When accountancy professor Pam Smith began her sabbatical in 2000, she never dreamt that her experience would nearly land her on the national stage of the largest corporate scandal in United States history.
Dividing her sabbatical between time at Allstate Insurance, Baxter Healthcare and Caterpillar, Inc., Smith studied issues related to accounting for derivatives and hedging activities. The expertise she gained did not go unnoticed; in May 2005, she was selected as a potential expert witness in the trial of Enron’s Jeff Skilling.
Although she was never asked to take the stand, Smith brings this kind of practical application of accountancy to her teaching and research. She also draws heavily from her eight years of experience in public accounting and training as a Big Four audit manager.
Smith was the catalyst and faculty adviser to a group of students who developed an honor pledge and code of conduct for accountancy majors. She is also one of the authors of the College of Business Building Ethical Leaders Handbook and developer of the College’s BELIEF initiative (Building Ethical Leaders using an Integrated Ethics Framework).
She has published more than 25 articles in academic and practitioner journals. She received the Accountancy Department’s Outstanding Educator of the Year Award four years in a row and was the college nominee for the University’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching three consecutive years. In 2007, she received the Teaching Excellence Award from the Executive MBA class of 2008.
Photo by Don Butler, NIU Media Services
KPMG Professor of Accountancy
Arrived at NIU: 1994
Research interests: financial accounting and reporting issues related to mergers & acquisitions; consolidations & combinations; risk management using derivatives & hedging; building ethical leaders
Classes taught: Advanced Financial Accounting in the undergraduate and master’s program; Introductory Financial Accounting in the MBA and Executive MBA programs; Intermediate Accounting; professional national training sessions on emerging technical topics; NIU’s CPA Review Program