Brooke Stout honored as the IMA® Accounting Faculty of the Year

Brooke Stout honored as the IMA® Accounting Faculty of the Year

May 24, 2022 LA GRANDE, Ore. – Sponsored by The Association of Accountants and Financial Professionals in Business (IMA®), EOU’s business program’s accreditor, the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE), accepts nominations each year for the IMA® Accounting Faculty of the Year award for candidates who meet a series of ten criteria and can fully demonstrate their excellence in teaching accounting and commitment to the IACBE.

EOUs assistant professor, Brooke Stout, MSA, CPA was notified during the monthly College of Business meeting by Dr. Pat Hafford, IACBE President and Dr. Phyllis Okrepkie IACBE Vice President of Operations on Wednesday April 6, 2022, that she is this year’s recipient. Brooke is the first EOU accounting faculty member to receive the award. https://iacbe.org/2019/01/accounting-faculty-of-the-year-award/

“Even before accepting the position with us, Brooke had already had strong established ties and a high- quality reputation within the accounting community. This immediately gave her credibility with her students and her colleagues,” Dean of the College of Business Edward Henninger said. 

Her relationships with the accounting community and her faculty colleagues have led to the development of an advisory committee, a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, an honor society, and internship and post-graduate employment opportunities for her students. She also remains very active in the accounting profession through part-time tax and audit season accounting practice and her involvement in professional accounting organizations. 

She is also pursuing a Ph.D. degree with an emphasis on public and nonprofit accounting, her specialty area of practice. 

“I’ve been helping students find internships and reaching out to employers that aren’t even necessarily in our area. We have some placements in Boise, we have some placements in the Tri-Cities area, we’ve had placements in the Port of Morrow, so getting students outside of Union County and reaching out to those resources,” Brooke said.

Her enthusiasm for the profession and teaching is evident in her continual efforts to adapt and improve her in person and online instructional approaches to better engage her students and help them learn.

“Brooke is always open to discussing pedagogy with her colleagues and myself, and is frequently looking for creative ways for her students to grow in their accounting knowledge and in their critical thinking and communication skills while focusing on the application of those principles to real world clients and issues. This Accounting Faculty of the Year honor is well deserved,” Henninger said.

Part of her success and enthusiasm was credited to the support and guidance of other accounting faculty, especially during her first months at EOU.  

“I definitely thank Dean Henninger for nominating me and for all the support throughout the last two years. Last year was a crazy year coming into teaching. Being in the middle COVID was an adjustment. Obviously all the other college of business faculty have been amazing. Ashley Walker is really the lead on our accounting department and she’s been awesome, really helpful. I’ve had a lot of guidance, there were a lot of other people that helped me along the way,” Brooke said.