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accounting

Accounting Department Staff

Rodger Brannan, Ph.D., M.I.M., M.B.A.
Associate Professor of Accounting and International Business

Dr. Brannan holds a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as a Masters of International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). He holds a Masters of Business Administration and an undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Arts) from the University of Puget Sound. He holds a CPA certificate from the State of Indiana. His teaching interests are Cost/Managerial Accounting, Government/Not-for-Profit and Financial Accounting. Dr. Brannan's primary areas of research are in the Government/Not-for-Profit area and in Accounting and Business History. He publishes a weekly article on Managerial/Cost Accounting for Irwin/Mc-Graw Hill/Dushkin Publishers. He has published articles in the following Journals: Southwestern Journal of Business Administration, American Academy of Accounting and Finance, The Woman CPA, Annual Advances in Business Cases, Journal of Case Research, Public Budgeting and Finance, Public Productivity and Management Review, and the International Journal of Accounting. He has made numerous presentations at local, regional, national, and international meetings.

Kora Cavanaugh
Executive Administrative Specialist

Kora Cavanaugh joined the department in 1992 after working previously in LSBE Student Affairs. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminology/Sociology and a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Parent Education along with a Certification in Human Services from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Kora also serves on the LSBE Outreach Committee and the UMD Commission on Disabilities.

Loren Erickson, C.P.A.
Instructor of Accounting

Loren Erickson is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Business & Economics at UW-Superior. He is also the Counseling Coordinator for the Small Business Development Center, serving the small business community of Superior and Douglas County. Prior to joining UWS, Loren worked as a Budget Analyst for Loral Corporation and also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Western Kenya.

Jerry W. Lin, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Associate Professor of Accounting

Dr. Lin joined the accounting faculty in Fall 1999 and teaches Auditing and Financial Accounting. He received his Ph.D. in accounting from University of North Texas in 1994, and his MBA in Accounting and Finance from University of Houston in 1985. His research interests include the choice and relevance of corporate and governmental accounting disclosures, decision quality, and application of quantitative analysis and information technologies in accounting and business. His research has been published in several academic and practitioner journals and presented at various national and international scholarly conferences.

Alan C. Roline, J.D., M.B.A.
Chair and Associate Professor of Business Law

Professor Roline serves as Chair of the Department and teaches all of the courses in the Business Law series. His research has appeared in, Employment and Labor Law Quarterly, Journal of Legal Studies Education, and Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Midwest Law Review, North Dakota Law Review, and Public Personnel Management. Currently, Professor Roline serves as an editor for the American Business Law Journal and Journal of Legal Studies Education. He is past president of the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business, and is an active member of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, Minnesota Council of Accounting Educators, and American and Minnesota State Bar Associations.

Karen Salmela, M.B.A., C.P.A.
Instructor of Accounting

Karen Salmela teaches Financial and Managerial Accounting. She is a member of the AICPA and IMA and serves on the boards of the United Way of Greater Duluth and the United Way Endowment Trust. Karen conducts workshops in financial management and long-range financial planning for nonprofits as part of the University of Wisconsin-Superior Certificate Program in Nonprofit Administration.

Randy Skalberg, J.D., L.L.M.
Assistant Professor of Taxation and Business Law

Professor Skalberg holds a B.S.B. in Accounting from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, a J.D from the University of Minnesota Law School and an L.L.M. in Taxation from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He has served as an in-house Tax Counsel to Fortune 500 corporations including Metris Companies, and The Sherwin-Williams Company, and spent four years in the tax department at Ernst & Young’s Minneapolis office. He is admitted to practice law in Minnesota as well as before the U.S. Tax Court.

Joon S. Yang, Ph.D., M.S.
Assistant Professor of Accounting

Dr. Yang teaches Accounting Information Systems, Financial Accounting, and Managerial Accounting. He holds a Ph.D. from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and a M.S. in Accountancy from California State University, Sacramento. His research interests include audit quality, auditor industry specialization, information content of accounting information, corporate governance, earnings management, and accounting information systems. His research has been presented at several national and regional academic conferences and published in Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory. He is a member of the American Accounting Association and the Minnesota Council of Accounting Educators.

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