Iowa Ledger (2022) - Tippie College of Business

2022 

IOWA 

LEDGER 

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA TIPPIE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING 

ACCOUNTING FOR GREATNESS 

Dan Collins retires from the Tippie College of Business

MISSION 

Our Mission 

The national prominence of our 

department stems from the reputation 

for excellence of our programs and 

research of our faculty. A primary goal is 

to provide undergraduate and Master of 

Accountancy students with a broad and 

deep educational experience that will 

facilitate their professional growth. 

This objective entails providing students 

with a strong technical foundation in core 

accounting competencies; developing 

their skills in critical thinking, analysis, 

and communication; and fostering an 

awareness of ethical matters and a sense 

of professional integrity and judgment. 

We also seek to educate students from 

other departments in a manner that 

enables them to become informed users 

of accounting information. 

We aim to cultivate the future leaders 

in the academic community by training 

and working with doctoral students. 

Promoting the research enterprise, 

which requires faculty to update 

their professional skills continually 

by participating in the creation and 

dissemination of accounting knowledge, 

is critical in its own right and in 

accomplishing our curriculum goals.

Iowa Ledger is an annual publication for 

alumni and friends of the Department 

of Accounting, at the University of Iowa 

Tippie College of Business. 

IOWA 

LEDGER 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2022 

EDITOR 

Amanda May 

DEPARTMENT EXECUTIVE OFFICER 

Cristi A. Gleason 

DESIGN 

The Williams-McBride Group 

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 

Lynn Anderson Davy 

Amanda May 

Jennifer Seter Wagner 

Tom Snee 

PHOTOGRAPHY 

Jonathan Chapman 

Jocelyn Espejo 

Amanda May 

Brendan Paul 

Tim Schoon | University of Iowa 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 

Justin A. Torner | University of Iowa 

Lucas Underwood 

Danny Wilcox Frazier 

Nic Wynia 

CONTACT US 

Your feedback is always welcome! 

Direct correspondence to: 

Amanda May 

Editor, Iowa Ledger 

Tippie College of Business 

S210 PBB 

University of Iowa 

Iowa City, IA 52242-1994 

amanda-may-1@uiowa.edu 

ADDRESS CHANGES 

Email your updates to 

alumni-records@uiowa.edu 

or mail to: 

Alumni Records 

Office of the Registrar 

University of Iowa 

2 Jessup Hall 


TIPPIE IN FOCUS 

Email us at tippie-focus@uiowa.edu 

to subscribe to the college’s monthly 

e-newsletter. 

Copyright @ 2022 Tippie College of 

Business, University of Iowa 

All rights reserved. 

 

CAMPUS 

4 25 Years of First Year Scholars 

Where are the first group of scholars now? 

6 Retirements 

Joyce Berg, Mark Penno, and Tom Carroll have left the building 

FEATURES 

14 From EMT to PwC 

Shea Fowler (BBA94) still geeks out about medicine 

ACCOUNTING FOR GREATNESS 

A look at the life and legacy of 

Professor Dan Collins (BBA68/PhD73) 

22 

Modern Mentorship 

The new Early Career Professional Accounting Council 

offers advice 

25 

Two Paths to Partner 

Featuring EY’s Lindsay Abt (BBA99) and 

Brandon Miller (BBA03) 

FAMILY 

28 

Anthony Nelson Did Not See This Coming 

He was hoping to end up at a “Big Four” firm— 

instead, he won a Super Bowl 

30 

Alumni Notes 

32 

In Memoriam 

COVER IMAGE 

Dan Collins by Lucas Underwood. Mixed 

media on wood panel, 30x33 in., 2022. 

Iowa Ledger magazine is a 

CASE Best of District V award winner!

Dear Alumni and Friends: 

On a weekly basis I run across a tweet, meme, or article (I’m still a bit old school) about 

accounting being “boring” or “meaningless.” I find this strange because every day I 

interact with colleagues teaching something cool in class, students finding exciting career 

opportunities, colleagues doing interesting research that gets attention from regulators 

or investors, and alumni who are doing amazing things in their industry or community. 

I am still not quite sure where the 

“boring” stories are coming from, but 

accounting at Iowa continues to be a 

transformative path to a lifetime of 

boundless opportunities. Mastering the 

language of business allows accounting 

students to become trusted advisors, 

leaders, innovators, and disrupters in 

their firms, industries, and communities! 

Most of the tools have not changed. 

Learning how to measure income or 

obligations, the tax effects of asset 

exchanges, and how to analyze variances 

are things we still teach, and our students 

still learn (and are tested on for the CPA 

exam). But there are some significant 

changes, especially in the analytics 

content of courses. This year, all the 

classes in our major include analytics 

assignments. Students are using Power 

BI in the sophomore-level Managerial 

Accounting course starting this fall, 

which means all Tippie students will be 

better prepared for their internships 

and jobs. Accounting Information 

Systems and Cost Accounting are 

also getting makeovers—new course 

names and more analytics content. 

Accounting at Iowa continues to be 

unique in pairing analytical and problemsolving 

skills with world-leading training 

in writing and communication. In 

addition to developing writing skills, 

our students have data visualization 

assignments that help them summarize 

and communicate important takeaways. 

Students present heat maps of their 

data analytics research in Advanced Tax 

and practice telling recruiters a little 

about themselves in two-minute videos 

in the Professional Seminar. Our goal 

is to prepare students to meet their 

ambitious career objectives, which include 

positions at many of the top accounting, 

finance, and consulting employers. 

Maybe there are some boring 

accountants out there—but 

they aren’t Hawkeyes. 

Warmest regards, 

Cristi Gleason 

Accounting Department Executive Officer 

Carlson-KPMG Research Professor 

cristi-gleason@uiowa.edu

CAMPUS 

NEW FACULTY 

Learning from the Best 

Exposure to world-class scholars is part of the Tippie experience. See the latest additions 

to a long list of cutting-edge faculty members who have taught at the college. 

RYAN WILSON 

Henry B. Tippie Chair in Accounting 

Wilson brings major intellectual firepower to the faculty as the 

#3 individual tax researcher in the country (BYU 2022 rankings). 

Wilson is rejoining the Tippie College of Business where he started his 

career. Most recently, he was the director of the school of accounting 

and the Richard W. Lindholm Distinguished Professor in Taxation at the 

University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business. His research focuses 

on corporate tax planning and the intersection between tax and financial 

accounting. His work has been published in the Journal of Accounting 

and Economics, The Accounting Review, and the Journal of Accounting 

Research, among many others. He also currently serves as the senior 

editor of the Journal of the American Taxation Association. 

DANYE WANG 

Assistant Professor 

Danye Wang joined the 

faculty this fall, having 

recently received her Ph.D. 

in accounting from NYU’s 

Stern School of Business. She 

earned a bachelor’s degree in 

finance in 2015 and a Master 

of Accountancy degree in 2017, 

both from Peking University 

in Beijing, China. She primarily 

researches empirical financial 

accounting and has an interest in 

misconduct, corporate litigation, 

and labor. 

DAVID STUBING 

Associate Professor 

of Instruction 

David Stubing will begin 

lecturing for Accounting 

Information Systems and 

Financial Accounting classes. 

He holds a doctorate in 

business administration from 

DePaul University, an MBA from 

the University of Minnesota, 

and a Bachelor of Science 

from Illinois State University. 

He joins Tippie from George 

Mason University in Virginia. 

HARALD AMBERGER 

Visiting Assistant Professor 

Visiting Assistant Professor 

Harald Amberger taught Taxes 

and Business Strategy during 

the Spring 2022 semester. He 

came to Tippie from Austria 

where he is an assistant 

professor at WU Vienna 

University of Economics and 

Business. He brought his 

global research interests to 

Tippie classrooms, focusing on 

the real economic effects of 

international taxation. 

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA TIPPIE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS 3

CAMPUS 

25 Years of First Year Scholars 

Where are they now? 

BY • AMANDA MAY 

In 1997, the accounting department began awarding scholarships to promising incoming 

freshmen interested in accounting. Along with the tuition assistance, the students have 

historically been invited to a breakfast with members of the faculty and the Professional 

Accounting Council where a group photo is taken. Twenty-five years and hundreds of 

scholarships later, we showed this photo to the very first group of First Year Scholars and 

got updates. Just glancing at their titles, we would say these scholarships were a great 

investment! 

10 

8 

2 

6 

5 

12 

7 

1 

9 

11 

3 

13 

4 

4 IOWA LEDGER 2022

1 

2 

3 

ANDREW CHRISTIANSEN 

(BBA01/MAC02) 

Chief Financial Officer 

Cardlytics | Atlanta, Georgia 

“Standing here in this 

photo, I had no idea the 

number of friendships 

I would create, fun 

experiences I would 

have, and things I would 

learn at the University 

of Iowa. I was honored to 

be part of the first group of 

First Year Scholars and the 

initial intimidation upon 

meeting the other recipients 

and administration running 

the program quicky dissolved 

once I recognized how much 

everyone was truly invested in 

our success.” 

