Faculty

Marcus Braga-Alves is an associate professor of Finance at Pace University. He earned his MBA from Pace University and his PhD in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh. His research analyzes problems that confront market participants and the academic community in the areas of investment management, corporate finance, and international finance. He is especially interested in the study of the development of capital markets in emerging countries. His work was published in the Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Corporate Finance, and the Journal of International Money and Finance, among other journals.

Before moving to the US, Braga-Alves worked for five years as a consultant in the spot and derivatives markets for agricultural commodities in Brazil. A prime responsibility during that time was to promote the use of commodity derivatives for price risk management by local farmers, who faced the new challenges resulting from increasing deregulation and globalization.

Walter Antognini joined the Legal Studies and Taxation department as a full-time faculty member in September, 1985. Prior to that he was with the taxation department of Coopers & Lybrand. Antognini is an attorney and certified public accountant, with a BS in Accounting, a JD, and an LLM in Taxation, all from New York University. He is currently graduate program chair. His principal areas of teaching expertise are the taxation of corporations and individuals. His current areas of interest primarily involve the application of artificial intelligence to the field of taxation, with eventual expansion to other related areas.

Antognini’s activities outside of teaching and publication have involved participation in various startups, some within taxation, some outside. In addition to his scholarly publications in the field of taxation, he has several patents, both within the US and internationally. These patents have been cited in numerous other patents and patent applications.

Vincent Barrella joined the Legal Studies & Taxation department as a full-time faculty member in 1984. Prior to that he was a senior trial attorney with the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service as well as an adjunct professor at Pace. In addition to his teaching activities Barrella, until his recent retirement from the practice of law in 2016, was a New York based attorney specializing in client representation before the Internal Revenue Service. He is currently the department chair, and his principal areas of teaching expertise are the taxation of partners and partnerships and the impact of judicial decisions in shaping the federal tax law. Barrella’s research has been cited by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the United States Tax Court.

Barrella remains actively involved in community affairs having served as mayor of Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey from January 2008 through December 2015. He has served as vice president of the Ocean County Mayors Association, a member of the board of directors of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors and as a member of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities Legislative Committee, specifically its subcommittee on taxation & finance. In his capacity as mayor, Barrella testified on numerous occasions before both the New Jersey Assembly and Senate Budget Committees and authored numerous articles and editorials on taxation and tax policy.

John Carter is a professor of management science. He joined the Lubin Graduate School of Business faculty in the management science department in 1980 and served as department chairman for several years. He is currently serving as chairman of the Graduate Curriculum Committee. His teaching interests include business analytics, statistics, and operations management.

He has served as a reviewer for the TQM Journal and his research has been published in the TQM Journal, the International Journal of Business Research, and Review of Business Research, among others. He regularly attends academic conferences and presents his current research. His current research includes health care quality measurement, the impact of the Affordable Care Act on health care quality and patient satisfaction, and market structure analysis of frequently purchased consumer goods.

Kam Chan is a Distinguished Professor of Accounting at Pace University. He received his PhD with a major in accounting and a minor in finance from the University of South Carolina. He joined Pace in 1997 and has received department and school teaching awards as well as Pace’s Kenan Award for Teaching Excellence in 2014.

Chan has published in premier research journals such as Accounting, Organizations, and Society; Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory; Journal of Accounting and Economics; Journal of Business Finance and Accounting; and Journal of International Accounting Research. His research has been abstracted, reprinted, and highly cited by others, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was the EY Scholar at Pace University in 2000-3 and 2009-15. Based on reports published by the American Accounting Association in 2011 and 2018, he was ranked as one of the top 100 most prolific researchers in accounting information systems and as the top 23rd researcher in accounting information systems in terms of the impact of his published work.

Chan takes an active role in providing various services to the Pace and academic communities, and has received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Emerald Literati Network in 2016.

Myojung Cho, PhD, joined Pace in 2014. She teaches Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting and Auditing. Her research focuses on theoretical and empirical analyses of corporate disclosure of financial information and its impact on the capital markets. She has published at the Journal of Accounting Auditing and Finance, the International Journal of Accounting, the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Corporate Governance: An International Review, and more.

