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Dr. Mark Dawkins named first African American President-Elect of American Accounting Association

Dr. Mark Dawkins, University of North Florida accounting professor and Dr. Mark Dawkins headshotDistinguished Professor for Excellence, has been named the President-Elect of the American Accounting Association’s Board of Directors and is the first African American to hold this position.

Dawkins was also elected on the 100th year anniversary of the first African American to be granted a CPA in the United States, John W. Cromwell, Jr. in 1921.

Dawkins will be responsible for administering the affairs of the association for a three-year term and will automatically become president at the end of his first year.

Dawkins holds certifications as a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, and Chartered Global Management Accountant. He joined the faculty of UNF’s Coggin College of Business in 2015 and served as dean for a five-year term before returning to his faculty position in 2020. Previously, he worked for 21 years at the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Terry College of Business as an accounting associate professor, associate dean for academic programs and director of diversity relations.

His research interests span bankruptcy, accounting information and the capital markets, and accounting education. His work has been published in notable journals including The Journal of Finance; Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis; Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance; Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting; Journal of Banking and Finance; and Advances in Accounting.

He was the recipient of Outstanding Teacher of the Year Awards in 2006 and 2003 and was one of five inaugural recipients of the EY Inclusive Excellence Award for Accounting and Business School Faculty at UGA.

Dawkins is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Accountants, the Florida Society of CPAs, the PhD Project, and the Accounting Doctoral Student Association.

Dawkins holds a doctoral degree in accounting from Florida State University, an MBA and accounting master’s from University of Florida, and a bachelor’s in management from Georgia Institute of Technology.

The American Accounting Association is the largest community of accountants in academia with a prestigious network of over 6,000 members around the world. Founded in 1916, the American Accounting Association has a rich and reputable history built on leading-edge research and publications with a diversity of membership that creates a fertile environment for collaboration and innovation.