SCOTT CORNISH (BBA01) 

Business Owner and Entrepreneur 

Rock Technology, Paul Davis 

Restoration, MY SALON Suite | 

Coralville, Iowa 

AFRICA ESPINA-GUZUN 

(BSE02/MS04) 

Civil Environmental Engineer and 

Manager of Environmental 

Services | Locus Technologies | 

Mountain View, California 

“Wow! I don’t think I 

ever saw this photo 

but yes, that is me. I was 

just starting college and 

excited about the accounting 

program at the business 

4 

5 

6 

school. While I didn’t end up 

in accounting, I was grateful 

for the scholarship and 

opportunity to learn about the 

career so early on. The impact 

of the program translated 

to my current career where 

I’m responsible for project 

management and budgeting. 

ANDREA GOODWIN 

(BBA01/MAC02) 

Director of Corporate Reporting 

Petco Health & Wellness, LLC | 

San Diego, California 

“Wow this was 

a trip down 

memory lane! 

This was taken just after I 

moved from Omaha, Neb. I 

was very nervous about going 

out of state to school, but I felt 

right at home at Tippie and 

met some of my best friends 

in life there. The college set 

me up for great success in 

my accounting career—from 

working in public accounting 

at KPMG to completing an 

international rotation in 

Sydney, Australia to taking a 

company through an IPO.” 

TRAVIS HANSEN (BBA01) 

Credentials Verification Office 

Supervisor | Unity Point Health | 

West Des Moines, Iowa 

BRETT HILLER (BSN10) 

Registered Nurse, House 

Supervisor | CHI Mercy Hospital | 

Council Bluffs, Iowa 

“After three semesters as a 

business major, I switched to 

nursing. I now live in Glenwood, 

Iowa, with my four daughters 

and wife Ranita, who just 

earned her nursing degree 

from Iowa this spring! We 

continue to hold season football 

and wrestling tickets and enjoy 

coming to Iowa City to visit the 

campus and the community.” 

JOSEPH HOLMES (BBA01) 

7 Vice President & Chief Accounting 

O f fi c e r | Thermo Fischer Scientific | 

Boston, Massachusetts 

“Talk about a blast 

from the past! 

As a first-year student in 1997, 

I remember being pleasantly 

surprised that the faculty 

were taking time to invest 

in us. I had assumed that the 

university would view its 

relationship with its students 

as transactional—we would 

pay for classes, and they would 

educate. I was wrong. I met Dan 

Collins that day and realized 

that he really wanted to see the 

next generation succeed. 

8 

MARCUS JELKS (BBA01) 

Manager of Technology 

Solutions & Assets 

DelCor Technology Solutions | 

Washington D.C. 

“I was initially intrigued 

by the free breakfast 

but appreciated the 

dedication of the other 

scholars. A lot of what I 

learned in the accounting 

program is even clearer after 

graduation: Ethical behavior is 

a huge competitive advantage 

and never stop learning.” 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

KAREN KREGOR (BBA00) 

Operations Manager 

Efficient Capital Management, LLC | 

Warrenville, Illinois 

CHRIS McCANN (BBA01) 

Director of Financial Reporting 

Ranger Capital Management | 

Greater Chicago Area 

“I don't recall exactly 

when this photo was 

taken, but I remember 

being very excited about 

the new Pappajohn 

Business Building and 

felt grateful for the 

opportunity to take 

classes in such a stateof-the-art 

building. Like 

everyone, I am sure I had plenty 

of nervousness that freshman 

year, but it all worked out for the 

best. I look back fondly at my 

time at the University of Iowa.” 

ERIN McCLINTOCK (BBA01) 

Director of Accounting | Optum | 

Greater Minneapolis/St. Paul Area 

JOHN MIKULICH (BBA01) 

Chief Financial Officer 

The Fresh Factory | Chicago, Illinois 

“I remember starting out 

in the business school 

having no idea where my 

career would go. I am sure 

I was pretty quiet, surrounded 

by people I thought had a plan. I 

have had a great journey so far 

and know my experiences at 

Iowa helped get me to where I 

am today.” 

SARAH BUCK 

Anyone know 

what Sarah is up 

to these days? 


CAMPUS 

RETIREMENTS 

A Lifetime of Giving Back 

Joyce E. Berg retires 

BY • CRISTI GLEASON AND AMANDA MAY 

Numbers seem like an appropriate way to summarize Professor Joyce Berg’s career. 

She is, after all, an accounting professor. And the numbers are staggering: 

11 

TIPPIE 

BUILD HOUSES 

COMPLETED 

$500,000+ 

RAISED TO PROVIDE HOMES 

FOR IOWA FAMILIES 

15,000+ 

TAX RETURNS FILED 

THROUGH THE VITA PROGRAM 

roughly 

$15 MILLION 

IN TAX REFUNDS TO IOWA 

RESIDENTS THANKS TO THE 

VITA PROGRAM 

10,700+ 

IOWA STUDENTS TAUGHT 

ABOUT MAKING DECISIONS USING 

ACCOUNTING INFORMATION 

6,800+ 

CITATIONS ON GOOGLE SCHOLAR FOR HER 

PAPER “TRUST, RECIPROCITY, AND SOCIAL 

HISTORY” WITH JOHN DICKHAUT AND KEVIN 

MCCABE. THE MOST CITED PAPER BY ANY 

TIPPIE ACCOUNTING FACULTY MEMBER. 


Yet even the numbers seem inadequate 

to describe the impact of Berg’s 30 years 

of research, teaching, and service at the 

University of Iowa. 

Accounting alumni probably know her best 

from her work with Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) 

and the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance 

(VITA) Program. Berg was the BAP faculty 

advisor and helped the organization 

significantly expand its service to the 

community from September 2005 until 

her retirement in 2022. Through BAPsponsored 

Habitat for Humanity Tippie 

Builds, Berg led accounting students in 

building homes for families. This included 

climbing on the roof to lay shingles, 

planning pasta lunches and leaf rakes 

to raise funds, and enlisting accounting 

alums to work side-by-side with students 

on the builds. 

Roberto Paniagua (BBA11) pictured on 

Berg’s left above, said he first encountered 

Berg when taking her honors Managerial 

Accounting class. That classroom 

connection grew into Paniagua becoming 

co-head of the 2011 Tippie Build. 

“She put an incredible amount of energy 

into helping build and fundraise $50,000 

for the construction of a new home for a 

family in need,” said Paniagua, who is now 

an account executive at Google. “I never 

understood how she managed to stay on 

top of everything she did, but her selfless 

energy and passion for helping others 

was the biggest and best lesson I took 

away from my four years at Iowa.” 

Berg also has a creative streak. She 

expanded the annual Meet the Firms 

Night networking event, moving it for 

many years to the press box at Kinnick 

Stadium where recruiters saw their firms’ 

names flash across the scoreboard as they 

networked with students. The Department 

of Accounting boasts a college-leading 

98% placement rate, thanks in part to 

Berg’s vision of networking events. 

Berg has also been the Iowa VITA Program 

site coordinator, trainer, and advisor for 

the last 17 years. VITA student volunteers 

assist low- and moderate-income families 

in Johnson County to prepare their tax 

returns. Berg increased the number of 

clients VITA served tenfold. 

“Professor Berg worked tirelessly alongside 

the student volunteers, processing 

hundreds of tax returns in a very short 

period of time,” said 2008 BAP vice 

president of VITA programming Evan 

Malcom (BBA09). “Her energy and 

desire to always maximize the refunds 

for the taxpayers kept the student 

volunteers engaged and always learning 

something new with each return they 

processed.” 

Blake Walton (BBA21/MAc22), a VITA 

teaching assistant, remembers that “she 

would do everything in her power to not 

turn a taxpayer away,” recalling many 

evenings where VITA sites went late, but 

she would continue to take details outside 

after they were rushed out of the library. 

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 

Berg deftly shifted VITA to a fully virtual 

program with a secure electronic drop 

box for taxpayer documents, helping more 

than 700 taxpayers prepare their returns— 

many after students had left school for 

summer break. 

Alumni and students may be less aware 

of Berg’s pathbreaking scholarship. She 

was the first woman awarded tenure and 

promoted to full professor in accounting 

at the University of Iowa, arriving just 

a few years after the Iowa Electronic 

Markets (IEM) started in 1988. For many 

years, Berg was the director of the IEM, 

which is considered the first prediction 

market in the country. She has written 

more than 20 scholarly research articles 

to date using IEM data and played a key 

role in facilitating research opportunities 

for her colleagues. 

“One of the best things about coming 

to Iowa was the opportunity to have 

Joyce as a colleague,” said Professor Tom 

Rietz, finance department executive 

officer. “It has been my pleasure to work 

with her on several research projects 

and serve together on the IEM steering 

committee. She’s a careful scholar with an 

exceptionally creative mind.” 

BERG HAS EARNED MANY ACCOLADES 

DURING HER TENURE AT TIPPIE, 

INCLUDING: 

• Outstanding Service Contribution by a 

Faculty Member Award (2016) 

• Michael J. Brody Award for Faculty 

Excellence in Service to the University 

and the State of Iowa (2014) 

• Faculty Advisor of the Year (2013) 

• Gil Maynard Excellence in Accounting 

Instruction Award (2012) 

• President’s Award for Technology 

Innovation (2000) 

• Under her direction, BAP won the 

University of Iowa President’s Award for 

State Outreach and Public Engagement 

for the VITA Program and its impact on 

the Johnson County community (2008) 

Those who know her are not surprised 

that she is more gratified to hear students 

remember her as a professor who “taught 

them the human side of accounting.” • 


CAMPUS 

RETIREMENTS 

Reputation Builder 

Mark C. Penno retires 


Professor Mark Penno taught analytical and theoretical classes at Tippie, which 

makes perfect sense considering he first earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy 

before moving to accounting for his master’s and Ph.D. His teachings helped 

form the reputation of Tippie students being able to think through and analyze 

problems—one of the reasons our graduates are sought after. 

