Lillian Mills Appointed Dean of the McCombs Faculty of Business enterprise

AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin has named Lillian Mills as the long lasting dean of the McCombs Faculty of Company. Mills has held the role of interim dean since April 2020 subsequent the appointment of Jay Hartzell as president. Mills’ everlasting appointment as dean is productive instantly.

Mills is the very first female to provide as long lasting dean of McCombs in the school’s almost 100-12 months record.

“I’ve viewed Lil’s strengths as a leader for quite a few decades, dating back again to our time as division chairs collectively. Most just lately, we have all observed the amazing career she’s performed as interim dean in the course of the pandemic. After a extremely aggressive countrywide search, it was very clear we presently had the most effective prospect appropriate in this article at UT,” said Jay Hartzell, president of UT Austin. “Beyond her infectious electricity and sense of optimism, she exemplifies the drive for excellence in teaching and research that we request to instill across the Forty acres.”

As the interim dean, Mills has been closely included in primary operations and procedures to carry on advancing the mission of the school amid a pandemic. Mills provides a breadth of experience, from business to the classroom and serving as department chair.

“I am so honored to provide McCombs, specifically at this time, since jointly we are stronger,” Mills claimed. “Our staff, faculty and alumni hold just about every student’s coronary heart, instruction and professions with comprehensive commitment, and I’m confident likely ahead that we’ll maintain the identical dedication to our learners and the college all through this time of transition back to normalcy.”

Mills joined Texas McCombs in 2006, and during the previous 15 yrs, she has been a best-rated researcher and tutorial citizen, a champion for schooling in various, varied configurations, a nationally renowned and award-successful classroom educator, and a scholar with regular devotion to instructional innovation at the university, university and section ranges.

She obtained a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Michigan and master’s and undergraduate levels in accounting from the College of Florida. Prior to joining McCombs, Mills expended a year at the U.S. Treasury Section as the Stanley Surrey senior study fellow in the Business of Tax Assessment. She was also an assistant and affiliate professor of accounting at the University of Arizona from 1997 to 2005, and she practiced skillfully with two nationwide CPA companies from 1981 to 1989, shaping her research on earnings management.

Mills is also identified for her passionate instructing and developing a productive understanding surroundings, even more proved with dozens of training awards given that becoming a member of the faculty in 2006. In 2019, Professor Mills was the initial to get the McCombs Undergraduate Amplify Award, a pupil-managed award intended to understand school associates who foster remarkably inclusive lecture rooms and strengthen finding out outcomes. She has also not too long ago been nominated by McCombs for the university’s Academy of Distinguished Educating Awards throughout 10 sections of introductory taxation to undergraduate learners, her normal general instructor rating was 4.8 (5. in four sections), nicely previously mentioned the ordinary for the college and the university.

Past her classroom functionality, Mills has delivered substantial assistance to the division, faculty and the college. From 2011 to 2015, she served as chair of the Accounting Section, and since 2014, she has held the Beverly H. and William P. O’Hara Chair in Small business, raising $500,000 to fund an initiative for underrepresented minority accounting learners. Even more, she introduced in $1 million in MPA scholarships directed to tax scholars, and other improvements in yearly offering and scholarship endowments. She has not only secured major funding but has also championed variety and mentored junior colleagues and doctoral pupils. She is also an lively member of both the McCombs Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Marketing and Tenure Committee.

For media inquiries, please get in touch with Catenya McHenry, communications director at the McCombs University, at 512-471-5218.