Four Texas Educators Receive Outstanding Educator Awards
Teaching Excellence and Contributions to the Accounting Profession

DALLAS — The Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA) recently honored four top Texas professors with the organization’s 2005 Outstanding Accounting Educator Awards.

Winners included Dr. Wendell Edwards, CPA, Texas A&M University-Commerce; Rebecca Hancock, CPA, El Paso Community College; Dr. Martha Loudder, Texas A&M University; and Dr. Neal VanZante, CPA, Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

At a ceremony held during the TSCPA Accounting Education Conference, the four winners each received a plaque and a $1,000 award provided by the TSCPA Accounting Education Foundation.

The TSCPA Outstanding Accounting Educator Awards honor Texans who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and who have distinguished themselves through active service to the accounting profession.

Criteria for judging includes instructional innovation, student motivation, the pursuit of learning opportunities for students, involvement in student and professional accounting organizations, and research accomplishments and publications.

Edwards is accounting department head at Texas A&M University-Commerce and faculty advisor to the university’s Beta Alpha Psi chapter. From guest lecturers like a convicted felon to an international e-mail pen pal project with students at Monterrey Tech University in Mexico, Edwards gives his students as varied of learning experience as possible.

Hancock has taught accounting at El Paso Community College for more than a decade and has served as the instructional coordinator of the accounting program for the past five years. She has been heavily involved in the dual credit committee that allows high school students to earn college credits while still in high school.

Loudder, associate dean and professor at Texas A&M University, helped develop procedures for the Aggie Honor System, which enforces the student ethics code, and led the development of the Freshmen Business Initiative and other learning communities within the Mays College of Business. A respected scholar, Loudder has been published in numerous accounting journals.

VanZante is a professor of accounting at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Continuously evaluated by his students as an excellent teacher, his students also rate his classes as exceptionally demanding. VanZante has helped many students meet the research requirement mandated by the university’s master of public accountancy program and supervised several student internships.

ABOUT TSCPA

TSCPA (http://www.tscpa.org) is a nonprofit, voluntary, professional organization representing Texas CPAs. The society has 20 local chapters statewide and has 27,000 members, one of the largest in-state memberships of any state CPA society in the United States. TSCPA is committed to serving the public interest with programs that advance the highest standards of ethics and practice within the CPA profession.