Brian Spilker Author

Brian Spilker teaches taxation at Brigham Young University where he received both B.S. and M.A.cc degrees. After work experience at a major tax firm, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. He has won numerous professional awards, including awards for innovative teaching and use of technology in the classroom. His research on tax information search and professional judgment have appeared in key scholarly journals of accountancy. Ben Ayers, dean of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, received an M.T.A. and B.S. from the University of Alabama. and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. A tax manager and a contract manager before he earned his doctorate, he is the recipient of 11 teaching awards at the school, college, and university levels, including the Richard B. Russell Undergraduate Teaching Award and Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award. His research interests include the effects of taxation on firm structure, mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets, and he has published articles in major journals of accounting, law, and economics. John Barrick, an associate professor in the Marriott School at Brigham Young University, served as an accountant at the United States Congress Joint Committee on Taxation during the 110th and 111th Congresses. He received both B.S. and M.A.cc degrees from Brigham Young University, and, after his professional work experience, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in taxation, and his scholarly research and publications explore issues relating to tax corporate political activity. Troy Lewis (CPA, CGMA, MAcc, Brigham Young University, 1995) is an associate teaching professor in the School of Accountancy at Brigham Young UniversityMarriott School of Management. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in introductory taxation, property transactions, entity taxation, advanced individual taxation, and accounting for in-come taxes. He is the past chair of the Tax Executive Committee of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) in Washington, D.C., as well as the president of the Utah Association of CPAs (UACPA). He has testified six times before the United States Finance Committee and the House Committee on Small Business. Prior to joining the faculty at BYU, he was a tax manager at Arthur Andersen and KPMG in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, he was employed for over a decade as the CERMO and Tax Director of Heritage Bank in St. George, Utah. He is the recipient of the AICPA Tax Section Distinguished Service Award, the BYU Marriott Ethics Teaching Award and the UACPA Distinguished Service Award. Troy researches and publishes in professional tax journals in the areas of individual and pass-through taxation, qualified business income deduction, property transactions as well as professional tax practice standards. His work has been published in journals such as Practical Tax Strategies, Journal of Accountancy, Issues in Accounting Education, and The Tax Adviser. John Robinson earned a J.D. from and Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Michigan and holds a chair in the business department at Texas A&M University, where he teaches courses on individual and corporate taxation and advanced accounting. He has taught at the University of Kansas and the University of Texas at Austin, and he has served as an academic fellow on the Securities and Exchange Commission. A former president of American Taxation Association, his numerous awards include the Henry A. Bubb Award for outstanding teaching and the Outstanding Service Award from the ATA. His research and scholarly publishing involve a broad variety of topics involving financial accounting, mergers and acquisitions, and the influence of taxes on financial structures and performance. Connie Weaver is a professor of accounting at Texas A&M University, where she teaches taxation in the accounting and the executive M.B.A. program. She received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.P.A. from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University. A tax manager who became a licensed C.P.A. before entering the Ph.D. program, she is the recipient of several teaching awards, including the 2006 American Taxation Association/Deloitte Teaching Innovations award. The senior editor of The Journal of the American Taxation Association, her publishing and research interests include the effects of tax and financial incentives on corporate decisions and reporting. Ron Worsham teaches taxation in the graduate, undergraduate, M.B.A., and Executive M.B.A. programs at Brigham Young University, where he is an associate professor in the School of Accountancy. Before earning his Ph.D. at the University of Florida, he received both B.S. and M.A.cc (tax emphasis) degrees from Brigham Young University and worked as a tax consultant, earning his C.P.A. license. He has been honored for outstanding innovation in the classroom at Brigham Young University, and has published academic research in the areas of taxpayer compliance and professional tax judgment, as well as legal research in a variety of areas.