The Road Less Traveled: A Nontraditional Path to Teaching and Scholarship

ABSTRACT This paper discusses my experiences as a nontenure track faculty member who now serves as an Associate Dean. It is based on my Presidential Scholar Lecture at the 2024 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting. In 2012, the Pathways Commission outlined the need and a path for more practitioners to join academia (Behn et al. 2012), and my academic career advanced partly due to that initiative. Earning a Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) degree from University of Florida allowed me to support my school as a scholarly academic and pursue research that enhances my teaching and provided me with a path to administration as a nontenure track faculty member.