Dear Tull friends and family, 

As I look back on the past year, I’m struck by how much we have to celebrate, both in the classroom and beyond! Our students, faculty, alumni and friends continue to make the J.M. Tull School of Accounting a place of excellence and impact. From marathon wins to national accounting honors, from classroom innovation to professional milestones, it’s been a year full of moments that make us proud. 

This spring we saw several of our alumni step into roles with the FASB and GASB, adding to the long list of Tull graduates shaping the future of accounting. Our faculty continue to keep our curriculum forward-looking, with more integration of technology and sustainability into the learning experience. And our alumni and professional partners remain invaluable to our mission, offering mentorship, opportunities and support.

You’ll notice our “annual report” looks a little different this spring. For the first time, we’re sharing it in a fully online format. In addition, we will send it twice a year — in the spring and fall. We hope these changes make it easier to browse, share and stay connected, whether you’re across campus or across the country. While the format may have changed, our goal is still the same: to highlight the incredible people and stories that make Tull what it is.

As you scroll through this newsletter, you’ll see the many students who were honored at the annual awards banquet in April. I hope you’ll also enjoy reading about several alums who chose a career in academia. And don’t miss the piece about our faculty band — it’s a fun look at how collaboration, rhythm and a shared sense of purpose connect us in and out of the classroom.

Thank you for being part of the Tull community! I hope you’ll take a few minutes to explore this spring’s digital report and celebrate the impact we’re making together.

Margaret Christ
Director, J.M. Tull School of Accounting

The 2025 Tull School of Accounting Honors Banquet was held April 24 at the Athens Country Club. The guest speaker was Tull alum Tommy Breedlove (BBA ’97), bestselling author of Legendary: A Simple Playbook for Building and Living a Legendary Life, and Being Remembered as a Legend.  

Breedlove began his career at Deloitte, moving from shareholder to international practice leader to board member. For several years, he has been on a mission to challenge high-achieving business leaders to build and live legendary lives through speaking engagements and corporate retreats. At the banquet, Breedlove was presented with Tull’s 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award.

View the full list of scholarship and award recipients, as well as this year’s Beta Alpha Psi initiates, at the link below.

MAcc student Gray Frederick started running in seventh grade “after not having much success in football and baseball,” he says. He ran cross country and track all four years of high school in Newnan and went on to attend Georgia College and State University on a running scholarship before transferring to UGA. 

He is heavily involved in Athens’ running community, working at Fleet Feet and as a member of the Athens Road Runners club. “My training depends on what I’m preparing for,” he says. “Marathon training involves a lot more volume, while training for shorter races like the 5K or 10K focuses more on speed with lower mileage.”

Coming off his second consecutive victory as the overall winner of the Athens Classic City Marathon and a top-ten overall finish in the 2024 Philadelphia Marathon among over 17,000 participants, he finished 259th out of 30,000 runners in the 2025 Boston Marathon.

“I’m passionate about running and I am always looking to push my limits,” Frederick says. “Balancing training, school, and work can be challenging, but I enjoy the process and the community I’ve found through it.” 

Frederick graduates with his MAcc in May and will start as an audit associate in KPMG’s Atlanta office in October. “This will give me enough time to sit for all parts of the CPA exam between graduation and starting work,” he says. 

That is, if he can sit still long enough.

MAcc student Milca Ramirez was named a Terry College of Business Sea Island Scholar. The scholars participated in a three-day retreat in March offering an experiential learning opportunity with notable Terry alumnae and supporters. During the retreat on Sea Island, they met with successful women in business and got a firsthand look at the operations of a hotel and resort.

Tull students Nathaniel Walker, Blake Mutz and Hope Bowen were recognized for Excellence in Accounting at the Terry College Honors Day this spring.

Undergraduate student Margaret Dudley and MAcc student Greysen Geer are members of the UGA cheerleading squad and recently wrapped up the basketball cheering season, which included a trip to the NCAA tournament!

Several students spent Spring Break studying abroad in Canada. Tull professor Jennifer Rivers helped teach the program, which allows students to learn experientially as they visit with businesses and enjoy the local culture.

Tull MAcc students spent winter break in the Specialized Master’s Study Abroad program in Costa Rica.

Tull graduates have a longstanding history of appointments to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) as postgraduate technical assistants (PTAs). The school nominated four students for the next cycle, and we’re proud to share that all earned appointments:

FASB Summer ’25

FASB Winter ’26

GASB Summer ’25

GASB Winter ’26

Tull executive-in-residence Dennis Beresford served as chairman of the FASB from 1987-1997. During his tenure, he created the PTA program, which recruited outstanding accounting graduates each year to work closely with senior FASB staff members.

As Beresford notes, “The program has grown substantially from those efforts in the mid-1990s, including the GASB starting its own program several years later. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the competitive nature of the program. UGA’s success in placing candidates is a testament to the outstanding work previous Bulldogs have done, as well as the excellent credentials of new candidates.”

The FASB originally intended for the “interns” to help with routine or mundane tasks, such as summarizing comment letters from constituents on technical projects. “But this changed over time as we saw how capable these young people were,” says Beresford.

