UT Tyler Professor to Receive National Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Mary Fischer Recognized for Dedication, Service to Accounting Field
Dr. Mary Fischer
TYLER, Texas (November 21, 2025) – Dr. Mary Fischer, a professor of accounting at The University of Texas at Tyler, will receive the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Accounting Researchers and Educators. She will be recognized at AARE’s annual conference in March.
Selection is by AARE committee and based on outstanding contributions to the academic accounting profession and sustained support of the organization.
“Dr. Fischer’s dedication to teaching and the accounting field exemplifies the kind of work that UT Tyler strives to support among our faculty,” said Dr. Barbara K. Haas, UT Tyler provost and chief academic officer. “This award reflects her unwavering commitment to making a difference both inside and outside of the classroom, and we are tremendously proud of her efforts.”
A certified government financial manager with more than 30 years of experience, Fischer joined UT Tyler in 1990. Her teaching and research interests include financial accounting recognition and reporting, and nonprofit financial management.
Fischer serves as an adviser to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Government Accounting Standards Board and an array of not-for-profit organizations nationwide. She served as past president of the Federation of Business Disciplines, an organization of business school faculty with more than 5,000 members throughout the Southwestern United States.
She has published nearly 100 research papers and is a frequent regional and national seminar speaker regarding accounting pedagogy and reporting. Her research has appeared in numerous national and international publications like “Accounting Horizons,” “Journal of Accounting and Public Policy,” “Accounting & Financial Management,” and “Oil, Gas & Energy Quarterly.”
Among accolades, she was named an outstanding accounting educator by the East Texas and Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants as well as the Southwestern American Accounting Association. She also earned recognition by the National Association of College and University Business Officers for her outstanding contributions to the college and university national sector. She recently received the American Accounting Association Government and Nonprofit Section Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions and scholarship.
Fischer holds doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees, each in accounting, from the University of Connecticut.
With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 11,500 students. Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.