One of Penno’s former students, Bradford Hepfer (BBA06/ 

MAc07/PhD16), who is now an assistant professor at Texas 

A&M, said, “I’ve interacted with many analytical researchers— 

they are all remarkably intelligent and creative scholars—but 

none hold a candle to Mark when it comes to his ability 

to bring life to challenging, complicated, and otherwise 

inaccessible theories and models.” 

Kathryn Brightbill (PhD18), now an assistant professor 

at Utah State University, remembers his helpful class 

notes. “Even now I offer them to students who are looking 

to understand one of the papers we have covered. I’m not 

ashamed to admit I occasionally look at them myself! He is 

a good person, great teacher, and fantastic friend. With his 

retirement, the academic world will be a little less fun.” 

Penno joined the University of Iowa faculty in 2004 and was 

most recently the Sidney G. Winter Professor of Accounting. 

Apart from his research and refereeing of peer’s research, 

Penno spent much of his time teaching MBA students in Des 

Moines. 

Some career highlights include being ranked #1 in 2012 for 

accounting research productivity for the Ph.D. class of 1983 

by Issues in Accounting Education, winning the best paper 

award from Accounting Horizons in 2009, serving as the 

director of the McGladrey Institute for Accounting Education 

and Research at Iowa from 2011 to 2014, and being named a 

fellow of the Accounting and Economics Society. 

Mark and Bonnie Penno 

Penno plans to spend retirement in Iowa City and his second 

home in Galena, Ill. with his wife, Bonnie. • 


CAMPUS 

RETIREMENTS 

Raising the Bar 

Thomas J. Carroll retires 


If you ever took a financial reporting or accounting theory class from Professor of 

Instruction Tom Carroll, you know he put students through their paces. 

“Rigorous courses like Tom’s really helped me prepare for 

environments like Lehman Brothers, where there is a very 

high bar for output and delivery,” said Brad Downes (BBA04/ 

MAc05), who is now the associate director of strategic 

finance at Balyasny Asset Management. “I was able to go toeto-toe 

with my Ivy League colleagues and really perform well.” 

Sarah Yanik (BBA19/MAc21), now a tax associate at RSM 

in Des Moines, remembers his tough love in the classroom 

turning into kindness and empathy in office hours. “He would 

share insightful stories and anecdotes and truly cared about 

the desires and success of this students. Those office hour 

visits truly shaped me and my time at Iowa.” 

Carroll began teaching at Tippie in 1989. He won several 

awards as an instructor, including a Tippie Collegiate 

Teaching Award in 2015, a dean’s teaching award in 2008, and 

the Gilbert P. Maynard Excellence in Accounting Instruction 

Award in 2007 and 2003. 

He was also the director of the Master of Accountancy 

program up until his retirement, was an academic advisor 

to more than 480 master’s students from 2008 to 2016, and 

served on the Tippie Judicial Board for more than 20 years. 

Tom Carroll 

In addition to his work at the university, Carroll has also 

served on the board of directors for the non-profit Red 

Cedar Chamber Music since 2016, is a member of the Student 

Tuition Organization of Southeast Iowa, and has served in 

various roles at the Regina Foundation. • 


CAMPUS 

Stand Out Students 

Each year our students work hard and achieve big things. It’s great to see them 

recognized! Congratulations to these scholarship winners: 

$25,000 

$10,000 

$10,000 

$2,500 

$2,500 

Accounting Ph.D. 

candidate Cory Hinds 

won a prestigious 

$25,000 Deloitte 

Foundation Fellowship. 

The foundation awards 

only 10 such fellowships 

a year to top tier 

candidates across the 

United States. 

Hinds’ research uses 

experimental methods 

to study the judgments 

and decisions of 

investors and managers 

in financial reporting 

and capital markets. 

Cameron Erickson 

(BBA22) was selected 

as a 2022-2023 Public 

Company Accounting 

Oversight Board scholar 

and received a $10,000 

scholarship. He will 

start his career in the 

Process Risk & Controls 

division of RSM’s 

consulting practice in 

Chicago after finishing 

his MAc degree at 

Tippie in December 

2022. 

“I’m grateful to Deloitte for sponsoring the 

award and supporting my academic research. 

While my name is attached to the award, 

I would not have been in a position to receive 

it without the great support and mentorship of 

the accounting faculty at Iowa.“ 

—CORY HINDS 

Haley Graves (BBA22) 

was selected as a Public 

Company Accounting 

Oversight Board 

scholar for the 2021- 

2022 school year and 

received a $10,000 

scholarship. She is 

currently pursuing 

her master’s degree in 

accounting. 

After two rounds of 

competition, accounting 

senior Ryan Brickhaus 

won a $2,500 Norman 

J. Kallaus Scholarship 

out of a pool of students 

enrolled in the Business 

Communication & 

Protocol course at 

the Tippie College 

of Business. For the 

final round, students 

submitted recorded 

elevator pitches. 

According to Meredith 

Ringel-Ensley, the 

assistant director of the 

Judith R. Frank Business 

Communication Center, 

“Ryan’s submission stood 

heads above all the 

others.” 

Accounting senior 

Bryce Buhlman 

received a $2,500 

Iowa CPA Education 

Foundation Scholarship. 

The foundation was 

formed in 2014 to 

provide support to 

students interested 

in becoming CPAs in 

Iowa. Buhlman, who 

will graduate with 

his bachelor’s degree 

in May 2023, has 

internships with RSM in 

Waterloo and EY in Des 

Moines lined up before 

he plans to start his 

MAc degree at Iowa the 

fall of 2023. • 


RESEARCH 

The Case for the Chief Accounting Officer 

BY • TOM SNEE 

14 % ( ) 

The likelihood firms 

with a CAO will have 

to restate earnings 

One of the biggest C-suite trends over the last decade has been the evolution of the 

chief financial officer (CFO) into more of a strategic manager, which begs the question 

of who on the executive team devotes their time to overseeing the financial reporting. 

A recent study by Tippie College of 

Business assistant professor Adrienne 

Rhodes and her co-author, Dan 

Russomanno of the University of Arizona, 

finds that many firms elevate a chief 

accounting officer (CAO) or controller to 

the executive officer team. Overall, this 

has been beneficial for firms that have 

made the change, as those that elevate 

their CAO to an executive officer position 

tend to produce more reliable financial 

statements than firms with a chief 

financial officer only. Firms with this 

reporting structure see a 14% decrease 

in the likelihood of a restatement than 

firms that have only a CFO, and the longer 

the CAO is in place, the less likely a firm 

will need to restate its earnings. 

Rhodes and her co-author tracked the 

executive officers in Form 10-K or proxy 

statement filings of public firms between 

2000 and 2016, some with CAOs, others 

with only CFOs. They found other benefits 

for those with CAOs or equivalent positions: 

they made fewer accrual estimation errors 

and unsigned total current accruals, and 

corrected material weaknesses in internal 

control more quickly. 

They also found firms are most likely 

to benefit from a CAO at the executive 

officer level when there is more pressure 

on executives’ time and attention, such 

as those with more segments and 

subsidiaries, and with more foreign 

transactions. Since the CFO in many 

firms has evolved into a position focused 

more on strategic matters and firm 

management, a CAO is able to give 

financial reporting the time and attention 

that a CFO may no longer have time for. 

Since restatements are often seen as 

signs of sloppy management, they can 

lead to lower stock prices or greater 

attention from regulators that will lower 

the firm’s value. Rhodes says elevating 

the CAO to an executive officer position 

also has a kind of symbolism that could 

build trust and firm value. 

“The presence of a CAO may represent 

a firm strategy to signal high financial 

reporting quality to the market, and the 

increased reliability of reporting from 

a firm with a CAO may be driven by this 

commitment,” she said. • 


CAMPUS 

“I’ll Take S-Corps for 500, Alex” 

Tippie hosts the first annual RSM Tax Jeopardy competition 


Anthony Mullan 


The air was abuzz with anticipation. A capacity crowd of students, professors, and tax 

professionals eagerly chatted under a massive blue game screen in the Pappajohn 

Business Building. Then the unmistakable Jeopardy melody began. 

It was time for the final round of the first annual RSM Tax Jeopardy competition. 

Jason Wagner and Joe McCarragher 

As the two teams of Introduction to 

Taxation students collaborated with 

their team members to answer the final 

Jeopardy question, Chuck Orr (BBA72/ 

JD75/MA75) sat near the back of the 

audience with a smile on his face. 

Orr, a retired partner from RSM, was 

instrumental in making the day possible, 

helping to establish the RSM Wilfred (Bill) 

H. Heitritter Excellence in Tax Fund at the 

University of Iowa after Heitritter’s death 

in 2015. 

