A strength of Gies College of Business is the exceptional teaching quality of its faculty. One annual highlight for the College is the recognition of notable achievement by faculty in the classroom. Sponsored jointly by Gies College of Business and the Gies Business Alumni Association – an organization that has made faculty and teaching excellence a priority in their fund- and friend-raising activities for many decades – the following awards for 2024-2025 recognize outstanding classroom teaching.

Mitch Fisher
Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Mitch Fisher, senior instructor of accountancy, received his bachelor's degree with high honors in accountancy from the University of Illinois in 1991. He received an MBA in 1995 from the University of Michigan, and a master’s in economics from the University of Illinois in 2000. He joined Gies College of Business in 2017 where he is now a senior instructor of accountancy. His name regularly appears on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students. In 2022 he received a Dean’s Impact Award from Gies College of Business and the Head’s Award for Excellence in Accountancy Education from the Department of Accountancy.

Elizabeth Luckman
Excellence in Graduate Teaching

Elizabeth Luckman, clinical associate professor of business administration, received her bachelor’s degree in classical civilization and English literature from Wellesley College in 2003, an MBA from The Ohio State University in 2013, and a PhD in organizational behavior from Washington University at St. Louis in 2018. She joined Gies College of Business in 2019, and her work focuses on cultivating ethical and effective leaders. She is a Disruption and Innovation Scholar at Gies, serves as the Director of Leadership Programs at the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics in the College of Engineering, and is the founder of Golden Mean Growth, a leadership coaching practice. She received a Dean’s Impact Award from Gies College of Business in 2021. Her name regularly appears on the “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students,” and she received the BADM Teaching Award from the Department of Business Administration in 2021.

Isaac Yamoah
Excellence in Teaching for Teaching Assistants

Isaac Yamoah, a PhD student in the Department of Accountancy, received his bachelor’s degree in accounting and information systems from New Mexico Highlands University in 2011 and his MBA from Webster University in 2015. He went on to spend almost a decade in the audit industry. Since joining Gies, he has received several awards and recognitions for his scholarship excellence, including an AICPA Foundation Doctoral Fellowship in 2021; the Outstanding Emerging Scholar Award, American Accounting Association/Accounting, Behavior, and Organizations Section in 2023; the Alan J. and Joyce D. Baltz Fellowship in 2024, and a Deloitte Doctoral Fellowship in 2025.