Lubbock Professor Receives Outstanding Educator Award
Texas CPA Society Recognizes Texas Tech Educator for
Teaching Excellence and Contributions to the Accounting Profession

DALLAS — Linda Nichols, CPA, professor and director of accounting programs at Texas Tech University, was honored recently with the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants’ (TSCPA) 2007 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award.

At a ceremony held Oct. 25 during the TSCPA Accounting Education Conference, Nichols received a plaque and a $1,000 award provided by the TSCPA Accounting Education Foundation.

The statewide 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.

Nichols was the first to implement team learning techniques in the classroom. Nichols likes to assign her students in diverse groups (based on year, major, GPA, etc.) and has found that the group work is well received and valued by her students. She also has found an unconventional way of motivating her students by ranking them after each major grading event.

Nichols currently has over 60 journal publications to her credit, and her main areas of research interests are in international accounting and oil and gas industry accounting issues. She is recognized as a leading expert in the oil and gas field and is often called upon to speak at conferences.

She is the associate editor of the Oil, Gas and Energy Quarterly and has co-authored a text book in oil and gas accounting.

Nichols is a member of the American Women’s Society of CPAs, as well as the Texas Society of CPAs and is the president of the organization’s South Plains Chapter.

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.