SBA faculty are regularly recognized for their outstanding achievements at the School of Business and professionally.

2008 Graduate Faculty Teaching Awards

Professor of the Year Award
Each year, the Graduate Business Student Association (GBSA) presents a "Professor of the Year Award." This award helps to recognize a USD Graduate School of Business Administration educator whose dedication to teaching over the last year has added great value to the experience of the students and has proved exceptional in their role as a professor.

The 2007 Professor of the Year award went to Tom Dalton, Ph.D., Professor of Accounting and Taxation.  Tom served as the Associate Dean in the School of Business Administration from January 2000 until June 2004 and was designated as the Steber Professor for the 2003-2004 academic year.

He received his Ph.D. in accounting at the University of Houston in 1992 and an M.S. in Business Administration from San Diego State University in 1983. He has published numerous tax planning articles in professional journals and tax related research studies in academic journals. He is a Certified Public Accountant and, prior to entering academia, was a tax consultant for Touche Ross & Co. (now Deloitte and Touche). Recent consulting activities include financial analysis of publicly traded corporations for Gradient Analytics, expert testimony on educational issues, and individual and business tax planning. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the California Society of CPA's San Diego Chapter and is a chapter Past President. He volunteers as an accounting advisor for non-profit entities and teaches courses in financial statement analysis, individual tax, corporate tax, partnership tax, and retirement planning. Dalton also teaches the yearly Tax Boot Camp for the CalCPA San Diego Chapter.

Professor of Impact Award
This annual award is given by the May graduating class of the MBA and IMBA students to the School of Business Administration Professor who had the greatest positive impact on their overall graduate experience at USD. Each year, the professor that is selected will be announced at the graduation celebration in May.

The recipient of the 2008 Professor of Impact Award was Dirk Yandell, Ph.D., Professor of Economics. Yandell began at USD as an undergraduate student in 1973, completing a B.A. degree in mathematics and economics in 1977. He then earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Purdue University and returned to join the USD faculty in 1981.

Professor Yandell has taught over twenty different courses at USD. He enjoys integrating experimental methods into the classroom, and regularly receives top teaching evaluations. He received the Sears Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award in 1991.

Previous Award Recipients:

2007 Professor of the Year
Professor Dirk Yandell, Ph.D., Professor of Economics

2007 Professor of Impact
Professor Dennis Zocco, Ph.D., Professor of Finance

2006 IMBA Cohort Recognized Professor
Mazur Rahman, Associate Professor of Finance

2006 MBA Cohort Recognized Professor
Professor Dirk Yandell, Ph.D., Professor of Economics

2007 Undergraduate Teaching Awards

Outstanding Undegraduate Business Education Award
The Outstanding Undergraduate Business Education Award is an annual award given to a faculty member who delivers relevant, rigorous, and complete course content, provides for significant opportunities for individualized student learning, links theory to realworld applications, and provides learning that is in concert with the goals and mission of the university.

Stephen Conroy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics, is the 2007 recipient of the Outstanding Undergraduate Business Education Award. Conroy’s primary undergraduate classes include Principles of Microeconomics and Managerial Economics.

The past two fall semesters, Conroy has taken his preceptorial students for Community Service Learning immersion experiences to Tijuana to experience the economy first-hand, including an overnight stay and tour of a local maquiladora.

Innovative Undergrdauate Business Education Award
The Innovative Uundergraduate Business Education Award is given to a faculty member who has introduced a new teaching practice or method shown to improve the current practice of teaching.

Scott Kunkel, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management, is the 2007 recipient of the Innovative Undergraduate Business Education Award. Kunkel has developed a unique teaching approach known as Consultant Learning (CL). CL won a national award for Pedagogy Innovation of the Year in Entrepreneurship in 2002 from the US Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and was the subject of an article published in the Journal of Management Education in 2002. As noted in the 2002 Journal of Management Education articles, “The ‘Consultant Learning’ approach turns the classroom into a laboratory for the free enterprise system, using price as the allocation mechanism for grades earned. Students determine their own grades by earning ‘consulting fees’ by completing projects. The amount of consulting fees earned determines each student’s grade.” CL is used in universities throughout the country and is also used by over 100 high school teachings including over 50 high school teachers in San Diego.

2007 Professor of the Year
USD's Senior Class of 2007 recognized Professor Linda Barkacs, JD, as "Professor of the Year for the School of Business Administration."  This award was presented to Barkacs on May 4, 2007 at USD's 25th Annual Senior Banquet and was signed by the A.S. 2007 Senior Senators, Jennifer Fernandez and Kathleen Gallagher.