Elizabeth Blankespoor Wins 2025 PACCAR Award
Accounting professor makes her field come alive for Full-Time MBA students
In just a few minutes of talking accounting with Professor Elizabeth Blankespoor, it becomes clear why she was honored with the 2025 PACCAR Award, a distinguished teaching honor at the Foster School of Business.
Her enthusiasm for her subject matter is infectious. She takes what might otherwise be considered one of the less glamorous aspects of the business world and explains how “the language of business” is essential for every Foster student.
“Accounting is how we talk about success in any setting where numbers matter,” Blankespoor explains. “You might be pitching a new product, proposing a marketing campaign, or raising capital—whatever your role, being fluent in accounting gives you authority. You’re not waiting for someone else to run the numbers. You’re in the room, speaking the language. That’s what I want for my students: to walk out with that accounting superpower.”
MBA students select PACCAR Award winner
It’s this ability to make her subject matter relevant and engaging that led to her being named this year’s PACCAR Award winner, a distinction made even more meaningful because it’s selected by Foster MBA Program students.
The annual accolade was established in 1998 by PACCAR Inc., a Fortune 200 global technology company based in Bellevue, Washington.
The PACCAR Award was presented to Blankespoor at Foster’s recent MBA graduation ceremony. She says she was as honored as she was surprised to receive the award. “It was a lovely surprise,” she says. “In teaching, the goal is to connect with students and, in my case, help them learn the joy of accounting.”
Blankespoor teaches an Introduction to Financial Accounting course, so her class is the first exposure to the field for many students. “We start from square one,” says Blankespoor. “‘What’s a balance sheet? What do you have? What do you owe?’ And we build from there. I try to make it personal and approachable. By the end of the quarter, students can read income statements, cash flows, even annual reports. It all culminates in a case competition where they integrate accounting with strategy, marketing, and finance to build and defend a real-world business recommendation.”
Dean Hodge salutes fellow accounting professor Elizabeth Blankespoor
Dean Frank Hodge, himself an accounting professor, admires Blankespoor’s gift for conveying the utility and pertinence of accounting to today’s business students. “Elizabeth Blankespoor brings accounting to life in a way that makes the topic personal to every student,” says Hodge. “Her students are engaged because she’s not only deeply knowledgeable, but also practical, passionate and approachable. That makes her a highly effective educator, and exactly the kind of faculty member the PACCAR Award was created to honor. She doesn’t just teach accounting; she inspires students to see its power and relevance in their careers and everyday lives.”
Research that reveals the human aspects of accounting
In addition to teaching, Blankespoor is a prolific researcher, with her work regularly appearing in leading academic journals. Her work delves into how everything from technological innovation to human emotions impact the reporting of financial information.
One of her recent studies explored how CEOs’ facial expressions during media interviews after earnings calls influence how analysts interpret financial information. It was representative of her holistic approach, fusing how the human aspect of the business world meshes with hard data. The study found that emotional cues from CEOs can create uncertainty or prompt deeper information-seeking, influencing how analysts interpret financial information. It highlights the subtle but significant impact of nonverbal communication in financial decision-making.
Informing her class with real-world examples from her studies
Another of her recent works exemplifies the Foster School’s core value of bettering humanity through business. Blankespoor examined the chronic issue of wage theft, investigating whether workers who don’t receive pay slips are more likely to be underpaid.
“Wage theft, such as not paying overtime or making improper deductions, can be hard for workers to detect if they don’t receive a detailed pay stub,” explains Blankespoor. “Many people don’t realize that while employers must keep payroll records, not all states require them to share that information with employees. Our research shows that when workers get pay stubs, they’re more empowered to challenge underpayment.”
Blankespoor says her research enriches her teaching, offering real-world examples that deepen classroom discussions.
Blankespoor will celebrate winning the PACCAR award with a previously planned trip to Spain, where she will be a keynote speaker at the Barcelona Accounting Summer Workshop.
Accounting classes as a ‘collaborative dance’
As excited as she is for the opportunity to present to her colleagues from around the globe at the international event, she is already looking forward to returning to the classroom with next year’s MBA students. With her skill set, Blankespoor could have her pick of senior roles in the private sector. Yet her passion lies not in boardrooms or bottom lines, but in the classroom.
“One of my favorite aspects of teaching is student engagement in the classroom: hearing what they’re excited about and being surprised by the questions they ask and what they want to explore,” she says. “A classroom is always a give and take situation, where the students and I dance through a topic together, making sure to cover the important fundamentals of financial accounting, but also having fun with the flourishes and nuances that a given set of students is especially interested in.”
Learn more about the PACCAR Award and previous winners.
