Seeing his students grow into young professionals is something Anthony Bucaro appreciates as a faculty advisor of 星空传媒鈥檚 , an international honor organization for financial information students.
鈥淎s an instructor, you build a good relationship with the students and you see them for the semester,鈥 says Bucaro, the Lewis-Progressive Professor of Management and an associate professor of accountancy. 鈥淏eing a faculty advisor, though, lets you build a relationship over a longer period of time. You get to watch them become professionals.鈥
Bucaro joined the university in 2015, after receiving his Doctor of Philosophy in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the academic community, Bucaro worked for 15 years in public accounting, where his professional focus was financial statements and processes of large public and private companies.
This spring, Bucaro has been selected to receive the 2023 Business Information Professional of the Year award in the category of education by for his commitment to the Pi Chapter on campus and his expertise in business information.
The award is presented annually to a professional chosen from the chapters of BAP across the globe in each of the three segments: education; industry and government; and professional services. Student executives in the Pi Chapter at 星空传媒 nominated Bucaro for the award.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge honor,鈥 Bucaro says. 鈥淚鈥檓 very grateful to the students for thinking of me.鈥
Bucaro joined the Pi Chapter in 2020 as one of two faculty advisors, sharing the role with Assistant Professor of Accountancy Heidi Blakeway-Phillips. Their responsibilities are to listen and help guide the students when needed.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a student-run organization,鈥 Bucaro says. 鈥淥ur role is to provide them feedback and help them go in the right direction, but they do a fantastic job at that themselves.鈥
Outside of being a faculty advisor, Bucaro is involved in a number of committees and boards on campus and within the Weatherhead School of Management Department of Accountancy, such as the Faculty Senate Finance Committee, Budget Committee, Faculty Council, Alumni Research Panel Committee, Appreciative Inquiry Steering Committee, Curriculum Committee and the Alumni Advisory Board.
Bucaro also spends time conducting research involving social experiments to understand and improve the decision-making process around creating and using financial information.
His expertise in judgment and decision-making research was used in a study published this month, 鈥淭oward a better expert system for auditor going concern opinions using Bayesian network inflation factors,鈥 in the .
Most recently, he鈥檚 worked with Assistant Professor of Accountancy John Keyser on a case study on classification of internal control deficiencies, which is in the process of being reviewed by a journal.
鈥淚t鈥檚 another really challenging process that auditors go through and it鈥檚 an education study so it鈥檚 something that can be used in the classroom,鈥 he says.
In the fall, Bucaro will teach three courses: Spreadsheet Basics for Business and Non-Business Majors, Accounting Information Systems and a technology lab focused on skills, such as data manipulation and advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
His favorite part of teaching is, 鈥渨hen you see it click with your students,鈥 he says. 鈥淲hen they start to learn on their own and start to pull things together and understand why what they鈥檙e learning matters.鈥