Assumption Accounting Professor Named 2019 Outstanding Educator of the Year
Assumption Associate Professor of Accounting Jennifer Niece, CPA, MBA, has received the 2019 Outstanding Educator of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants (MSCPA). This award recognizes Prof. Niece’s excellence in teaching and motivating students, as well as her contributions to the accounting profession, active participation in the MSCPA and her efforts in serving as a liaison between the classroom and the business world.
Prof. Niece joined the Assumption faculty in 2001, where she has served as Chair of the Department of Business Studies and as coordinator of the CPA Track MBA programs. She teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She was the first business faculty member to design a Community Service Learning (CSL) course, in which her students incorporated their coursework into a community volunteer project. Over the last 15 years, students in this CSL course, which works with the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, have electronically prepared more than 5,000 tax returns, resulting in refunds of approximately 9.5 million dollars for low-income, Worcester-area residents.
“I am honored to have been nominated and selected for this award,” said Prof. Niece. “It is gratifying that the MSCPA has recognized the relationships that I have helped to build with accounting firms and how well Assumption’s accounting programs—both the undergraduate and graduate programs—prepare students for the public accounting profession.”
Prof. Niece is a valued advisor, working with students to plan careers in public accounting: together with Assumption’s Career Development and Internship Center, she established the annual Accounting Career Night, which welcomes CPA firms to campus; is actively involved in on-campus recruiting to strengthen ties to the profession; and created Assumption’s full-time accelerated and part-time CPA Track MBA programs.
“Professor Niece is an asset to the Assumption community,” said Louise Carroll Keeley, Ph.D., provost and academic vice president. “The knowledge, experience and passion she shares with her students and colleagues is unparalleled. Her enthusiasm for teaching has brought about new classes and programs at Assumption, ones that not only benefit students but also fill a societal need, a cornerstone of the Assumption mission.”
Prof. Niece is an active member of the MSCPA, the state’s premiere professional organization with more than 11,000 members in public accounting, industry and business, government and education. Among her contributions to the organization, she helped launch MSCPA’s annual High School Educators’ Conference.
Prof. Niece earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting from the College of the Holy Cross and an MBA from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.