UOG welcomes accounting professors through newly established program

The University of Guam School of Business and Public Administration (SBPA) welcomes associate professors of accounting Dr. William Morehead and Dr. Mark Morgan from Mississippi College as part of the new Senator Herminia Dierking and John Phillips Visiting Accounting Professor and Lecturer Program.

The program, a collaborative, strategic partnership between SBPA, the Guam Board of Accountancy (GBOA), and the UOG Endowment Foundation, focuses on strengthening the university’s accounting program through endowed chairs, which are specialized faculty positions funded by a donor.

The program will fund visiting accounting faculty with specific expertise not currently available in Guam.

“This new program adds value to our existing accounting degree program,” said SBPA Dean Dr. Annette Taijeron Santos. “The benefit is that these visiting professors will provide fresh perspectives and widen our scope of accounting through specialized courses such as fraud examination.”

Visiting professors
Morehead and Morgan, both associate professors of accountancy at Mississippi College, will be teaching at UOG Summer Session A.

The former National President of the Association of Government Accountants from 2009 to 2010, Morehead, whose accolades include 2012 recipient of the National Robert W. King Memorial Award—the highest award presented by the Association of Government Accountants—will teach the foundation course titled principles of managerial accounting.

Morgan—whose professional background includes serving as the Senior Criminal Investigator for the Mississippi Department of Revenue for seven years—has held more than a handful of academic positions and professional memberships such as the longest serving member on the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ Higher Education Initiative Committee in Austin, Texas. He will teach a unique special studies in accounting course titled Fraud Examination.

“Both professors were recommended by GBOA and our accounting faculty,” Santos said. “They are solid candidates for the first cycle of the program, and it will be interesting to see how their teaching styles impact our curriculum.”

Multi-year support
In 2014, the GBOA contributed $1M to the UOG Endowment Foundation to establish the endowed chair program and has pledged continuous financial support for the program until the year 2020. In April 2016, GBOA made an additional contribution of $100K, with planned contributions of up to $200K in 2017 and 2018.

“This is really the first program of its kind here at UOG, and it’s a great first step in aligning external support for UOG degree programs,” UOG Endowment Foundation director Janiece Sablan. “Our mission is to provide impact to the University through community engagement, and in terms of greater educational enrichment for future accountants, this program was a logical fit for where to invest GBOA’s generous donation.”

Serving the community
Michele Santos, assistant executive director and licensing administrator at GBOA, said the Program’s purpose is to serve not only an industry but community need. By adding value to the existing accounting program, GBOA hopes to prepare the next generation of accounting professionals that will serve Guam.

“The goal is to graduate accounting majors that hopefully become Certified Public Accountants (CPAs),” Michele Santos said. “There is a need, and we want to help our students by using this money to strengthen the accounting profession on Guam.