Orr and Bill Heitritter (BBA72/JD75/ 

MA75) were partners at RSM, and he 

wanted to honor his friend of over 40 

years while helping the next generation 

of accounting students. The resulting 

fund supports students to participate 

in experiential learning related to tax 

education and research. 

Originally the funds were used to send a 

small handful of students to existing 

competitions, but when COVID-19 brought 

about a pause in these events, it prompted 

innovation. 

Associate Professor Kay Hegarty (BBA80) 

approached Accounting Department 

Executive Officer Cristi Gleason and said, 

“There has to be a better way to use the 

funds to benefit a broader cross section of 

students. She asked me what I had in mind. 

With this Tax Jeopardy competition, we 

were able to create and host a fun event 

with RSM and involve around 100 students 

instead of just a few.” 

The four-round competition began with 

12 teams and offered extra credit and 

small gift cards to students participating 

as competitors or audience members. In 

addition, students participating in the 

semi-final and final rounds were each 

competing for up to $600 in tuition 

credits. The winning team—Anthony 

Mullan, Blake Shultz, and Zachary 

Willenzik—took home a total value of $700 

each for demonstrating their tax mastery. 

“I thought it was tremendous,” Orr remarked 

after the event. “Bill was a really competitive 

guy, so he would have loved this!” 

RSM colleagues and close personal 

friends Jason Wagner (BBA99) and Joe 

McCarragher (BBA99) were the “Alex 

Trebeks” of the event, complete with 

“game-show host” grey wigs and flashy 

Hawkeye jackets. The two were hired by 

RSM on the same day 22 years ago. 

In his opening remarks, McCarragher, 

who is also a Professional Accounting 

Council member, said “If it wasn’t for 

Chuck’s heart for his friend and his heart 

for accounting, the students at the UI 

wouldn’t have this opportunity.” 

“You’ll find in your career, it’s friendships 

that matter.” • 


FEATURE PROFILE 

From EMT to PwC 

Accountant Shea Fowler still geeks out about medicine 

BY • LYNN ANDERSON DAVY

Shea Fowler (BBA94) didn’t know much about accounting when he started at the University 

of Iowa in the early 1990s. He thought he wanted to be a doctor, and even pursued EMT 

training after witnessing his grandfather suffer a fatal heart attack at a family Thanksgiving 

gathering. But when his father, Joe Fowler (MBA92), enrolled in Tippie’s Executive MBA 

program to boost his career, business suddenly became a visible career path. 

Fowler grew up in Iowa City, where 

his father was head of parking and 

transportation for the city. He lived at 

home for several years during college, and 

saw his father working on case studies 

and reading textbooks. Although Fowler 

was already intrigued by emergency 

medicine, he also became interested in 

entrepreneurship and dreamed of owning 

a restaurant, which lead him to the 

business school. 

“Once I got to Tippie, I enjoyed what I 

was studying and learning,” he says. “My 

accounting courses were some of the 

first to challenge me, and as I got more 

immersed, I realized the subject clicked 

with my brain. Accounting quickly became 

my passion–I felt like I had found myself, 

my talent.” 

Still focused on medicine 

Today, Fowler is Health Services 

Assurance Practice partner and leader of 

the Greater Chicago Healthcare Practice 

for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago, 

Ill. Ever since his EMT days, Fowler has 

maintained a deep interest in healthcare 

and medicine, and he enjoys working 

with healthcare providers to optimize 

their services and patient care. He 

admits to “geeking out” over the latest 

medical procedures and cures and loves 

learning about cutting-edge science and 

healthcare innovations. 

Fowler regularly consults with 

administrators from major academic 

medical centers across the country, 

including the University of Chicago 

Medicine and New York Presbyterian. He 

says working in the medical field within 

the accounting world is rewarding. 

“I am fascinated by how medical 

administrators, doctors, and nurses run 

their departments,” says Fowler. “There is 

so much going on in hospitals today, from 

diversity in healthcare to discrepancies 

in care due to race and sex; it is all 

unbelievably interesting to me. I see my 

role as making healthcare better and more 

efficient, and it’s incredibly gratifying to me.” 

Raising a family of Hawkeyes 

Fowler and his wife Courtney (Cavitt) 

Fowler (BBA97), who is also an accounting 

alum, live in Western Springs, Ill. a 

community 15 miles from downtown 

Chicago, and have three boys. Identical 

twins Josh and Jackson are currently in 

their third year at Iowa and are enjoying 

their experience on the Iowa City campus. 

Josh is studying accounting at Tippie, and 

Jackson is studying human physiology and 

exercise science. Fowler’s third son, Drew, 

is a junior in high school and is seriously 

considering becoming a Hawkeye. 

Although no one from Fowler’s extended 

family still lives in Iowa City, he and his 

wife come to town often to visit their sons 

and attend football games. Fowler says 

he wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of 

his twin boys decides to stay in Iowa after 

graduation. He says his sons appreciate the 

state’s relaxed lifestyle and social values. 

Plus, one of his sons recently purchased a 

large pickup truck. 

“It doesn’t seem like the right choice of 

vehicle for the city.” 

Fowler on the Professional 

Accounting Council 

Fowler is committed to exposing more 

students to the incredibly diverse world 

of accounting. He brings his passion for 

education and everything Hawkeye to the 

Tippie Professional Accounting Council 

(PAC). Now in his third year, Fowler says 

he is “preparing the pipeline” to bring 

new talent to accounting firms in Iowa 

and beyond. 

Fowler’s wife served on the PAC about a 

decade ago, and he learned a lot about the 

council’s work from her. But the experience 

of meeting with fellow accountants 

and interacting with Tippie Accounting 

Department Executive Officer Cristi 

Gleason is even better than he expected. 

“I learn something every time I am on 

campus, and I especially enjoy learning 

about the accounting program,” he says. 

“The PAC is made up of very smart, driven, 

and successful businesspeople, so it’s a joy 

to be a member and soak up all that talent 

and expertise. I feel I should be thanking 

Tippie, not the other way around.” • 


FEATURE 


Legacy 

A WEIGHTY 

Dan Collins retires from 

the Tippie College of Business 

To illustrate Dan Collins (BBA68/PhD73) on the occasion of his retirement, we wanted it to be more 

than a simple photograph. We wanted his portrait to somehow communicate the breadth of his 

45-year career. We wanted him rooted strongly in Iowa. We wanted viewers to know he was not just 

a professor, but a formidable researcher. And we wanted his dozens of Ph.D. students represented. 

So, we enlisted the help of artist and Iowa alumnus Lucas Underwood (BA03/MFA15) for this 

Herculean task. While Collins was teaching his last two semesters of classes, we were busy layering 

as much meaning as we could into this portrait. The longer you look, the more you’ll see! 

DETAILS EMBEDDED IN THE ARTWORK 

The gold stripes of Collins’ 

tie feature Marshalltown, 

Iowa (where he went to 

high school) and Iowa City. 

His Ph.D. students from 

1982 to 2021 in golden 

metal leaf calligraphy on 

books of collaged Iowa 

maps spanning from 

Marshall County (top 

left) to Johnson County 

(bottom right). 

All eight editions of 

“Financial Reporting and 

Analysis,” the widely used 

accounting textbook 

Collins co-authored. 

3-D bookshelves made 

from layered maps where 

Michigan State University, 

Northwestern, and Duke 

are located. (Representing 

his limited time away from 

the University of Iowa 

when he began his career/ 

was a visiting professor). 

A Financial Accounting 

Standards (FASB) 

textbook represents the 

countless hours he spent 

in the classroom as an 

accounting professor. He 

used to tell his students 

that the proper way to 

carry the FASB tome was 

under their arm with the 

title facing out so that 

everyone would know they 

were “elite accounting 

students.” 

The deep blue fields at the 

bottom corners are made 

of indigo-coated maps of 

the Pacific and Atlantic 

Oceans representing the 

pull of the coasts. In the 

portrait, as in life, Collins 

remains solidly in the 

middle of the frame (and 

country). A loyal Hawkeye, 

through and through. 

Journals where Collins’ 

research has been 

published (shades of blue) 

and served as a referee 

(shades of tan leather). 

The University of Iowa 

presidential seal as a 

lapel pin. 

The 1968 and 1973 

yearbooks (the years 

in which he got his 

bachelor’s and doctoral 

degrees in accounting 

from the University of 

Iowa). 

DYK? 

The Hawkeye yearbook 

was produced from 1892 

to 1992—except for a brief 

interruption in the 70s, 

which included 1973. So 

there was actually no 

yearbook produced the 

year he received his Ph.D. 

Collins’ jacket is made of 

Iowa maps. While painted 

a traditional “Hawkeye 

Black,” you can still 

see details of the maps 

underneath if you move 

in relation to the piece. 

As the light catches it at 

different angles, county 

lines appear in gold and 

warm hues. 

Composition generated 

from a medium-format 

photograph taken by 

Underwood, a former 

assistant at the famed 

Lasansky Gallery and 

Studio in Iowa City. 

His face was made using 

an ink transfer process 

utilizing a flipped inkjet 

print of his photograph, 

transparent matte medium, 

and Iowa maps. Through 

pressure, the ink detaches 

from the paper it’s printed 

on, adhering to the matte 

medium instead. 

A weighty legacy. 

