Our faculty have been busy this past year teaching students, organizing conferences, preparing publications, and mentoring future accounting professionals. Read below to see what they have been up to.
Paul Bahnson teaches Intermediate Accounting to our undergraduate students and Financial Accounting Theory in the graduate program. He also teaches first-year students in the Executive MBA program. This past summer, Paul and his frequent co-author, Paul Miller from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, published the 5th edition of their book, “The FASB: The People, the Process and the Politics.” The book is available in both bound and electronic versions from Sigel Press.
Ryan Baxter teaches Accounting Information Systems with a focus on governance, controls, business processes, and enterprise systems. His research on Gamification for IT security and data privacy training was recently accepted for publication in the American Accounting Association’s Journal of Information Systems. Ryan is the faculty advisor for the Association for Certified Fraud Examiners student chapter at Boise State.
Fred Christensen teaches the undergraduate basic financial accounting course and undergraduate auditing course. Fred heads up the department’s internship program. He continues to teach professional development courses for the American Society of CPAs (AICPA) as a national instructor teaching nonprofit and governmental courses. In 2013, Fred was awarded an Outstanding Discussion Leader Award by the AICPA and in 2014 he was selected as the Accountancy Department Outstanding teacher.
Mark Cowan teaches undergraduate taxation and at the graduate level teaches Partnership Tax Law, Multistate Taxation, and the Taxation of Nonprofits. His most recent articles are “Assignment of Income at the Ivory Tower: Relaxing the Tax Treatment of Services Donated to Charities by Their Employees” in the Winter, 2014 issue of the Journal of College and University Law and “Receding Water’s Edge: State Efforts to Tax Corporations’ Foreign Tax Haven Income” (with Kathy Hurley) in the November 2, 2015 issue of State Tax Notes. Mark is also the author of Topic 1012, “Unitary Business” in Checkpoint’s Catalyst Library. Mark serves as the advisor for the MSAT program and the concurrent JD/ MSAT program offered in conjunction with the University of Idaho. He is also co-chair of the Gem State Tax Symposium, a conference for tax professionals featuring national speakers that is held each June at Boise State.
Denise English teaches undergraduate Intermediate Accounting II and graduate Advanced Financial Accounting. She spent academic years 2013-14 and 2014-15 residing in Taylor Hall with her husband Ron as the COBE Faculty in Residence. As part of that role, she taught GB150 and mentored 18 COBE freshmen each year as they operated the Simplot Cafe (with Aramark’s oversight). She recently published two articles in the March 2014 and April 2015 issues of The CPA Journal with Diane Schooley-Pettis regarding the evolution of sustainability reporting and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s development of integrated reporting sustainability standards. She is a member of the faculty council for COBE’s Responsible Business Initiative (RBI) and had her GB150 freshmen write an article for the COBE Sustainability Report about the COBE Living Learning Community she advised. She also had her Accounting 510 students provide assurance services for the same report. She continues to conduct research regarding the integration of sustainability reporting with financial reporting and the new Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB’s) progress. Denise has been on sabbatical during the 2015-16 year to focus on her research and will return to the classroom Fall 2016. Denise and Ron enjoy attending Boise State University football and basketball games.
Dan Fox, a retired audit partner from Pricewaterhouse-Coopers LLP (PwC), teaches undergraduate Intermediate Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis. He also developed and teaches a graduate-level course in International Financial Reporting Standards during the spring semester. Dan is the faculty advisor for Beta Alpha Psi. He is actively engaged in student career counseling, career search readiness, placement, and community engagement. Dan is a member of the board of directors and audit committee chair for a local public company, and serves on two committees of the Idaho State Board of Accountancy.
Kathy Hurley teaches Introduction to Managerial Accounting, Mastering the Accounting Cycle and the VITA Tax Preparation class. The VITA Tax Preparation class provides an excellent service learning opportunity and hands-on experience for students. Our partnership with the Boise Public Library continues and students will each provide approximately 30 hours of income tax preparation services to low-income taxpayers. Besides teaching, Kathy is pursuing her PhD in Public Policy and Administration. Her research focus is public policy and the dependent and child care tax credit.
Troy Hyatt is serving in his third year as Chair of the Department of Accountancy and is the faculty advisor for the MSA students. He also teaches undergraduate intermediate accounting. Troy is the faculty advisor for the KPMG/Seattle University Financial Accounting Case Competition. This two-day event, which is held every April on the Seattle University campus, brings 4-person student teams together from universities all across the northwest region. The teams are given a financial accounting case and then, in three hours, must research the FASB Accounting Standards Codification and other sources, determine a solution, and develop a PowerPoint presentation. Troy also serves on the board of directors of the Idaho Society of CPAs.
Dave Koeppen’s primary teaching assignment is the advanced accounting course; he also frequently teaches managerial accounting to undergraduates and graduate students in the MBA program. Dave is a member of the College of Business and Economics Scholarship Committee, which awards the College’s and the Department’s scholarships each spring; the Committee also assists in the selection of COBE Signature students each semester. Dave is also active in the community, serving as a board member for the Southwest Chapter of the Idaho Society of CPAs and as Treasurer for the Idaho Association of Service Academy Parents, a non-profit organization supporting students appointed to the five national service academies.
Michael Lee joined us in the Fall 2011. Michael teaches undergraduate Cost Accounting and Advanced Managerial Accounting at the graduate level. Michael’s publication interests lie in management control systems, performance measurement, and accounting information systems.
Judy Sage is a Visiting Professor for the 2015-2016 academic year. She earned a PhD in accounting at Oklahoma State University and has taught at several different universities. Judy’s primary teaching interest is in the tax area, and this year she is teaching our undergraduate tax class as well as classes in Tax Research and Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates in our graduate program. She has published and presented numerous articles. In August 2015 she presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association entitled, “An Investigation of a Self-Managed Learning Project for Teaching Tax Topics at Five Universities.”