Accounting is a dynamic industry that needs creative, intelligent, and driven people. Unfortunately, it’s often seen as dull, dry, and dated. This perception helps accounting miss out on some of the best and brightest talent coming through our colleges. What are we to do?
Social media platforms like Twitter help the accounting profession reach a broader audience and a younger listener. The following professors are on the cutting edge of that trend, using their social media platform to engage with the public, talk about the most interesting aspects of accounting, and curate some amazing content. Kudos to everyone on this list for doing a great service, both for their school and the broader accounting profession. Keep it up!
Did we miss anyone? Have we egregiously left an amazing professor off this list? Tell us!
Here we go…starting with #1
Jody is hugely accomplished and always contributing to the online discussion. Whether it’s through her posts at Accounting Today, via her New Vision CPA Group, or her work with students at Oakton Community College, Jody is at the forefront of the industry. She’s the author of The Radical CPA and has been profiled by Forbes. She’s also a graduate of some great schools, including St. Mary’s and Northern Illinois University. How does she get it all done? We think coffee might play a part.
+1“@nysscpa Good Thursday Morning Everyone! For you #coffee lovers out there, it's fueling time pic.twitter.com/AqMbnI56ci”
— Jody Padar (@JodyPadarCPA) August 6, 2015
Posting under the super-cool handle @ProfessorFraud, William brings A-game material to Twitter on a daily basis. He’s part of the faculty at Governors State University after previously being with Saint Xavier University for 22 years and starting his career with Deloitte. Through his twitter, William provides timely analysis for all kinds of fraud and forensics topics, linking both to his own site (ProfessorFraud.com) and other media outlets.
As was predicted by Professor Fraud over a week ago, the data breach at the Office of Personnel Management was… http://t.co/BhRDNLspTI
— William Kresse (@ProfessorFraud) June 13, 2015
Paul is a professor at Pepperdine Law School in sunny Malibu, CA. More importantly, he’s a voracious twitter user, posting multiple times per day on tax issues. The majority of his posts link to his Tax Prof blog, where he creates an exceptional set of articles. Prior to joining Pepperdine, Paul was with the University of Cincinnati College of Law and has published over 50 books during his long career. With almost 9,000 tweets to date, this is our go-to account for tax news and analysis.
A more wide-ranging Twitter feed than our entries so far, Alan brings a mix of his accounting expertise and personal experiences (he met a moose!). His account is fun to follow while still bringing top-notch content that can keep you on the front edge of most issues. He teaches intermediate and advanced financial accounting and International Financial Reporting Standards at the University of Colorado Boulder. Alan also holds a Phd from Penn State. Smart guy!
With a faculty resume that includes Dartmouth, MIT, Wake Forest, and Thunderbird, Tom brings impressive credentials to the accounting twitterverse. Through his website Accounting Onion, Tom is a critical contributor to the online conversation around investors and accounting. He uses twitter to communicate his new content as it comes up, helping to keep you as up to date as possible. We recommend you check out his Accounting Onion site – it’s a great source of information, opinions, and news.
The real deal. Credentials include being an associate professor at DePaul, having a Phd from Virginia Tech, and Big 4 experience. She’s also a co-author on the hot topic of forensic accounting (The A.B.C.’s of Behavioral Forensics) and has had work published on Forbes.com and WashPo. Oh, did we also mention that she has film and documentary projects on the go? Wow! On Twitter she tracks her current projects, deals out great topical tidbits on accounting, and reflects on innovation. Also think about following her documentary project @queens_horses
Allison is the H. Heward Stikeman Chair in Tax Law at McGill University in Quebec. Her Taxpol blog dives deep into the intersection of tax, politics, and society, and receives a couple of new, detailed articles each month. On Twitter, you can find her posting content and links every few days and retweeting some great content from other writers and publications. You’d be wise to follow her.
As part of the Charlton College of Business at UMass Dartmouth, Michael teaches Principles of Accounting and Cost Accounting amongst his other responsibilities. On Twitter, he’s a smart, funny, and insightful provider of both accounting content and life advice. Speaking directly to his audience of students and professionals, Michael finds content relevant for anyone.
Michael also runs the website Pennant Learning, which provides learning tools and other aids for accounting students. Perhaps not surprisingly for someone so accomplished, he’s also got a few books to his name, with his most recent being MBA Fundamentals: Accounting and Finance
Brian is one of the only professors out there bringing an academic point of view to charity and the non-profit sector on Twitter. Whether it’s linking to his own blog Counting Charity or retweeting other great content, Brian is a daily poster. He teaches at Ohio State University and has been featured in multiple publications, from The Accounting Review to RAND Journal of Economics. We love that he’s out there writing passionately about the nonprofit sector and definitely recommend that you follow him.