The framed piece tips 

the scales at roughly 

23 pounds. • 


Dan Collins 

By Lucas Underwood 

Mixed media on wood panel, 30x33 in., 2022 

On view in the RSM Suite (W262) at the Pappajohn Business Building

FEATURE 


ACCOUNTING for 

DAN COLLINS’ LEGACY 


The evening of Dan Collins’ retirement party, the Professional 

Accounting Council (PAC) and a few extra guests toasted to his 

long and accomplished career. Of note, not one of the speakers 

relied on Collins’ numerous awards as proof of greatness. 

There was hardly a mention of his Hancher-Finkbine Faculty 

Medallion, FARS Lifetime Achievement Award, multiple teaching 

and mentorship awards from Tippie, nor his being named the 

Outstanding Accounting Alumnus of 2022. 

Instead, there were stories. 

He lent a hand at a new faculty member’s house when their 

basement flooded. He was such a handsome and well-dressed 

young professor. He took the time to make copious notes on 

Ph.D. students’ papers—enough to fill all the margins. He talked 

over Zoom to a student struggling through their first semester of 

accounting, after which they referred to him as “that dear 

Dan Collins.” 

And it was fitting. His legacy is so much more than any 

trophy case could hold. 

It’s hard to overstate his influence in the college. At the Tippie 

College of Business, Collins is ever-present, even though he now 

only occasionally stops by his emeritus faculty office. To fully 

convey his impact, we would need more space than this—or any 

other—magazine allows, so we’ll concentrate on three important 

programs that either wouldn’t exist or wouldn’t be the same 

without his advocacy and involvement. 

EVERYONE 

HAS A 

DAN STORY 

“ 

I was a student of Professor 

Collins in the 70s, early in his 

career. Over 40 years later, I 

recall those classes as among 

the most challenging of my 

higher education. I also recall 

Professor Collins as one of the 

best teachers.” 

— JONATHAN H. BOGAARD 

(BBA78/MAc81/JD81) 

Bogaard Law, LLC 

“ 

I got to know Dan very well when he 

was in the MAc program and I was in 

the PhD program way back in 1967. 

Dan, myself, and another Ph.D. student, 

Fred Sterling, started jogging together 

to keep fit. All three of us were quite 

pleased with our running progress. The 

interesting thing about Dan’s running 

at that time was that, unlike Fred and 

I who ran in typical running shoes, 

Dan ran in combat boots and still set 

the pace for us. Dan always excelled in 

everything he did.” 

Dan was [my late husband] 

“ 

John Phillips (PhD99)’s 

chair. John worshipped the 

ground Dan walked on.” 

— AMY DUNBAR 

Former Tippie Professor 

— GARY HOLSTRUM (PhD70)

I graded papers for Dan. 

“ 

It was my senior year and 

I don’t remember much 

about it except that I 

thought Dan was very 

handsome.” 

— MARIE (GRUNEWALD) 

DARBY (BBA69) 

 

The Accounting Writing 

and Communications Program 

In the late 1990s, Dan Collins (BBA68/ 

PhD73) was the accounting department 

executive officer. He heard from the board 

and alumni in industry that accounting 

graduates were great at accounting—but 

there was a catch. They weren’t so great at 

communicating. 

You could have all the data and knowhow in 

the world, but if you couldn’t communicate 

it via executive summary for your boss or 

in an email to your client, what good did it 

do? And it wasn’t just Iowa grads. It was an 

industry-wide problem. 

Where others saw a crisis, Collins 

saw an opportunity. He rallied the board 

and donors and the Accounting Writing 

Program was piloted the fall semester 

of 1998. 

“I first met Dan when he was interviewing 

me to coordinate the fledgling Accounting 

Writing Program,” remembers Pam 

Bourjaily, who was the first director of the 

program and is now the director of Tippie’s 

Frank Business Communications Center. 

“His enthusiasm for what was then little 

more than a good idea and a website was 

compelling and, it turns out, contagious. 

Dan embodies the power of positivity—he 

makes the ‘yes’ happen.” 

Over the last twenty-four years, the 

program has grown its reach (thanks in 

part to funding by Bob Nicholls (BBA80)) 

to serve around 300 undergraduate and 

master’s students any given semester, 

and expanded its mission to include 

speaking and data visualization in addition 

to writing. Currently, all accounting 

undergraduate and required Master’s 

courses feature writing assignments. 

Using private and corporate gifts 

(largely secured by Collins), as well as 

departmental funds, the program employs 

a team of writing consultants who meet 

with students prior to paper submission 

dates to provide guidance. The consultants 

also assess for communication objectives 

and leave feedback for students after the 

submission date. By applying this feedback 

from one project to the next, students 

improve gradually in their writing abilities. 

The writing program’s model curriculum 

initiative is now beginning to take shape 

in other departments throughout the 

college, and Tippie accounting students are 

becoming known—and getting hired—for 

their communication skills. Reputation 

building at its best. 

WATCH DAN COLLINS’ 

RETIREMENT TRIBUTE VIDEO 

(WITH A TISSUE) 

qrco.de/dancollins 

“ 

I met Dan Collins in 1979. He was my 

professor for Intro to Accounting 

and many other classes over the 

next three years. Back then I wasn’t 

the greatest student and Dan was 

all business—a full agenda with no 

wasted time in the classroom. Those 

piercing eyes and dry sense of humor; 

my brain was always exhausted after 

each class.” 

— BOB ARZBAECHER (BBA82) 

Retired chairman and CEO 

Actuant Corporation 

“ 

I’ve 

had a blessed life, 

and a lot of it is because of Dan.” 

Hegarty and her husband, John, honored Collins 

through the creation of the Kay and John Hegarty 

Accounting Faculty Excellence Fund in 2020. 

— KAY HEGARTY (BBA80) 

Associate Professor of Instruction 

Retired partner, RSM

Another program that Collins spearheaded 

is the First Year Scholars program. He 

secured corporate gifts from the Pella 

Corporation and Deere & Company in 1997 

to launch the scholarship program based 

First Year 

Scholars Program 

on student potential. 

Historically, the department and college 

awarded a substantial number of 

scholarships to juniors and seniors with 

outstanding academic records. Aiming 

to attract promising young students 

interested in accounting, Collins came up 

with the idea of giving out scholarships to 

incoming students as a recruitment tool. 

The first year, 13 scholarships were awarded. 

As a group, they maintained a 3.7 GPA in 

high school, scored an average of 28 on the 

ACT exam (90th percentile), were active 

in many extra-curricular activities, and 

graduated in the top 15% of their class. 

Turn to pg. 4 to see how the investment 

panned out—spoiler, it was a huge 

success, with several C-suite level 

executives among the group. 

And it wasn’t a one-time thing. 

For the past twenty-five years, the 

scholarships have launched the next 

generation of accountants and executives. 

The program has now awarded more 

than 300 student scholarships and has 

been an irrefutable success. 

2022 First Year Scholars 

Ph.D. Program 

Much of Collins’ 45-year career was 

spent building the Iowa accounting Ph.D 

program’s national status and reputation. 

Since the 1970s, Collins has ceaselessly 

been an advocate for the program and 

catalyst for its excellence. 

Importantly, Collins excelled as much at 

fundraising as he did at educating and 

mentoring his students. 

He was passionate about hiring top-flight 

faculty, an enthusiasm he shared with 

Henry B. Tippie (BSC49). The two shared 

a memorable professor, Gil Maynard, and 

agreed on the compounding effect an 

excellent professor could have—hire a great 

faculty member and influence generations! 

Collins also deeply cared about supporting 

doctoral students. So much so that when his 

wife Mary passed away in 2003 from breast 

cancer, Collins established The Dan and 

Mary Collins Accounting Ph.D. Fellowship 

Fund, to which he has personally made 

significant donations. And he didn’t just 

offer financial and academic support. He 

often treated Ph.D. students like family. 

“Many of the doctoral students are 

international students, and I was one of 

those,” said Paul Hribar (PhD00), the 

current graduate program director. “When 

you move here, you don’t know too many 

people, and what amazed me most about 

Dan and Mary was how much they really 

adopted the Ph.D. students.” 

“He took the time to meet my mom and 

sisters and comforted them with the care 

he showed for me,” remembers S.P. Kothari 

(PhD86), MIT professor and former chief 

economist and director at the SEC who 

came from India for his doctoral education. 

“They felt assured that I had a family 

thousands of miles away from them.” 

Collins’ efforts—large and small—have 

certainly paid off. The program is wellranked 

and his influence as an academic 

mentor is truly far-reaching. His Ph.D. 

mentees have gone on to become 

professors and deans at prestigious 

universities across the country, as well as 

countless more that have made it to the 

top echelons of industry. 

As current department chair Cristi 

Gleason said in Collins’ retirement tribute 

video, “It was really strange to watch 

him clean out his office and to throw out 

decades of books and papers.” 

“But his legacy isn’t in those books and 

papers,” she said. “It is in the scholars 

around the world that he’s trained and in 

whom he’s instilled his values.” • 

The tradition continued 

until his retirement! 

“ 

Dan and I graduated from 

Marshalltown High School in 1964, 

and we both played baseball for 

Marshalltown Community College 

before we were roommates at the 

University of Iowa. It was around 

then that I christened Dan with the 

nickname ‘booker’ because he was 

always studying and ‘booking.’ It 

obviously paid off!” 

