Minority Doctoral Fellowship awards aim to foster diversity in higher education

As part of its effort to help increase the number of CPAs from diverse backgrounds teaching and serving as role models at the college and university level, the AICPA awarded 22 scholars with the Minority Doctoral Fellowship.

The fellowship, funded by the AICPA Foundation, provides $12,000 each to full-time minority accounting scholars who have demonstrated the potential to become accounting educators.

The 2015—2016 recipients are:

• Herita A. Akamah, University of Oklahoma
• Maurice Atkinson, Michigan State University
• Joye L. Baugh, Jackson State University
• Lydia N. Didia, Jackson State University
• Brent A. Garza, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Michelle Harding, The University of Virginia
• Oscar J. Harvin, Florida Atlantic University
• Chevonne Herring, University of Mississippi
• Ethan G. LaMothe, University of South Carolina
• Thomas F. Lewis Jr., Virginia Commonwealth University
• Makila C.A. Major, University of Memphis
• Sydnee Manley, University of Mississippi
• Christopher Alan Miller, University of Mississippi
• Patricia Navarro, University of Central Florida
• Porschia Nkansa, University of Memphis
• Christian Simon Paparcuri, Arizona State University
• Rebeca Perez, University of Oregon
• Andrea Rozario, Rutgers University
• Syrena Shirley, Penn State University
• Justin Cole Short, University of Tennessee
• Kecia Smith, Texas A&M University
• Kimberly Rochelle Walker, University of Wisconsin—Madison

The Minority Doctoral Fellowship is open to ethnic minorities who have obtained or plan to pursue a CPA license. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. For more information on requirements and applying, visit aicpa.org.