Speaker Biographies

Markus Ahrens

Senior Director of American Accounting Association

Markus Ahrens, PhD, CPA, CGMA, FMAA is the Senior Director of the Global Center for Advancing Accounting Education at the American Accounting Association (AAA). Prior to this role, he was a Professor of Accounting and Finance and served as District Department Chair for the Accounting, Business & Economics Department at St. Louis Community College. He also brings professional experience from the accounting and finance industries. Markus is a licensed Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Global Management Accountant, and a Financial and Managerial Accounting Associate.

Markus has received numerous national and state awards for his teaching and innovation, including the 2025 Faculty Lecture Award at St. Louis Community College. He was honored with the 2019 Innovation in Accounting Education Award from the AAA and EY, and the prestigious 2016 AAA/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize, which is the foremost recognition of an individual who consistently demonstrates the attributes of a superior teacher in the discipline of accounting. Markus has also received the AICPA Bea Sanders Innovation Award (2018, 2013) for teaching introductory accounting courses, the 2018 Missouri Society of CPAs Outstanding Educator of the Year Award, and the 2017 Educator of the Year Award from the AAA’s TYC Section.

Reimagining Teaching in the Age of AI: Engagement and Efficiency Redefined (co-presenting with Cathy Scott)

Discover practical, forward-looking ways to use AI to strengthen teaching and streamline your workflow. This session explores how AI can tailor learning experiences, deepen student engagement, and reduce routine tasks that drain time. You’ll see demonstrations and concrete examples that support diverse learners, promote higher-order thinking, and elevate course design.

Learning Objectives:

By the end, you will be able to (1) identify practical AI applications that enhance instructional efficiency and reduce administrative workload, and (2) you’ll develop an actionable plan to incorporate at least one AI tool into your teaching or daily workflow.

Whether you’re new to AI or already comfortable with it, you’ll leave with clear, immediately usable strategies and resources to continue exploring.

Andrew Grow

MOCPA Director of Membership and Business Development

Andrew is the Director of Outreach and Business Development with the Missouri Society of CPAs. Andrew meets regularly with firms, businesses, and educational institutions throughout Missouri to speak with firm partners; corporate accounting and finance leaders; and university professors about high-profile profession issues. In addition, Andrew works with stakeholder groups such as the AICPA, NASBA, review course providers, and other accounting-centric organizations to help drive new business opportunities for members.

Prior to joining the Missouri Society Andrew worked for the AICPA, with some of the most prominent authors in the profession. He holds bachelor and master degrees in English Literature; is a graduate of Mizzou and UMSL; and holds a Certified Association Executive credential.

Tilting Scales of Alternate Pathways to CPA Licensure

We are a profession in flux, caught between structures and systems set up for (mostly) universal CPA licensure pathways to a new alternate CPA licensure pathway. By March, 2026 there will be 22 jurisdictions with active new CPA licensure pathways, and another 24 in-process. This discussion will:

Update live status of jurisdictional filings/passings of bachelors degree + 2 years of experience CPA licensure pathway
Outline Missouri legislative action as a case study
Link legislative activity to anti-regulation profession threats
Discuss practical implications and considerations for both licensure and mobility
Identify CPA firm and company sentiments during transitionary period

Stay engaged in current profession legislative activity in this space to help you, your colleagues, and department best navigate practical implications for your curriculum and students.

Elaine Jolly

Applied Assistant Professor at University of Tulsa

Elaine Jolly, CPA, is a graduate of The University of Tulsa, MAcc., 2014. She has extensive public accounting experience in both audit and tax departments of a regional accounting firm. She has taught accounting since 2016 and is currently teaching financial accounting, managerial accounting, intermediate accounting, and accounting ethics.

Evidence Based Student Engagement Strategies

This session explores evidence-based student engagement strategies that can be effectively integrated into accounting courses to enhance participation and deepen student learning. Participants will examine practical approaches grounded in educational research and discuss how these strategies can be adapted for a variety of accounting topics and classroom settings. The session will also highlight simple, actionable feedback and assessment techniques that instructors can use to evaluate student involvement and comprehension.

Attendees will leave with concrete tools to assess the impact of engagement efforts and make informed adjustments to improve learning outcomes in their courses.

Learning Objectives:

Identify evidence-based student engagement strategies that can be applied in accounting courses to increase participation and improve learning outcomes.

Evaluate the effectiveness of different engagement approaches by using simple feedback and assessment methods to measure student involvement and comprehension.

