Beedie Senior Lecturer Anne Macdonald wins SFU Excellence in Teaching Award

Anne Macdonald, a senior lecturer of accounting at the Beedie School of Business, has been named recipient of Simon Fraser University’s 2012 Excellence in Teaching Award, the highest honour of its kind awarded to faculty at the university.

The Excellence in Teaching award is presented annually to three teachers from across the university who possess the ability to stimulate students creatively and critically, are enthusiastic about student learning and innovation in teaching, are able to present complex information clearly, and who have a sustained record of excellent teaching.

“I’m very honoured to be in the company of those who have won this award in the past, both within the business faculty and across the university,” says Macdonald. “As a senior lecturer, my primary role is teaching, so it’s very gratifying to be rewarded for something that I enjoy so much.”

An SFU alumna herself, Macdonald is also a past recipient and five-time nominee of the TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching award, the highest teaching honour in the Beedie School of Business, and has been named on the Beedie School of Business Teaching Honor Roll 12 times in the past 13 years.

After initially working for a large accounting firm in Vancouver, Macdonald changed professions when she began teaching in a professional program while living in Hong Kong. She joined the Beedie School of Business as a lecturer in 1998, where she has since taught undergraduate classes in accounting and auditing, including introductory and upper level classes.

She has received praise for her ability to make accounting interesting and relevant, often utilizing real world examples in an effort to communicate complex material in an engaging manner.

“I firmly believe that accounting can open up so many career doors in the future and I hope that my passion comes through in my lectures,” says Macdonald. “I view my role as guiding and developing the critical thinking skills that students will need as they progress in their career, and I aim to engage with my class by making my lectures as relevant to them as possible.”

Macdonald joins a list of distinguished names from the Beedie School of Business to have received the SFU Excellence in Teaching Award. Beedie lecturer Alain Duncan was presented with the award in 2005, and professors Irene Gordon, Mark Wexler, Andrew Gemino, and the late Rick Iverson received the honour in 1984, 1991, 2010 and 2008 respectively.

For more information on the Excellence in Teaching Awards, click here.