Sean Hillison has been appointed assistant professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.

He is one of eight new full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty members at Pamplin this fall. Their addition reflects the college’s commitment to hiring faculty to further strengthen its teaching, research, and business outreach, particularly in the areas of business analytics, innovation through entrepreneurship, and sustainable global prosperity.

Hillison received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May. He earned a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.

His primary research interests are in judgment and decision-making in accounting and auditing, particularly how different mental perspectives influence auditors’ judgments and decisions.

His dissertation examined the influence of professional role identities and client importance on auditors’ acceptance of client-preferred financial reporting. It encompassed two experiments examining the judgments and decisions of both practicing audit executives.

Hillison has presented his research at various conferences. One of his co-authored papers explored the argument that, in planning fraud detection procedures, auditors make better decisions and are more ideal thinkers when advising colleagues than when deciding for themselves.

Among his many honors are the Kenneth P. Santee Graduate Fellowship and the Fred H. Figge Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award. He was selected as an Accounting Doctoral Scholar.

Hillison has taught courses on assurance and attestation.

A certified public accountant, Hillison worked for nine years at Ernst & Young’s office in Boca Raton, Florida, where he was most recently a senior manager.

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