JASON PORTER, Ph.D.

JASON PORTER, Ph.D., was a Scholarly Associate Professor of Accounting at Washington State University’s Carson College of Business. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia and his Master of Accountancy from Brigham Young University. Over the past 20 years, he taught courses in financial accounting, cost accounting, accounting theory, and accounting ethics, as well as classes on accounting for non-accountants. He won more than a dozen awards for his teaching, including Washington State University’s Global Campus “Excellence in Online Teaching” award and the University of South Dakota’s “Belbas-Larson” award, the top teaching award offered by that university.

In addition to his university teaching, Jason provided professional education seminars and sessions for the Oregon Society of CPAs, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) annual conference, the Reno Educational Seminar & Training meeting, several IMA chapters, the Association for Medical Imaging Management, Meta Financial Group, and Raven Industries.

Jason has over 30 publications appearing in journals such as The CPA Journal, Journal of Business Ethics Education, Strategic Finance, Issues in Accounting Education, Radiology Management, Business Education Innovation Journal, and Journal of Accounting Education.

An Announcement From Washington State University:

The WSU Carson College of Business’s esteemed faculty member Dr. Jason Porter passed away unexpectedly on August 23, 2023.

The Jason Porter Memorial Fund is being established to honor his legacy as a teacher, mentor, scholarly author, and award-winning associate professor of accounting at the Carson College.

Thank you for thinking of Jason and helping us create a legacy of his important work and the many friendships he nurtured at WSU and across the accounting profession.

Jason’s long-time co-author, Teresa Stephenson, writes:

Jason was an amazing teacher. He taught everything from Freshman to Executive Education students. Jason served as Beta Alpha Psi advisor for over eight years and at two universities. He won the Belbas Larson Award – the University of South Dakota’s most prestigious teaching award — and the Global Campus Excellence in Online Teaching from Washington State University, among numerous other teaching awards. His students loved him and remember him fondly and have reached out with comments like

• He was a such a great man who cared about every single student that came into his office. Let alone being such a great professor, he was the light in every accounting class he taught.

Jason was an amazing writer. Not only has he published over 35 papers and two books, but he has worked with over 20 coauthors. His writing has won awards and been read all over the world. He recently was co-awarded the IMA’s Distinguished Scholar Award. As a staunch student advocate, most of his research was pedagogical. He coauthored cases that have been used internationally. He has also written articles teaching accountants worldwide how to better use Excel, understand accounting standards, and be more ethical. And he’s written articles helping accounting professors teach more effectively, explain tough concepts using classroom activities, and presenting new teaching methods and skills.

Jason was an amazing colleague. He was an Editor for Issues in Accounting Education, Associate Editor for the IMA Education Case Journal, and an editorial review member for the Journal of Accounting Education and Issues in Accounting Education. Jason chaired the Northwestern Accounting Research Group Conference nine times. He served on countless other committees. He also served his community as an accounting expert. He was frequently called upon to serve as a panelist or to give invited presentations.

In academia, your job is evaluated based on teaching, research, and service, and each professor is expected to excel in at least one area. Jason excelled in all three. But more than that, Jason was a beacon of light on each of those paths, always offering a helping hand to coauthors, colleagues, students, and friends, pulling us along with him to greater success than we knew we were capable of.