David is a research professor and teaches local tax law at George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. However, most of his great material can be found on the Tax Analysts blog, where he has been for 13+ years. He has also written very well received books (State Tax Policy: a Political Perspective and Local Tax Policy: a Federalist Perspective). On Twitter, David is retweeting insightful content almost daily and posting his own original material a few times a week.
Timothy is another entrant from the law side of the equation, and he tackles some pretty serious tax issues as they are happening. A frequent contributor to Forbes.com, Timothy brings both professional level journalism and a good writing style to his articles and Twitter. As an academic, Timothy teaches at Liberty University, focusing on taxation and transactional law classes. He is also a double threat, being both a law professor and holding a Certified Public Accountants license in Virginia.
Annette has 25 years of experience with San Jose State University. She posts almost daily to Twitter and links to a lot of content on her own blog, 21st Century Taxation. On her blog, she covers everything from federal reform to the tax ethics of marijuana. We recommend following her directly on Twitter though, as that way you’ll get her own latest blog posts and all the great links she provides for alternate news and analysis.
Manuel – aka The Biz Professor – has a broader focus than most pure accounting twitter feeds, while still keeping 99% of the content education or topic-focused. That shouldn’t really be surprising, as Manuel brings extensive industry experience (consulting and banking included) to his teaching role at William Jessup University in California. Honestly, we just wish he would post more!
"Unleashing the Power of Free Markets for “All” Generations" https://t.co/16ycrjewun
— The Biz Professor (@CalAccountant) May 28, 2015
14
Professor: Mark Zimbelman & Aaron Zimbelman
Twitter Account: @FraudBytes
School: BYU & University of Illinois
A shared account of Mark and Aaron Zimbelman, @Fraudbytes posts at least a few times a month on some really interesting topics. Much broader than just a review of accounting news, we love the topics posted by this dynamic duo. With affiliations to both Brigham Young University (Mark is a Professor there) and Illinois (Aaron is an accounting doctoral student), they have serious academic chops. We recommend you follow them on twitter, but you can also check out their Fraud Bytes blog.
How #Chocolate Was Used to Fool Millions http://t.co/YnreAAWi9I #faddiets #healthclaims #researchfraud
— FraudBytes (@FraudBytes) June 3, 2015
Ben’s an Accounting Professor, sports fan, and all-round great Twitter(er). As part of the Schroeder School of Business at University of Evansville, Ben’s courses include Principles of Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, and Federal Income Tax. He also admits that he lives life in a “highly caffeinated state”, which is understandable as he runs a tax firm on top of his teaching responsibilities!
An Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Roger also has a strong interest in technology news and events. Following him on Twitter will bring you as much up to speed with accounting news as it will insights about Google self-driving cars, NASA missions, and technology entrepreneurship. Most of Roger’s activity is retweets, rather than original content, which makes him one of our favorite curators!
As a faculty member at Golden Gate University since 2008, with prior experience at San Francisco State and San Jose State, John bring deep experience to the accounting field. Prior to his work in academics, he also held roles at PwC and still works as a tax consultant. John keeps his twitter accounting-subject focused, covering a variety of tax related sites. Think of him as your expert curator in the world of tax news. You can’t go wrong.
A professor at the University of Indianapolis since 2004, with prior experience at other Indianapolis area colleges, Victoria brings her A-game to Twitter. Her feed covers some accounting news, but also tracks trending stories and softer entertainment from across the web. Whether it’s for the latest accounting news or other insights, we highly recommend following Victoria.
Student writes drunk email to 'bald' teacher gets incredible response http://t.co/6r3STbouQy @Femail
— Victoria Ann Hall (@victoriahall_IN) August 12, 2015
You like accounting? You also like sports? Mike is your guy. Posting something new to twitter almost every day, Mike highlights content on accounting, his fellow teachers, awards, and (almost as importantly) Texan sports teams. Mike joined A&M from St Mary’s college, specializes in ethics, and is widely published in academic journals. Also check out his blog on ethics over at the A&M website
Another entry from the wonderful world of Tax Law, Craig is not an everyday poster to Twitter but he does bring some great content. As the Dean Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, he’s an authority to be trusted. Prior to his current position, Craig also served at DePaul University in Chicago and Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and practiced law across the country
Rocking an A-grade rating on Rate My Professor and hailing from Metropolitan State University, Brenden brings a combination of accounting current affairs news to Twitter. He’s a licensed CPA as well, although his tweets cover everything from deep accounting content to articles on technology and other topics. He’s active almost every day too, which means you’ll get lots of great content to explore.
A professor from the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University, Mark also runs the accountinator blog. His blog covers everything from accounting concepts through to Excel tips, which are hugely useful for new students or accountants. At Stillman, Mark teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in financial accounting and advanced accounting. He has also authored Managerial Accounting for Dummies.