Dr. Gail Hoover King

Retired Accounting Professor

2025 AAA Outstanding Educator of the Year

Gail Hoover King is a retired Professor of Accounting and Data Analytics with a distinguished career in academic leadership, curriculum innovation, and teaching excellence. She served as Associate Dean and Discipline Chair at Rockhurst University, Division Chair at Purdue University Northwest, and directed the development of the Business Data Analytics program at Washburn University. Dr. King earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Kansas and her doctorate from the University of Northern Illinois College of Business.

Her research focuses on learning, assessment, and curriculum development, for which she has received numerous recognitions, including the American Accounting Association’s (AAA) Outstanding Accounting Educators Award, the Jim Bulloch Award for Innovations in Management Accounting Education, the Mark Chain Innovation in Graduate Teaching Award, and honorable mention for the Bea Sanders Undergraduate Teaching Award. She also received the AAA Outstanding Service Award and the Hall of Honors Award from the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section.

Dr. King served as a Commissioner for the Pathways Commission and has held extensive leadership and service roles on AAA boards, committees, and conference teams. Her professional background includes experience in financial and cost accounting, as well as consulting.

Teaching for Purpose and Impact

Teaching extends far beyond helping students master course content; its true purpose is to cultivate learners who know how to learn, think critically, and transfer their knowledge to new and evolving situations. In this session, the presenter will share practical strategies for achieving these goals across a wide range of learners—from novice undergraduates encountering accounting concepts for the first time to graduate students bringing real-world work experience into the classroom.

Drawing from decades of teaching and leadership experience, she will highlight some of her most impactful instructional materials, assignments, and classroom approaches designed to promote deeper engagement, reflection, and application. The session will also explore how she would adapt these strategies to address today’s changing learning environment. Participants will leave with ideas they can apply to enhance student learning and motivation in their own courses.

Cathy Scott

Associate Professor at University of North Texas

Cathy Scott is the Inaugural Director of the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, and an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of North Texas at Dallas. She is passionate about enhancing accounting education and fostering an inclusive learning environment.

Dr. Scott has published and presented extensively on topics such as emerging technologies (including AI), the effective use of technology in education, improving online learning, active learning strategies, data analytics, neurodiversity, and strengthening the accounting education pipeline. She is also the author of two college accounting textbooks and co-founder of TeachingAndLearningToolbox.com, a website and blog dedicated to connecting technology with pedagogy.

Additionally, Dr. Scott’s contributions to innovative teaching and research have been recognized with multiple local, state, and national awards, including the American Accounting Association (AAA)/EY Foundation Innovation in Education Award, the Bea Sanders/AICPA Teaching Innovation Award, and the AAA/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize.

Reimagining Teaching in the Age of AI: Engagement and Efficiency Redefined (Co-presenting with Markus Ahrens)

Learning Objectives:

Whether you’re new to AI or already comfortable with it, you’ll leave with clear, immediately usable strategies and resources to continue exploring.

Wayne Thomas

Professor at University of Oklahoma and David C. Steed Chair in Accounting

Wayne Thomas serves as the David C. Steed Chair in Accounting and George Lynn Cross Research Professor at the University of Oklahoma. His research interests include accounting information in capital markets, techniques used by managers to manipulate earnings, the importance of financial disclosures, consequences of accounting standards, and financial statement analysis. His articles have been published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, and several other journals. He has served in editorship roles at The Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, and Journal of International Accounting Research.

His teaching interests include financial and intermediate accounting. He has won teaching awards at the department, college, university, state, and national levels, including being named Outstanding Accounting Educator by the Oklahoma Society of CPAs and receiving the Cook Prize from the American Accounting Association for undergraduate teaching excellence. He currently co-authors three books with McGraw-Hill: Financial Accounting, Financial Accounting for Managers, and Intermediate Accounting. A fourth book, Managerial Accounting, is scheduled to be published in Fall 2026.

Most of all, he enjoys spending time with his wife Julee, their four children, and their three grandchildren (with another granddaughter expected in April).

Bridging the Gap: Teaching for Tomorrow’s Accounting Careers

Today’s students enter our classrooms with different expectations, experiences, and attention patterns than ever before. As educators, we can adapt our teaching to help bridge the gap between academic learning and the skills employers now demand.

Learning Objectives:

Practical strategies to engage and motivate students.
Discussion of how to equip students with the content knowledge, analytical abilities, and technical expertise they’ll need for success in their business and accounting careers.
How to integrate AI tools to foster curiosity and efficiency, use data analytics to develop critical thinking, and incorporate real-world cases to connect classroom concepts to relevant professional practice.

We want to build a course that engages students and attracts the best students to the major, while ensuring that all students understand the role of accounting in decision-making, its dynamic nature, and its purpose in our society.