Fortunately for Tull, Beresford shared his experience and expertise with our students. “I began the efforts at UGA to identify and nominate qualified candidates. I’m very proud that others have continued these efforts and now UGA is recognized as probably the most important supplier of talent to the PTA programs.”

And this tradition continues. Two of our current PTAs share their stories below:

Do you remember your professors talking about their research in class? Quite a few former BBA and MAcc students heard those stories and were inspired to take the leap into academia by pursuing PhDs in accounting. Their journeys are a testament to the strength of our programs, and to the mentors who helped spark their interest in research, teaching and discovery.

Whether inspired by the complexity of audit, the impact of accounting in global markets or the potential for research to shape policy and practice, these alumni are carving out exciting careers as accounting scholars. Here are the stories of a few of the many graduates whose intellectual curiosity and academic ambition have taken them from the classrooms at Terry to PhD programs around the world — and on to the head of the class.

Frazier & Deeter of Atlanta announced Jeremy Jones (BBA ’97) will become managing partner in January 2026. Jones joined FD in 2001 and currently serves as chief operating officer and audit partner.

A group of Tull faculty, staff and alumni took in an Athens Rock Lobsters hockey game. 2024-25 was the inaugural season for the team, which plays in the Federal Prospects Hockey League at Akins Ford Arena in Athens.

During the COVID pandemic, people took up new hobbies: Bread baking. Painting. Knitting.   

Tull faculty started a band.

During the lockdown, professor John Campbell watched the movie School of Rock with his kids. “They loved it,” he says, “so I bought a guitar, amp, bass guitar and drum set.” Campbell had a musical background that included playing lead guitar in a band during high school and singing with an a capella group in college. 

“I sent a photo to the faculty of me playing guitar in my basement with a visiting speaker from the University of Toronto,” he recalls. “Frank Heflin saw a drum set in the background and told me he played, and we said at the same time, ‘Did we just start a band?’” They recruited Holley Schramski and PhD students Collin Rabe and Allison Hickey, and the Tull band was born.

John Campbell received the 2024 Terry College of Business Distinguished Research Award and the 2024 Southeastern Conference Travel Grant Award.

Jennifer Chapman is the director of Tull’s new Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcc), a 100% online program designed for working professionals with a non-accounting education. 

The Terry College of Business recognized Braiden Coleman with its Outstanding Teacher Award.

Tull 2023 PhD graduate Truman Rowley (now at UNLV) won the Accounting Behavior and Organization’s Section’s Outstanding Dissertation Award, and Jackie Hammersley received a related award for Outstanding Dissertation Advising.

Tim Keadle was recognized by the UGA Career Center for having a significant positive impact on students’ career decision-making process.  

The 2024 Terry College of Business Teaching Excellence award was presented to Erin Towery.

Kristen Valentine won the 2024 Student Career Success Influencer Award and the 2024 Hawaii Accounting Research Conference Best Reviewer Award.

Campbell, Dhaliwal, Krull and Schwab. “U.S. Multinationals’ Foreign Cash Holdings: An Empirical Estimate and the Impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” Review of Accounting Studies.

Campbell and Evans. “Practice-informed Accounting Research: The Role of Macroeconomic Events and Changes in Financial Reporting and Disclosure,” Foundations and Trends in Accounting. 

Cadman, Campbell and Johnson. “Time-series Variation in the Efficacy of Executive Risk-taking Incentives: The Role of Uncertainty,” The Accounting Review.

Austin, Carpenter, Christ and Nielson. “Empowering Auditors to Pursue Fraud during Evidence Evaluation,” Accounting Horizons.

Brazel, Carpenter, Gimbar, Jenkins and Jones. “Recent Research on the Identification, Assessment, and Response to Fraud Risks: Implications for Audit Practice and Topics for Future Research,” Accounting Horizons. 

Ahn, Christensen, Johnson and Lewis-Western. “The Future Performance Implications of Non-GAAP Firms’ Investments,” Journal of Accounting and Economics.

Heflin and Wallace. “Political Contributions and the Auditor-Client Relationship,” Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting.

Heflin, Ton and Wang. “Does Auditor Style Influence Non-GAAP Earnings Disclosure?” Contemporary Accounting Research. 

Gomez, Heflin, Moon and Warren. “Crowdsourced Financial Analysis and Information Asymmetry at Earnings Announcements,” The Accounting Review.

Gilliam, Heflin and Paterson, “Managers’ Use of Order Backlog to Avoid Reporting Revenue Declines,” Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting. 

Hess and Mills. “Government Assistance: A Growing, Under-disclosed Financing Source,” Accounting Horizons. 

Nessa, Persson, Song, Towery and Vernon. “The Effect of U.S. Country-by-Country Reporting on U.S. Multinationals’ Tax-Motivated Income Shifting and Real Activities,” Journal of Accounting Research. 

Ashby, Chyz, Myers and Whipple. “Non-GAAP Earnings and Definite-lived Intangible Asset Allocations in Mergers and Acquisitions,” The Accounting Review.

Lecturer Sarah Banghart and husband Alex welcomed a daughter, Emily, on Feb. 4.

Jacob Grant Bischoff was born on March 21 to PhD candidate Grant Bischoff and wife Maria.

On March 14, a son, Keiren Kai Elfrink, was born to PhD candidate Erik Elfrink and wife Barbie.