John Hassell, an accounting professor at Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, was honored by his peers for his impact on teaching, service, and research for more than a quarter century.
Hassell, who earned an MBA and a PhD in accounting in 1983 from the Kelley School in Bloomington, received the Academic Excellence Award and was one of 10 honored at the annual Accounting Alumni & Friends Recognition Banquet in November. He has taught at Kelley Indianapolis since 1996.
“IU has affected every aspect of my career,” Hassell said. “When my wife, Barb (a retired clinical professor of management), and I were asked to come back to IUPUI, it was a quick yes,” Hassell said. “I am a product of the Accounting Department’s tradition of commitment to excellent research, teaching, and service.
“Barb and I are committed to urban education, and we have had wonderful careers in Indianapolis and Carmel. As an alum, I am proud of the evolution of the Accounting Department into one of the premier research faculties in the U.S.,” added Hassell, who will join his wife in retirement this spring.
Hassell also has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Baylor University and a Master of Science degree in accounting from Oklahoma State University. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas.
After finishing his academic studies, he started his professional career as a staff accountant at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (now known as KPMG). He left KPMG to take a position as manager of financial analysis at Olin-American in Dallas, Texas.
While he enjoyed his professional career, his desire to enter a career in academics was strong and began his journey after serving as an instructor at Baylor and Utah.
He came to the Kelley School looking to become a professor but found much more from the program. He met Barbara at IU, where they were married at Bethel Chapel next to the Indiana Memorial Union.
At Kelley, he was also exposed to cutting edge research that motivated his passion for voluntary disclosure, which became the theme of his dissertation and later research agenda.
Upon graduation from IU in 1983, he began his career as an assistant professor at Florida State University. He later joined the University of Texas at Arlington in 1989 as a tenured associate professor and was promoted to the rank of professor. Across these two universities, he served on a total of 15 dissertation committees, chairing six of them.
John and Barb Hassell were asked to come back to Indiana to serve as professors at Kelley Indianapolis.
“He is dedicated to the mission of the Kelley School, providing unwavering service to help grow the accounting programs in Indianapolis and Bloomington to the point where they are top four in the nation,” said Joe Schroeder, chairperson of the Graduate Accounting Program, a professor of accounting, and PwC Faculty Fellow at Kelley.
Hassell’s research is built around three themes: voluntary disclosure—a continuation of his PhD dissertation—decision making, and accounting education, which he said was “motivated by the long history of Accounting Department faculty being committed to good teaching.”
Hassell has published more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as The Accounting Review; Journal of Accounting Research; Accounting, Organizations & Society; and Contemporary Accounting Research.
He has received several teaching and service awards, including the 2005 Kelley School of Business Service Award and the 2016 Glenn W. Irwin, Jr., M.D. Experience Excellence Award. He was named Indiana CPA Society Educator of the Year in 2008 and received the 2021 Chair’s Award from the Indiana CPA Society.
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