Educator get top marks.

ChrisLynn Freed, professor of clinical accounting at the USR. Leventhal School of Accounting, is a CPA with experience as a practitioner before becoming an educator. And she is someone devoted to CalCPA's accounting educator support efforts. She is a longtime co-chair of CalCPA's Accounting Education Committee, a driving force in 150-hour passage and a chanpion if the educator-practitioner collaboration. Freed also is Wis year's recipient of the CalCPA Education Foundation's Outstanding Educator .Ward, to go along with numerous other teaching awards, such as two Golden Apple 'leaching Awards, hi the wake of her recent election by CalCPA Council to the board of directors lor a two-year term, we dive into her accounting educator world more closely.

Your many educator awards indicate you like what you do. Tell us more.

I love what I do! How lucky I am to meet so many wonderful young adults from all over the world, try to get them excited about accounting and understand that it's much more than crunching some numbers.

What in your professional experience uniquely qualifies you for your educator position?

Having extensive professional work experience allowed me to create a classroom environment that's a living business laboratory. Students are challenged to ask relevant questions and find answers about higfe-profile, public companies. My professional experience makes me capable [if delivering an educational experience where accounting theory and practice is applied to the real world. Working as a senior manager in audit taught me the importance of providing constructive feedback to the staff, which 1 do as a professor.

Give us a glimpse into what a 2013 accounting student looks like?

They ask a lot of questions. They want to know why we're doing something the wav we're doing it. The answer is not. "Because I said so." Sometimes they're in too much of a hurry and want to memorize instead of Irving to understand the theory behind the problem.

What are your biggest challenges in teaching them?

Keeping students focused, organized and helping them develop critical thinking skills. This is difficult at limes considering the distractions they have with the information overload from various media sources.

What are the many hats you wear in CalCPA?

This past summer I was elected to the CalCPA Board of Directors as a council representative. As a board member. I'm the liaison to the Bakerslield and San Joaquin chapters, and the CalCPA Communications...