—JIM WOLFE (BSPH70) 

“ 

This is the custom-made bobblehead the 

doctoral students in my cohort made of 

Dan’s ‘nod’ (of approval), which is widely 

sought after. Dan frequently nods in 

approval when he is following along and 

agreeing with a speaker, particularly 

in workshop. The student with the best 

workshop comment each week got to keep 

the trophy.” 

— JANE Z. SONG (PhD18) 

Assistant Professor of Accounting, 

University of Georgia

FEATURE 

BY • JENNIFER SETER WAGNER 

MODERN 

Mentorship 

Early career alums offer 

advice for accounting 

students and the 

department 

22

Accounting Department Executive Officer Cristi Gleason had a challenge on her hands. 

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost every interview for her students had 

shifted to virtual. Those seeking jobs and internships were coming to faculty with all sorts 

of questions: In what physical location should students conduct Zoom interviews? Was it 

okay to sit in their dorm room? Should they take down their posters? How could they get 

the most out of their virtual internship? 

Typically, Gleason would turn to her 

Professional Accounting Council, which 

has been in place since the 1980s. This 

accomplished group of alums fly in twice 

a year to advise the department on 

curriculum issues and talk to students. 

“They are a really seasoned bunch,” says 

Gleason. “Very experienced—a great council. 

But the pandemic changed the student 

experience awfully fast for us. And there 

were just glaring places where we knew we 

needed input and mentoring from recent 

alumni. Our students needed firsthand 

knowledge of how to professionally 

manage their social media accounts 

and to understand if they possessed the 

technology tools required in the real world.” 

in their classrooms, as well as Microsoft 

PowerBI and Visio, a flowcharting tool. 

Thanks to the ECPAC, the department 

also now has a LinkedIn group, which 

Gleason notes has proven to be a huge 

recruiting tool for the department, as 

future Hawkeyes thinking about accounting 

are eager to connect with alums in the 

field. Further, the accounting information 

systems course is significantly increasing 

the analytics component because of the 

ECPAC’s feedback. “Basically,” says Gleason, 

“We were looking for input from recent 

graduates about what they needed and what 

they wished they’d had as students—and 

their suggestions put us on a significantly 

different trajectory.” 

With the 80 ECPAC members signed 

up as mentors, the next challenge became 

how, precisely, to match them with 

interested students. 

Enter the app, Tribute. 

And so, the idea of the Early Career 

Professional Accounting Council (ECPAC) 

was born. 

Once word got out about the group, the 

response was enormous. “I thought maybe 

40 people would volunteer,” says Gleason. 

“Today, we have twice that number.” And 

the impact was immediate. Among their 

recommendations: Change up the software. 

Faculty now incorporate even more Excel 

Sammy Maasarani (BBA20) is one such 

recent graduate who sits on the ECPAC. 

Now based in Chicago, Ill., as an associate 

for KPMG, he says he volunteers his time 

because he recognizes the importance of 

community with his alma mater. “I enjoyed 

my time at the UI,” he says. “I was a tutor 

and loved helping other students and seeing 

them succeed. This mentoring program is 

a good fit—I can network, feel connected to 

the UI, and help students.”

Used by companies like Microsoft, Zillow, 

and Coinbase to foster mentoring cultures, 

the Tribute app operates like a dating 

app, except it’s used for mentorship. It is 

designed so that both mentors and mentees 

set up individual profiles, and the user can 

choose from a large menu of attributes to 

find a good fit. 

Tippie Accounting is the first alumni/ 

student use for Tribute, but the app’s 

flexibility is perfect for the “at the moment” 

kinds of mentoring students need: How 

do I make a good impression in my first 

interview? Move from a small town to a 

big city? Find other first-generation users 

who can advise how to navigate the job 

market? Find an LGBTQ+ friendly employer? 

Perhaps they are currently studying for/ 

taking the CPA exam or navigating worklife 

balance. The app also provides a filter 

where a student can, for instance, check a 

specific box for the kind of work they hope 

to find, such as within the fields of data 

privacy and security, asset management, or 

audit and insurance. The initial mentoring 

relationship is short—just 30 days—a 

time limit which can be extended if both 

users agree. While it allows for a genuine 

connection to grow, the default 30 days 

encourages students to build a wider 

professional network. 

Casey Daniel, a third-year accounting 

student, says the app allowed him to 

connect with recent graduates who 

could advise him on classes to take or 

when and where to get that first internship. 

“I’m the first one in my family to study 

business,” says the Iowa City native, who 

was president of the Tippie Accounting 

Society his first year. “It’s not like I can ask 

my parents. At first, I had no clue where I 

wanted to go with accounting, so I took my 

questions to the Tribute app. It was much 

cooler than I expected. Now if I have a 

question, they tell me, ‘Yeah, just shoot me 

a text!’” 

Daniel recalls one week, Tippie sponsored a 

“Meet the Firms” night. “Even though I was 

afraid they’d be dumb questions, I texted 

my app mentor to see what I should ask 

the recruiters and to get some confidence.” 

Thanks in part to that mentorship, Daniel is 

happy to report he got an interview with a 

recruiter he liked and secured an internship. 

“My app mentors helped me learn that 

accounting is not one-dimensional. And 

having someone to text who knows 

what they’re talking about has been super 

valuable.” 

Mentors report the experience with the 

Tribute app has been gratifying as well. 

Joe Daniel (BBA14/MAc15)—no relation 

to Casey—moved to Chicago, Ill., after 

graduation and spent four years in the 

audit practice at Deloitte. He’s currently 

a manager at The Siegfried Group, also in 

Chicago, Ill. “It really is such a rewarding 

experience to give back to the current 

students—especially those who reach 

out,” he says. “Being on the mentor side of 

it, I feel a sense of responsibility to those 

students who are willing to put in the effort.” 

Daniel says his commitment per student is 

minimal: typically, a few texts or calls each 

month. “It’s not overly time consuming,” 

he says. “All you’re doing is sharing your 

experience and advice. You don’t need to 

do any extra work to prepare. There’s really 

no downside. It’s just a great opportunity to 

help the next generation.” • 


FEATURE 

BY • JENNIFER SETER WAGNER 

Lindsay Abt (BBA99) 

Brandon Miller (BBA03) 

TWO PATHS to 

PARTNER 

There is no one specific set of skills or experiences for ambitious accountants who desire to obtain 

the position of partner. Some firms may prioritize those who have a specialization or technical 

competency; others seek well-traveled candidates who have relocated for the firm or who have 

experience in a certain region of the world. Ultimately, partners are typically those employees who 

with demonstrated integrity, have proven they can be strong leaders of the firm, and who have shown 

they can protect and grow valued client relationships through providing exceptional client services. 

Tippie accounting alums Lindsay Abt (BBA99) and Brandon Miller (BBA03) have spent their entire 

careers at Ernst & Young (EY), and both have obtained the position of partner. Yet their individual 

career experiences prove there are many paths to this coveted position. 

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 

TIPPIE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS 

25

LINDSAY ABT 

RAISE YOUR HAND 

Abt began her EY career as an intern in 

Des Moines, Iowa, then moved to the 

audit practice at EY’s Kansas City, Mo. 

office after graduating. In Kansas City 

she raised her hand to work on a nonaudit 

project that involved 100% travel. 

“That opportunity really accelerated 

the trajectory of my career,” says Abt. A 

year later she was transferred to New 

York City. 

“I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT 

I ACHIEVED THE ROLE OF PARTNER 

AS A DIRECT RESULT OF 

SAYING YES TO 

SOME BIG CHALLENGES 

AND TO BEING OPEN TO 

MOVING AROUND THE FIRM 

AND THE COUNTRY.” 

In February 1999, Lindsay (Sargent) 

Abt found herself peering over the 

podium at hundreds of people in a 

big lecture hall at the Pappajohn 

Business Building. 

Then a senior, she had been asked 

to introduce Henry Tippie at the 

business school naming ceremony. 

“I remember it being a very big deal,” 

she says. She recalls purchasing a 

new suit for the event, and then being 

able to shake the hands of Mr. and 

Mrs. Tippie. “It was a phenomenal 

experience,” she says. “So many of my 

leadership skills come from my time 

at Tippie.” 

In New York, Abt raised her hand once 

again when given the opportunity to 

pursue the executive MBA program 

at Columbia University, which EY 

sponsored. She completed the 

graduate courses while working full 

time. “I strongly believe my foundation 

from Iowa gave me the building blocks 

I needed to take on new challenges.” 

Abt was set to make partner in New 

York when circumstances with her 

main client changed. “They needed 

me in Florida,” she says. Her main 

client had recently centralized their 

accounting in one location just outside 

of Orlando, Fla., so she was asked to 

move south to create and lead a team 

of 25 people. She made partner on 

July 1, 2014 and moved to Florida three 

days later—six months pregnant at the 

time. “The Florida move, though very 

tough personally, was such a great 

professional opportunity and I’m so 

happy I had the confidence to follow 

through,” she says. 

FUN FACT 

Lindsay met her husband of 13 years in Key West, Fla. on a trip with another 

Iowa accounting friend en route to the 2003 Orange Bowl in Miami. 

