal of awarding a scholarship to every exceptional NIU accountancy student. The Department of Accountancy and the NIU College of Business are grateful to all the sponsors and students for their commitment to academic excellence in NIU's accountancy program. For more information on how to assist the Department of Accountancy with these scholarships, please contact Accountancy Chair and Crowe Horwath Professor in Accountancy Jim Young at jyoung@niu.edu.


• Deloitte Professor in Accounting named national outstanding faculty advisor (May 2012)
  NIU accountancy faculty member Don Tidrick was selected by Beta Alpha Psi as one of five national outstanding faculty advisors. Tidrick is the Deloitte Professor in Accounting within the college's Department of Accountancy. Beta Alpha Psi is a prestigious international honorary organization for financial information professionals with nearly 300 collegiate chapters.


• NIU Business Dean elected to international honor society Board of Governors (May 2012)
  Denise Schoenbachler, Dean of the NIU College of Business, was elected to the Board of Governors for the international honor society Beta Gamma Sigma. Dean of the NIU College of Business since 2006, Schoenbachler's academic and professional affiliations also include the AACSB Initial Accreditation Committee, Women Administrators in Management Education, AASCU Affinity Group and the National Association of Professional Women. Her newly-appointed tenure on the Beta Gamma Sigma board begins July 1, 2012. Now in its Centennial year during 2012-2013, Beta Gamma Sigma continues to serve business programs accredited by AACSB International, has established over 500 collegiate chapters on six continents, and has inducted more than 690,000 outstanding students into membership.


• Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator Designation (April 2012)
  Jim Young, chair of the Department of Accountancy and the Crowe Horwath Professor of Accountancy, received the prestigious 2012 Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator award. Each year, the Illinois CPA Society honors educators who make "...continuous and outstanding contributions to the education of accounting students." NIU's Department of Accountancy enjoys a strong history over the years of receiving this honor. Past honorees in this decade from the college's Department of Accountancy include Donald Tidrick (2010) and Pam Smith (2008).


• Best paper designation awarded for research on cultural diversity in services marketing (April 2012)
  Assistant Professor of Marketing Mark Rosenbaum and NIU sociology graduate Ioana Moraru won the "2012 MEA Best Paper" award at the Marketing Educators' Association 2012 annual conference. Their paper -- "Bringing Cultural Diversity into a Service Marketing Course" -- provides service marketing and retailing educators with a cultural diversity exercise to help students understand the full set of implications surrounding not only the dynamics of the retailer-customer service exchange but as importantly how customer-to-customer perceptions impact service quality in a retail setting. Their work "...offers educators an easy-to-implement, active learning exercise that shows students how many consumers actually fail to obtain quality service in the marketplace." Their co-conducted research illustrates again the practice of NIU professors and students collaborating together on leading projects. Additionally, their research topic was inspired by Rosenbaum's role on the university's Multicultural Curriculum Transformation Committee.


• Management professor earns Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (Spring 2012)
  Management professor Terry Bishop made the short list of university professors honored for scholarly and/or teaching excellence. Bishop was one of three NIU professors to receive the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Bishop's expertise and interest are in human resource management. He coordinates the HR academic area in the college's Department of Management and teaches courses in human resource planning and staffing, training and development course in the undergraduate program and corporate social responsibility and management in the evening and Executive MBA programs. As faculty advisor for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), he has led the NIU SHRM chapter to numerous awards over the last decade, and in 2000, he was recognized as the SHRM National Advisor of the Year. Additionally, Bishop played a key role in working with colleagues to develop a college-level academic initiative, the BELIEF initiative, which integrates ethics across the business curriculum and has ranked among the very best business ethics education in the country.


• Finance professor named a 2012 Presidential Teaching Professor (Spring 2012)
  Finance professor James Johnson earned the 2012 Presidential Teaching Professor designation in recognition for his commitment to outstanding teaching. The Presidential Teaching Professor designation is an annual and highly prestigious award that recognizes university faculty who excel in the field of teaching. During his tenure at NIU, Johnson has taught at all levels in the college from the undergraduate level, the MBA level, to the Experiential Learning Center where he served as a faculty coach. In that capacity, Johnson guided student teams that worked to solve real business issues experienced in actual companies. Johnson's other awards for outstanding teaching include the Golden Apple Teaching Award for the Executive MBA and Professional MBA programs which he has received multiple times over the years.


