Professor Kimberly Smith Receives McGlothlin Award for Exceptional Teaching
On May 13th, 2018 Professor Kimberly Smith was honored with the McGlothlin Award for Exceptional Teaching. This annual award acknowledges two faculty members each year, one from the Raymond A. Mason School of Business and one from William & Mary’s Law School, who are dedicated to excellence in teaching. Created in 2016 by James W. McGlothlin ’62, J.D. ’64, LL.D. ’00 and Frances Gibson McGlothlin ’66, this renowned award is bestowed on faculty committed to teaching and their students.
Dr. Kimberly Smith teaches Professional Accounting to Master of Accounting students at the Mason School. Says Smith, “The students here are so amazing that teaching becomes an intellectual challenge rather than a duty. The W&M alumni are so loyal that you know your hard work is appreciated and remembered.”
Smith has won a number of teaching awards, including the William and Mary Alumni Fellowship Award in 1994, the Dean's MBA Teaching Award in 1993 and 1996, and the Master of Accounting Program Outstanding Professor Award in 2005. When speaking about the McGlothlin Teaching Award, Smith says, “An award such as [this] motivates an entire generation of faculty members to continually innovate in the classrooms and programs in which they teach.”
Dr. Smith has authored a number of articles in leading journals such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Business, Accounting Organizations and Society, Journal of Management Accounting Research, and Issues in Accounting Education.
Her research has focused on control systems for capital investment projects and the dynamic relation between CEO pay and firm performance. In addition, Smith has served in a variety of leadership roles related to teaching and curriculum. These roles include chairing the Curriculum and Teaching Committee during the development of the Online MBA, the Master’s of Science in Business Analytics, and the new residential MBA curriculum initiatives.
Dr. Smith is committed to preparing the next generation of business professionals. Her years of experience from outside business ventures allow her to bring real life scenarios and experiences alive for her students, regularly presenting education programs in private industry, including programs at Stifel Nicolaus, Legg Mason, Landmark Communications, Smithfield Foods, Inc., CSX, and ARINC, among others.
As a criterion for this award, professors must be dedicated to constantly innovating their teaching techniques. As a professor at W&M, Dr. Smith has consistently created innovative cases, courses, and program initiatives. Smith’s current curriculum project is to further develop and promote a new specialization in W&M’s MAcc program that prepares students to pursue doctoral study in accounting and become accounting professors. She notes, “The nation-wide shortage of accounting professors, combined with W&M’s great reputation for sending students on to doctoral study, makes this a natural place to help develop the next generation of teacher/scholars.”
