Scholarship promotes Ph.D. students with real-world experience

The 2020 William (Bill) Ezzell Scholarships provide one-time awards of $10,000 to five outstanding CPAs pursuing doctorates in accounting who demonstrate significant potential to become mentors for the next generation of CPAs.

The scholarship honors the late Ezzell, a former AICPA chair, who spearheaded the creation of the Accounting Doctoral Scholars (ADS) Program, helped raise $17 million to increase the number of Ph.D.s in accounting and tax, and believed that the best way to encourage the next generation of CPAs was to put educators in the classroom with relevant and recent real-world experience.

The recipients of the scholarships, along with their areas and institutions of study are:

• Amanda Ellison, Accounting, The University of Texas at Austin
• Patrick Kmieciak, Accounting, University of Florida
• Stefan Richter, Tax, Indiana University
• Scott Robinson, Accounting, University of Colorado Boulder
• Alexander Tighe, Accounting, Bentley University