• Endowed scholarship created in name of current sales professor (Spring 2012)
  An anonymous donor created an endowed scholarship to embody the spirit and character of Rick Ridnour, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Professor of Sales. Among the requirements applicants must fulfill, scholarship candidates must portray two essential values: citizenship and service. Their behavior should demonstrate a caring and conscientious approach toward fellow students and faculty. Some examples include showing a deep regard and respect toward others, and demonstrating a high degree of professionalism, integrity, leadership, and ethical values.


• NIU Marketing Associate Professor Earns White Lodging Professorship (Spring 2012)
  Robert Peterson, in the college's Department of Marketing, was named the White Lodging Professor of Professional Sales. Peterson is a multiple award-winning professor who has been recognized for his contributions to marketing and sales education. His awards include, among others: American Marketing Association (AMA) Innovative Teacher Award (2002); Innovative Sales Educator Award (2006) from the University Sales Center Alliance; Hormel Meritorious Teaching Award (2010) from the Marketing Management Association; and, Excellence in Teaching Award (2011) from the Sales Special Interest Group of the AMA. The White Lodging Professorship supports the advancement of research, teaching and program development in the field of professional sales. White Lodging is a fully integrated hotel ownership, development and operations company with a portfolio that consists of over 158 hotels in 20 states.


• Associate marketing professor named editor-in-chief of the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing (January 2012)
  In January 2012, the NIU College of Business associate professor of interactive marketing Debra Zahay took on the post of editor-in-chief of the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing. Zahay holds a doctorate in marketing from the University of Illinois, a master of management from Northwestern University, a juris doctor from Loyola University and an undergraduate degree from Washington University. Zahay's research focus explores how firms can facilitate customer relationships, particularly using customer information. Some current and recent research topics include customer information management for competitive advantage, information use in new product development and particularly crowd-sourcing, data warehousing in CRM environments, email personalization and other aspects of interactive marketing. Some of the journals in which Zahay has been published include Journal of Product Innovation Management, Decision Sciences, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Journal of Database Marketing, and in the working paper series for the Marketing Science Institute. Additionally, she has presented her work at many academic and practitioner conferences. Prior teaching experiences include positions at North Carolina State University and DePaul University, respectively. Since 1993, Zahay has been president of a database and relationship management consulting firm that she founded and where she gained extensive experience helping companies identify and develop customer relationships. Her prior business experience includes senior marketing management responsibilities at MCI Telecommunications and Dun & Bradstreet. Additionally, Zahay has also served as a vice president on the Executive Board of the Chicago American Marketing Association and currently serves on the Board of the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing.


• Goodwill and NIU Business partnership to provide free tax services for local low-income residents (Spring 2012)
  Goodwill Industries announced a partnership with the NIU College of Business and the DeKalb County CA$H (Creating Assets, Savings and Hope) Coalition that will allow low-income residents to have their taxes prepared free of charge by more than 30 NIU College of Business accountancy students who have volunteered to participate. The free tax service will be available from noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays starting Jan. 26 at the Goodwill store located at 1037 S. Annie Glidden Road. DeKalb area residents earning less than $25,000 a year and families with an income less than $50,000 qualify for the service. "We have a situation where we have accounting students who want the experience with tax preparation to hone their skills, to develop good client service skills, to develop communication skills and their critical thinking skills," said Denise Schoenbachler, dean of the NIU College of Business. "And we have a community with need. It's a beautiful partnership for us."


• Holiday season food drive results in over 150 donated boxes of food
  In its annual holiday season food drive, the NIU College of Business collected more than 150 boxes of food and food items. All of the items raised this year were donated to Feed 'em Soup, an organization that provides free meals to needy residents in DeKalb County. The college's Department of OM&IS led the way with 85 boxes of food, the highest donation to date. OM&IS members had the honor and pleasure of delivering all 150 plus boxes to Feed 'em Soup organizers.