“I firmly believe that I achieved the role 

of partner as a direct result of saying 

yes to some big challenges and to being 

open to moving around the firm and 

the country.” • 


BRANDON MILLER 

WORK HARD 

Brandon Miller may have taken a very 

different path in life if it hadn’t been 

for Professor Emeritus Dan Collins. 

Then a high school student, Miller was 

likely to follow in the footsteps of his 

dad and three uncles who all attended 

Iowa State University. Despite this, he 

agreed to tour the University of Iowa 

with his parents. The tour took them 

past Collins’ office at Tippie—and today, 

Miller says those few moments with 

the man “considered a legend within 

the department” would essentially 

change the trajectory of his life. 

“Collins was so proud of everything 

that the accounting faculty and the 

graduating students were doing. He 

could really sell the prestige and 

excitement of the program. Largely 

because of Collins, I chose Tippie.” 

Miller credits his experiences with 

Beta Alpha Psi (BAP)—first as a student 

officer and then later as an alumni 

representative on the international 

BAP board of directors—as crucial 

experiences on his path to partner. “It 

set me apart early on to have those key 

leadership opportunities,” he says. 

After a summer internship with 

EY, Miller started his career in their 

Des Moines, Iowa offices where he 

has remained for the past 18 years 

specializing in integrated financial 

audits, system and organization 

controls reporting, and IT and 

operational internal audits. He is a 

partner in the technology risk practice 

of the financial services organization 

within EY and leads the financial audit 

IT competency, which is supported 

by over 500 EY IT auditors across the 

country. His position has taken him 

around the world—throughout North 

America, Europe, and South America. 

“Integrity, stewardship, and authentic 

leadership are hopefully all attributes 

my team members see in me daily,” 

says Miller. “My leadership style has 

always been to get up early and try 

to work harder than many others to 

achieve success for the team. As a 

partner and key leader of many teams 

today, I never want to be viewed as 

expecting more of others than I do 

of myself.” 

“INTEGRITY, 

STEWARDSHIP & 

AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP 

ARE HOPEFULLY ALL ATTRIBUTES 

MY TEAM MEMBERS SEE IN ME DAILY.” 

Brandon’s wife gifted him a personalized 

Hawkeye license plate that reads “HAWKCPA”. 

HAWKCPA 

FUN FACT 


FAMILY PROFILE 

Anthony Nelson Did Not See This Coming 

BY • TOM SNEE 

“I’m an accounting type—pretty detailed and focused. 

I compartmentalize things, I can look at pass coverages and 

stunts and blitz packages and understand they’re separate and 

also a part of something—which is a big part of accounting.” 

28 IOWA LEDGER 2022 

—ANTHONY NELSON

When he was a student at Iowa, Anthony Nelson (BBA18)’s career plan was an accounting 

degree from Tippie, passing the CPA exam, and getting a job at a Big Four firm. 

Instead, he won a Super Bowl. 

Mind you, he’s not disappointed by this 

unexpected career turn. A linebacker for 

the Tampa Bay Buccaneers now entering 

his fourth season, he says the NFL has 

been a thrill, and the ring he won from the 

team’s Super Bowl victory over the Kansas 

City Chiefs is something to cherish. (He 

keeps it in a safe deposit box so nothing 

can happen to it). 

He’s played an increasingly important 

role in the team’s defense in his first 

three seasons and is expected to play a 

significant role in his fourth. 

Nelson said he was well-prepared for the 

rigors of the NFL by his three-years of 

experience as a linebacker for the Iowa 

Hawkeyes, and by his experiences in his 

Tippie classes. 

Accounting and playing linebacker 

have certain similarities, it turns out. 

The people who succeed at both are 

analytical, plan-ahead types who know 

their circumstance and prepare for all 

contingencies. 

“I’m an accounting type—pretty detailed 

and focused,” he said. “I compartmentalize 

things, I can look at pass coverages 

and stunts and blitz packages and 

understand they’re separate and also a 

part of something—which is a big part of 

accounting.” 

A strong work ethic also helps. He 

learned from the academic rigor of the 

department, the high expectations the 

faculty set for the students and their 

demand for excellence. He said those 

expectations prepared him to work 

with Tom Brady, one of the greatest 

quarterbacks in NFL history who’s famous 

for his ferocious work ethic and his 

demand for excellence from everyone who 

plays with him. 

“He carries the same kind of high 

expectations and demands of us 

that the professors in Tippie have for 

their students,” he said. The class he 

remembers most is managerial accounting, 

taught by Lisa Dutchik. 

“We were taught how to take all the theory 

we’d been learning and apply it to real life 

situations, and she made it engaging and 

interesting,” he said. 

A native of Urbandale, Iowa, Nelson 

graduated from Waukee High School and 

came to Iowa in 2016. The choice was never 

really in doubt. His father, Jeff Nelson 

(BS92), a mathematics graduate, played for 

Coach Hayden Fry as a defensive lineman 

from 1990 to 1992, including the 1991 Rose 

Bowl team. His mother Christy (Balster) 

Nelson (BBA94) is also a Tippie alumna. 

“Playing at Iowa was my main dream,” he 

said. “We were a Hawkeye family, and 

I’ve rooted for the Hawkeyes as long as I 

can remember. We had Hawkeye stuff all 

around the house.” 

Nelson even married a Hawkeye in 2021. 

Jordyn (Steinkritz) Nelson (BBA18) is also 

a Tippie graduate and a current member 

of the college’s Young Alumni Board. 

But it was more than just Hawkeye 

football that attracted him to Iowa. With 

the NFL not yet on his radar and the 

Big Four his goal, academics were as 

important as football. 

“I knew I wanted to major in business and 

that Tippie was a great school that would 

provide me with so many opportunities, 

so that was an easy decision,” he said. 

But after his second season with the 

Hawkeyes, he started hearing draft buzz, 

and then Coach Kirk Ferentz called him 

into his office and told him that scouts 

and agents were looking at him. He told 

Nelson that if he ever needed any advice 

or someone to bounce ideas off of, he was 

there to help. 

“That’s when I realized the NFL was a real 

possibility,” he said. 

So he set aside his Big Four dreams and 

went pro. He was picked by the Buccaneers 

in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL draft, 

after recording 119 total tackles and 23 

sacks as a Hawkeye. He also earned an 

accounting degree in just three years, is 

on his way to a master’s degree in finance 

from Tippie, and made the Academic 

All-Big Ten team twice, learning time 

management skills to keep his GPA up. 

“Take an extra class and carve out a few 

minutes here or there to get ahead a 

chapter,” he said. 

Do that and you never know where you’ll 

end up. Though for most of us, probably 

not in the Super Bowl. • 


FAMILY 

ALUMNI NOTES 

Hawkeye Pride 

CONNECT WITH US @TippieIowa TippieIowa Tippie College of Business @TippieCollege 

MARTIN “MJ” D. 

MCNULTY, JR. (BBA00) 

was named chief operating 

officer and head of M&A 

at the Acacia Research 

Corporation. 

HALEY ARKFELD (BBA20/ 

MAc21) won a Capstone 

Award from the ISCPA for 

being a top four scorer in 

Iowa on the 2021 CPA exam. 

BRIAN BECKETT (BBA06/ 

MBA13) was named Kum & 

Go’s chief financial officer. 

Beckett most recently was 

vice president of finance 

and treasurer at Vertex 

Software, a cloud-based 

3D visualization company 

based in Ames, Iowa. 

BENJAMIN BUSCH 

(BBA14) is an account 

director at Shift7 Digital in 

Austin, Texas. 

AMY CHAN (BBA21) 

is a risk and regulatory 

associate consultant 

specializing in tech and 

data with PwC in 

Minneapolis, Minn. 

DONNA COOPER (BBA92) 

is the chief operating officer 

of Dully Health and Care. 

She was named a 2022 

Notable Executive of Color 

in Health Care by Crain’s 

Chicago Business. 

DREW DENNISON (BBA99) 

is the managing director 

of Lightchain Capital, LLC, 

which invests in earlystage 

life sciences and 

software companies. He 

is the former COO and 

CFO at Scottrade Financial 

Services, Inc. where he led 

the company’s operations, 

technology, finance, and 

strategic planning functions 

and managed the sale and 

merging of Scottrade to 

TD Ameritrade. Dennison 

has been married to fellow 

accounting alum AMBER 

(ERICKSEN) DENNISON 

(BBA98) for 23 years. They 

have five children. 

AMY JOHNSON (BBA89/ 

MA90) retired as global 

head of operations from 

Columbia Threadneedle 

Investments, a division of 

Ameriprise Financial, Inc. 

She has since been elected 

as independent director 

of the Federal Home Loan 

Bank of Des Moines, Iowa. 

HALLEY KIRSHENBAUM 

(BBA22) is attending 

Roosevelt University to 

pursue a Master of Science 

in Accounting, specializing 

in forensics. 

TOM KLOET (BBA80) is 

chairman of the board of the 

Nasdaq Stock Market. 

S.P. KOTHARI (PhD86) 

received the 2022 

Distinguished Ph.D. Alumni 

Award from the Tippie 

College of Business for 

his accomplishments and 

impact on industry. Kothari 

is the Gordon Y. Billard 

Professor of Accounting 

and Finance at the Sloan 

School of Management at 

Massachusetts Institute 

of Technology and is the 

former chief economist and 

director of the Division of 

Economic and Risk Analysis 

at the U.S. Securities and 

Exchange Commission. 

