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Amy Ford, WIU instructor and SCIMA adviser
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Ford Receives IMA Mentor of the Year Award

April 19, 2011

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MACOMB, IL - - Amy Ford, instructor in the accountancy and finance department in Western Illinois University's College of Business and Technology, has received the 2011 Ursel K. Albers Mentor of the Year Award from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).

Ford has served as faculty adviser for Western's Student Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (SCIMA) since beginning her teaching position at WIU in 2006. The national-level award is given to an academic mentor and/or student chapter adviser who has made significant contributions to the IMA, the worldwide association for accountants and financial professionals working in business, overall and to IMA student members in particular. She will be recognized at the IMA Student and Educator Awards June 5 in Orlando, (FL) as part of the IMA Annual Conference and Exposition.

Criteria for the award include active involvement in student chapter activities and outstanding leadership as evidenced by the quality of the student chapter.

Under her leadership, Western's SCIMA has won the IMA's top student chapter award, being named one of the IMA's "outstanding student chapters," each of those five years. In addition, Western's SCIMA won the IMA's highest honor, the Clark Johnson Achievement Award, in 2009. WIU SCIMA student teams have also advanced to the Elite 8 and national finals in the IMA's video case competition.

Some of Ford's duties as adviser for the student organization include meeting weekly with board members to plan and organize the chapter's activities. She has presented student-focused sessions and an academic session at the national IMA Student conference the past three years.

"Instructor Ford also is a board member for the local chapter of IMA, serving as director of student/young professional activities," noted Jack Elfrink, accountancy chair, who recommended Ford for the award along with two WIU students, Samantha Pherigo and Nicole Suthard, and Dallon Christensen, president of the local IMA chapter (Illowa). "In addition to these duties, she can be credited with helping students with résumés, recommendations, job interviews, internships and planning their courses schedules. We are all very proud of Amy. The IMA has been a great supporter of our program, and has provided countless benefits to our students."

"I find helping students in these areas outside the classroom to be very rewarding," Ford said. "This award requires a minimum of five years of service as the faculty adviser, and this was the first year I was even eligible, so I was quite surprised."

Ford earned a bachelor's (2001) and master's degree (2002) in accountancy from WIU.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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