EY Teaching Professor Emerita
Accountancy

Role

Areas of Expertise

Research Interests

Accounting, Large lecture classes, Teaching strategies

Professor Cunningham has published articles in professional journals, including Issues in Accounting Education, Journal of Accounting Education, Accounting Education: A Journal of Theory, Practice and Research, The CPA Journal, Research in Accounting Regulation, Management Accounting, Essays in Economic and Business History, and The Community/Junior College Quarterly of Research and Practice. Additionally, she has co-authored several accounting textbooks, most recently she was the lead author (with Professor Loren Nikolai) of Accounting: Information for Business Decisions (Fourth Edition textbook: Cengage Learning). She has conducted numerous workshops around the country on the use of writing exercises in accounting classes and on incorporating creative and critical thinking strategies into the accounting classroom.

Professor Cunningham currently serves on the Editorial Board of Issues in Accounting Education and the Editorial Advisory Board of Accounting Education. She is a member of the American Accounting Association (AAA), for which she has served as Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee, as well as President of both the AAA Teaching, Learning & Curriculum Section and the AAA Two-Year College Section. She also has chaired the AAA Innovation in Accounting Education Committee and co-chaired the AAA’s Conference on Teaching and Learning Accounting. In addition, she has served on numerous AAA committees.

Professor Cunningham also served as President of the Missouri Association of Accounting Educators. She has chaired or served on a variety of Federation of Schools of Accountancy committees. She chaired the AICPA Core Competency Best Practices Task Force and served on the AICPA Pre-Certification Education Executive Committee. In 2011, Professor Cunningham was inducted into the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Hall of Honor. In 2013, she received the Two-Year College Section Lifetime Achievement Award.

Education

  • PhD, University of North Texas, 1980
  • MBA, University of North Texas, 1975
  • BBA, University of North Texas, 1968 

Awards

  • Best Paper Award, American Accounting Association Ohio Region meeting, 2017
  • MU William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, 2017
  • American Accounting Association/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize, 2016
  • Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business Faculty Member of the Year, 2015-16, 2013-14, 2012-13, 2011-12, 2010-11, 2008-20, 2000
  • Raymond F. and Mary A. O’Brien Excellence in Teaching Award, 2013-14 and 2005-06
  • Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section of the American Accounting Association Outstanding Accounting Education Research Award, 2010
  • Kansas City Alumni of the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business Teacher of the Year, 2009-2010
Image: Billie Cunningham