ANIBAL MARES MÁRQUEZ 

(BBA20) has joined the 

Tippie Young Alumni Board. 

He is a digital assurance and 

transparency associate at 

PwC in Dallas, Texas. 

MATT MORAN (BBA18) 

has joined the Tippie Young 

Alumni Board. He is a 

financial advisor associate 

at Morgan Stanley Wealth 

Management in Davenport, 

Iowa. 

COLIN PETERSON 

(BBA07) was named to the 

list of 40 Leaders Under 

Forty by the Rockford 

Chamber of Commerce. 

Peterson is senior director 

of assurance services for 

RSM and the current board 

president of the Rockford 

Symphony Orchestra in 

Rockford, Ill. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Alumni 

updates are submitted by 

alumni and are not verified 

by the editor. While we 

welcome alumni news, 

Ledger Magazine is not 

responsible for the information 

contained in these 

submissions. 

VANCE GLASER (BBA16) 

was promoted from senior 

tax supervisor to manager 

at LattaHarris, LLP in 

Durant, Iowa. 

Your Name Here 

(BBA/MBA/PhD) 

New job? 

New grand/baby? 

Retirement? 

It’s ok to brag a little. 

Send your update to: 

tippie.uiowa.edu/update 

ANNA MARSHALL 

(BBA16/MAc17) is a senior 

accounting analyst at CC 

Industries in Chicago, Ill. 

GREG REIMANN (BBA13) 

was promoted from 

supervisor to tax manager 

at LattaHarris, LLP in Iowa 

City, Iowa. 


JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP! 

University of Iowa Accounting 

PEGGY TREVINO 

(BBA82) received the 2022 

Distinguished Service 

Award from the ISCPA. She 

is president of Trevino 

Associates, PC CPAs in Fort 

Dodge, Iowa. 

HARALD SCHNEIDER 

(MBA97) is the chief 

data and analytics officer 

at Equifax where he is 

responsible for global data 

innovation, maximizing the 

benefits of differentiated 

data assets, leading 

analytics capabilities, and 

using data fabric within the 

Equifax CloudTM to drive 

new products and growth. 

Before Equifax, Schneider 

was with Visa as the global 

head of data products. 

BRIAN SCHOON (MAc09) 

was named to the Quad 

Cities Regional Business 

Journal’s 2022 40 Under 40 

list. He is a senior director 

at RSM U.S., LLP. 

TIFFANI SHAW (BBA92) 

is the chief of staff at 

Clarivate. She reports to 

JERRE STEAD (BBA65), 

the executive chairman 

and chief executive officer. 

Shaw was previously the 

University of Iowa Center for 

Advancement’s executive 

vice president and chief 

operating officer. 

ELISHA SMILEY (BBA01/ 

MAc02) is a pastry chef and 

instructor at the Culinary 

Institute of America- 

Greystone in the Napa Valley. 

Her study abroad experience 

in Dijon, France sparked her 

interest in food and led to her 

career shift. 

OH baby! 

DAN SMITH 

(BBA12/MAc13) 

welcomed son Max 

Arthur Smith on 

March 3, 2022. 

NATHAN VANDERHEYDEN (BBA22) 

enrolled at the University of Iowa College of Law 

to study corporate law. 

“After experiencing the 

impacts of unethical 

corporate actions 

firsthand, it has been 

my dream to be a voice 

for others. I want to 

ensure ethical behavior 

in the business world. 

My career goal is to 

apply my financial and 

legal expertise towards 

tackling corruption 

and helping those in 

my community create 

financial stability.” 

Are you an alum who recently added a baby to your 

household? Tell us the news of your family’s addition 

through our online alumni update form and we’ll 

send you a bib! tippie.uiowa.edu/update 

ELLEN WILLADSEN 

(BBA82) was inducted into 

the Iowa Insurance Hall 

of Fame. To be eligible for 

consideration, nominees 

must have an Iowa 

connection, serve as a role 

model for young people 

as well as others in the 

insurance business, exhibit 

the highest standards of 

ethical conduct and have 

had significant impact on 

the insurance industry. 

Willadsen is currently 

the chief innovation 

officer of Holmes Murphy 

& Associates, having 

previously served as their 

chief financial officer from 

1995-2021. 

H E R E’S TO 

40! 

HAPPY 

ANNIVERSARY 

to Iowa Ledger 

magazine, 

which began 

publishing in 

1982! 


FAMILY 

In Memoriam 

Henry B. Tippie 

Jan 5, 1927 - Feb 20, 2022 

Henry B. Tippie (BSC49), accounting alum and one of the university’s most 

significant supporters and benefactors, has died at the age of 95. 

During his lifetime, Tippie traveled from 

the fields of Iowa to Wall Street to a Texas 

ranch, thanks to hard work, integrity, 

and generosity, which is reflected across 

campus—from the Henry B. Tippie College 

of Business to the dozens of Tippieendowed 

research and faculty positions 

and the hundreds of students who have 

graduated with the help of Henry B. Tippie 

scholarships. 

Tippie grew up on a farm near Belle 

Plaine, Iowa, and attended a one-room 

schoolhouse through the eighth grade. 

He enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17 and 

32 IOWA LEDGER 2022 

spent time in Guam at the end of World 

War II. After the service, he attended the 

University of Iowa on the G.I. Bill, earning 

his accounting degree in just three years. 

He married Patricia Bush and they had 

three children (Henry II, Linda, and 

Helen), nine grandchildren, and 11 great 

grandchildren. They celebrated their 65- 

year anniversary last year. 

In 1953, he secured a job with John and 

Wayne Rollins in Delaware. Tippie’s 

business acumen and advice helped the 

Rollins family businesses expand and 

grow exponentially. Today, Rollins Inc. 

is a publicly traded Fortune 1000 firm 

and there are five Rollins-associated 

businesses listed on the New York Stock 

Exchange. 

“Henry B. Tippie is an Iowa success 

story,” says Dean Emeritus Gary Fethke. 

“Optimism, conditioned on reality, was 

ever present with Henry, and he really 

believed that ‘every day is a new day.’ 

He was a plain man who achieved great 

things, thoroughly enjoyed his life, 

appreciated his friends, loved his wife, and 

made the world a better place.”

Ardwin Joseph (Joe) Droessler 

Feb 25, 1963 - Dec 7, 2021 

Kermit D. Larson 

Apr 7, 1939 - Mar 7, 2022 

Joe Droessler (BBA85/MA86), 

supporter of the Tippie Gateway 

Program, has died at the age of 58. 

He was born in Dubuque and attended 

the University of Iowa where he met his 

wife of 30 years, Michelle. They had two 

children, Jake and Hannah. 

Droessler began his career in Iowa as a 

public accountant before moving to the 

greater Chicago area. He was the senior 

director of trading at E*TRADE Capital 

Markets for 16 years before becoming 

vice president of trading operations in 

2009. Most recently, he was the chief 

operating officer of G1X Execution 

Services. 

Among other charitable activities, 

he was a mentor and donor to the 

Tippie Gateway Program, which 

assists populations underrepresented 

in business with their applications, 

transition to college, and provides 

mentorship and scholarships. Droessler 

also helped coordinate and encourage 

Tippie students to apply for scholarships 

through the Security Traders 

Association of Chicago. 

Kermit Larson (BBA62/MBA63), 

University of Texas emeritus professor, 

passed away at the age of 82. 

He was born in Algona, Iowa and 

attended Fort Dodge Junior College 

before attending the University of Iowa. 

He later earned his Ph.D. in accounting, 

finance, and economics from the 

University of Colorado, Boulder. 

Larson married his high school 

sweetheart, Nancy Weber, and they had 

three children (Julie, Tim, and Cindy), 

seven grandchildren, and one great 

grandchild. 

Larson dedicated much of his working 

life to teaching and writing. He joined 

the UT faculty in 1966, where he taught 

for more than 30 years in the accounting 

department, served as department chair, 

and authored several widely circulated 

textbooks. He was also national vice 

president of the American Accounting 

Association, president of the Richard D. 

Irwin Foundation, and was a member of 

several committees of the AACSB. 

“We want to communicate our profound 

thanks to Joe’s family and everyone 

who has donated to the Tippie Gateway 

Program in his memory,” said program 

coordinator Mark Archibald. 


Department of Accounting 

108 John Pappajohn Business Bldg. 


PAC to class 

ACCT:2100 from the back row. On September 

22, the Professional Accounting Council spoke 

to Introductory Financial Accounting students 

at Macbride Hall. When these C-suite executives 

were asked if they used to sit in the front row, zero 

raised their hands. Where did you used to sit? 

The University of Iowa prohibits discrimination in employment, educational programs, and activities on the basis of race, creed, color, 

religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy, disability, genetic information, status as a U.S. veteran, service in the U.S. military, sexual 

orientation, gender identity, associational preferences, or any other classification that deprives the person of consideration as an 

individual. The university also affirms its commitment to providing equal opportunities and equal access to university facilities. For 

additional information on nondiscrimination policies, contact the Director, Office of Institutional Equity, the University of Iowa, 

202 Jessup Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242-1316, 319-335-0705, oie-ui@uiowa.edu. W006985

Iowa Ledger (2022) - Tippie College of Business

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