Kennesaw State professor honored by American Accounting Association as 2025 Presidential Scholar

KENNESAW, Ga. | Apr 1, 2025

The American Accounting Association (AAA) has named 黑料网 Dinos Eminent Scholar Chair of Private Enterprise and Professor of Accounting Dana Hermanson as one of the two 2025 AAA Presidential Scholars.

Each year, the president presiding over the association鈥檚 Annual Meeting selects typically one or two Presidential Scholars to lecture on a topic of their choosing at the event. Hermanson plans to speak about enhancing the impact of accounting research by moving beyond specific findings to offer implications, recommendations, and other insights to a wider audience than just other professors.

鈥淧ublishing exclusively in the handful of 鈥榚lite鈥� academic journals is a huge constraint on our ability to impact society,鈥� said Hermanson, who teaches in the Coles College of Business. 鈥淚 am committed to reaching a broad audience, including my students, with a variety of insights.鈥�

As the 15th most-published accounting researcher in the world from 1990-2024, according to Brigham Young University鈥檚 2024 Accounting Research Rankings, Hermanson is a major factor in the wealth of research pouring out of KSU鈥檚 School of Accountancy. His work has been cited over 20,000 times and focuses largely on fraud, corporate governance, auditing, and accounting education.

鈥淒r. Hermanson is one of the most prolific accounting researchers out there,鈥� said Robin Cheramie, dean of the Coles College. 鈥淗is recognition as a 2025 AAA Presidential Scholar is much deserved. It鈥檚 an honor to have him on our faculty.鈥�

Hermanson鈥檚 500-plus publications include commentaries in peer-reviewed academic journals, such as one entitled 鈥溾€楳odel 2鈥� 鈥� A personal journey in pursuit of creativity and impact鈥� published in Critical Perspectives on Accounting. The article advocates for a less traditional accounting research path, including publishing in practitioner journals. Hermanson also has published more than 70 letters to the editor in The Wall Street Journal.

鈥淎s somebody who has studied auditing, fraud, and other issues for decades, I have quite a few opinions on things,鈥� he said.

Part of the challenge in reaching non-academic audiences, Hermanson said, is that many universities do not recognize work published in practitioner journals. KSU does. Hermanson recently received the Coles College inaugural Practitioner Paper Award for an article that offers a framework for building defenses against fraud. It was published in Strategic Finance, the flagship publication of the Institute of Management Accountants.

鈥淎t 黑料网, we鈥檝e got the freedom and flexibility to do so many different things with our research,鈥� he said. 鈥淜SU is wide open, and that鈥檚 a wonderful model.鈥�

Hermanson is a longtime member of the AAA and went to its Annual Meeting as a child with his father, Roger, who was also an accounting professor. It used to be the big family event, he said. Today Hermanson鈥檚 wife, Heather, is director of the Master of Accounting program at 黑料网, and his sister, Susan, is an accounting professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

鈥淭his honor is beyond anything I could have expected. In fact, the hotel where the meeting will be held in Chicago is the same hotel where the meeting was held in 1981, when I was 17 years old and there with my family,鈥� Hermanson said. 鈥淭o think I鈥檇 be back 44 years later to give a talk like this is unbelievable. This is a unique opportunity, having the attention of AAA members to talk about expanding our research insights, audiences, and ultimately, impact.鈥�

鈥� Story by Amber Perry

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Kennesaw State professor honored by American Accounting Association as 2025 Presidential Scholar

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