• Target awards $14,500 in grant support to three areas in the NIU College of Business (fall 2011)
  NIU's College of Business continues to receive grant support from Target, a well-respected corporation that is also well known for its support of quality educational programs. This year, Target has awarded $14,500 in grant dollars to: the college's Department of Operations Management & Information Systems for OM&IS SAP Scholarships; the college's student chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon - Gamma Zeta Chapter; and, the college's student chapter of the American Marketing Association.


• NIU Accountancy Alumni Commit Over $500,000 to Fund an Endowment in the NIU Department of Accountancy (September 2011)
  Several NIU accountancy alumni, all partners with Ernst and Young, have committed over $500,000 to the NIU Department of Accountancy to establish an endowment. The Ernst and Young Leadership and Professional Development Center will receive the benefits of the endowment, providing ongoing financial support for the center.


• Accountancy chair ranked in the Top 100 for Tax Research (September 2011)
  Jim Young, Crowe Horwath Professor of Accountancy and Chair of the Department of Accountancy, has recently been ranked as a top researcher in a study published in August 2011, Issues in Accounting Education. The study was conducted to measure individual accounting faculty research contribution by topical area and methodology, as determined by their research output. Young was ranked 62/100 for tax research for the years 1990-2009.


• NIU Marketing Professor Named 2011 Sales Teacher of the Year (September 2011)
  Robert Peterson, professor in the college's Department of Marketing, won the 2011 Sales Teacher of the Year Award from the Sales Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. The competition recognizes faculty for their innovative teaching techniques and their contributions to marketing and sales education. Peterson's teaching technique emphasizes learning by doing. As an example, in one teaching situation, Peterson loaned each student in his class $20 for 10 weeks and charged them with the task of creating a product or service, selling it, and making as much money as possible. One student's product idea allowed him to leverage the $20 seed money into $1,400 in profits.


• NIU Marketing Assistant Professor named Kohl's Corporation Professor of Retail Marketing (August 2011)
  Mark Rosenbaum, Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing, has been named the Kohl's Corporation Professor of Retail Marketing. Rosenbaum has an extensive professional and research background specifically in retailing and retail management. Rosenbaum also teaches retailing and services marketing. Kohl's has a long history of supporting the NIU College of Business and has worked closely with the Department of Marketing for student internship and employment opportunities.


• NIU College of Business accountancy chair elected president of the APLG (August 2011)
  Jim Young, Crowe Horwath Professor of Accountancy and chair of the Department of Accountancy has been elected president of the Accounting Program Leadership Group (APLG), a section of the American Accounting Association. The APLG has over 500 members comprised of accounting department chairs and graduate accounting program directors from across the United States. Young's responsibilities will include, among many others, assisting department chairs across the country in the development of skills necessary to be effective leaders and to influence the design and delivery of accounting education. Young will also assist program leaders with accreditation processes and serve as an advocate for the academy in promoting policies that will produce high quality accounting education.


• Professor of Management Wins Coleman Foundation Funding
  NIU College of Business Management Professor Lynn Neeley prepared a grant proposal that in spring 2011 resulted in funding from the Coleman Foundation. Established in 1951, the Coleman Foundation is a private grant-making body that provides support in three major areas: entrepreneurship education; cancer care, treatment, and research; and services for the disabled. As part of the proposal approved by the Coleman Foundation, NIU business faculty member Neeley was designated to serve as project coordinator for a new Coleman Foundation Faculty Fellowship program at NIU. As project coordinator, Neeley identified two Faculty Fellows to collaborate with on the development of entrepreneurship education activities at the university. Neeley will oversee the collaborative effort with Coleman Faculty Fellows Paula Frasz, NIU School of Theater and Dance; and, Murali Krishnamurthi, NIU Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.


• Second Place at Innovation in Business Education Regional Competition
  UBUS 311 faculty team members, Ken Elliott, Barb Fox, and Joan Petros won second place in the Innovation in Business Education regional competition. The winning entry,"Cross-Functional Business Meeting Project", provided the team with an opportunity to present their project at the Mid-Continent East AACSB conference in Chicago. UBUS 311 is a cross-functional application seminar that introduces students to the business environment. Students assume the role of a different functional area in business each week, as they discuss contemporary issues in business and consider the effects across each function.