Athens, Ga. – Linda Bamber, a professor in the J.M. Tull School of Accounting in the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, was the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Accounting Educator Award, given by the American Accounting Association.
Bamber, who serves as the college’s Tull Professor of Accounting, was presented the award at the AAA annual meeting in New York City on Aug. 4. It is regarded as a lifetime achievement award for contributions to accounting education, ranging from excellence in research and teaching to extensive involvement in professional activities and mentoring graduate students.
Bamber is the recipient of more than a dozen teaching awards, including the Terry College’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2007. She’s also known as an accomplished researcher, particularly for her seminal research on earnings-related accounting disclosures and the ensuing market reactions, especially trading volume reactions. Additionally, she served as editor of The Accounting Review, the field’s top research journal, from 1999 to 2002. In recognition of these accomplishments, she received the Terry College’s Outstanding Research Award in 2001.
Mary Stone, an accounting professor from the University of Alabama who chaired the award selection committee, read from a citation at the presentation. “Most members of the American Accounting Association think of Linda as a researcher, author, editor and mentor of Ph.D. students and colleagues,” Stone said. “Undergraduate accounting and M.B.A. students at the University of Georgia think of Linda as a demanding, knowledgeable and innovative managerial accounting teacher.”
In accepting the award, Bamber thanked her former doctoral students, who took it upon themselves to nominate her. Bamber singled out Isabel Wang, who joined the faculty at Michigan State University after graduating in 2005 and led the nominating effort, which was both voluminous and time-consuming.
She also thanked her colleagues in the Tull School of Accounting. “Research is important at UGA, and I’m lucky to have a large number of enthusiastic young colleagues who are always willing to help out with data or statistical issues or to comment on my papers,” Bamber said.
“But we value more than just research. We also value rigorous teaching. It’s only because my colleagues collectively devote so much effort to teaching that we’re able to deliver rigorous courses leading to the second highest pass rate in the country on the CPA [ntcertified public accounta] exam, while creating enough student satisfaction and loyalty that over 90 percent of the members of the graduating class of 2009 pledged an average of more than $1,000 each to support the school over the next five years.”
Bamber received a cash prize of $5,000, given by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Foundation. An additional $5,000 was donated by the foundation to the AAA in the award winner’s name. The Outstanding Accounting Educator Award has been given annually since 1973.
Bamber graduated from Ohio State University with a Ph.D. in 1983, after earning an M.B.A. from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University. She came to the Terry College in 1990 from Indiana University, where she was a visiting professor, and she previously taught at the University of Florida.