Dr. Rick Elam, Reynolds Professor of Accountancy
316 Conner
(662) 915-5281
Dr. Rick Elam is the Reynolds Chair of Accountancy in the Patterson School of Accountancy at The University of Mississippi where he teaches elementary accounting for honors students, accounting systems, policy and ethics for graduate students. He was honored by the Mississippi Society of CPAs with their 2011 Outstanding Educator Award.
The Reynolds Chair is endowed as part of a $16.5 million gift in honor of Ole Miss Accountancy Alumnus E. H. “Pat” Patterson in recognition of his 25 years of service to Donald W. Reynolds and the Donrey Media Group, which Reynolds created. In response to the gift, University officials have renamed the school the “Patterson School of Accountancy.”
Before moving to Ole Miss, Dr. Elam, a nationally known authority on accounting education, served as Dean of the College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University, one of the largest accredited business schools with 3,000 majors and 111 faculty.
From 1989-95, Dr. Elam served as Vice-President-Education of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) where he managed three divisions: The Examinations Division prepares the Uniform CPA Examination, which was administered semiannually to 65,000 candidates; the Academic and Career Development Division, which influences the academic community and the public to attract highly qualified people into the accounting profession and ensure they receive the highest quality pre-certification education; and the AICPA Library, which serves the information and research needs of the Institute’s 325,000 members.
Prior to joining the AICPA in 1989, Dr. Elam was Dean of the School of Business at Rutgers University (Camden). Previously, he was Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy at the University of Missouri at Columbia.
He has written numerous professional articles and participated as a speaker at many national and international educators’ conferences. He is conducting research on the topic of Extensible Business Reporting Language. Dr. Elam serves on the Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy. He holds a B.S. degree in business administration and economics from Culver-Stockton College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in accountancy from the University of Missouri at Columbia.
Dr. Elam is married to Dr. Karen J. Elam. They have two adult children.