Professor Chung is an expert in financial reporting applying US accounting standards and their effect on firm valuation. In addition to his own research, he encourages graduate students to get involved in research on contemporary accounting issues such as value relevance of accounting and disclosure quality, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance. Professor Chung is constantly involved in research on banking accounting and regulatory matters as the audit committee chairperson of Woori America Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Woori Bank, Seoul, Korea (assets size over $350 billion).

An expert in capital-market-based accounting research, Samir El-Gazzar is the KPMG Professor of Accounting at the Lubin School of Business, Pace University. He has previously served on the faculties of Columbia University, Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey New, Baruch College of the City University of New York, and Tanta University in Egypt. El-Gazzar’s research focuses on capital-market–based accounting issues, information production, and financial contracting.

His publications appear in top accounting and finance journals such as the Accounting Review, the Accounting Horizons, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Contemporary Accounting Research, The International Journal of Accounting, and The Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. El-Gazzar also contributed to the Encyclopedia of Management, published by the Blackwell Publishing, England.

El-Gazzar teaches courses in financial reporting, accounting theory, research methodology in accounting, cost and managerial accounting, and contemporary issues in accounting. He also teaches doctoral concentration seminars in accounting, and supervises doctoral students during their dissertation work. El-Gazzar was awarded his PhD in accounting from the Baruch College-Graduate School, City University of New York. He has served as an expert on the audit committee of the Pace University’s Board of Trustees for two consecutive terms.

El-Gazzar has also consulted with numerous businesses as well as academic institutions. Business consulting services include reconciliation of financial reporting problems with the SEC, debt contracting for financial institutions, financial reporting information systems’ review and evaluation, data mining, and grouping.

Barbara Farrell is a CPA who has spent time in both Big 8 public accounting and in private industry as a chief audit executive. Professor Farrell began teaching at Pace University in 1980 as an adjunct professor, and as a full time professor in 1984. Professor Farrell’s interests are in auditing, accounting information systems, forensic accounting, and internal auditing. She teaches both in face-to-face classes and online. Professor Farrell loves teaching both traditional and non-traditional students, and has been teaching online for over 20 years. Additional activities include:

• Having chaired the decennial Middle States Review
• Chaired campaign to collect donations received by E&Y amounting to over $700,000 in scholarships to accounting students
• Member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Trustees at Pace University
• Member of the Board of Trustees of Academic Federal Credit Union
• Chair of the Westchester Faculty Council Curriculum Committee
• Special Certifications and/or Designations – CPA. (1978 – Present).
• Annually attends Continuing Education Program, “PwC Faculty Forum”

Professor Feiqi (Freddy) Huang is an assistant professor of accounting at the Lubin School of Business. He joined Pace in 2020. His research focuses on accounting information systems, audit analytics, XBRL, and cybersecurity. He has published in accounting and AIS journals including Accounting Horizons, Journal of information Systems, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, and Managerial Auditing Journal. Huang is a recipient of the American Accounting Association Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2019. He teaches Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting at undergraduate level and Advanced Auditing & Analytics at graduate level.

Iuliana Ismailescu, PhD, is associate professor of finance and co-chair of the Middle States Self Study Executive Committee. Her research interests include emerging debt and equity markets, international finance, and credit risk. Her research was published in the Journal of Banking and Finance, International Review of Finance, Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies, and Journal of Investment Management, among others. She co-authored a mathematics book in Romanian and contributed several book chapters to Interest Rate Risk Modeling and Dynamic Term Structure Modeling. Ismailescu received the FMA 2007 Best Dissertation Proposal Award in International Finance for her PhD thesis “Three Essays on Emerging Capital Markets.” Ismailescu frequently presents her research at domestic and international conferences, and serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for top tier finance journals.

Ismailescu currently teaches courses in Financial Management, International Finance, and Investment Analysis at undergraduate and graduate levels. She also runs a seminar in Capital Markets in the doctoral program.

Claudia (Chunyan) Li, PhD, is an associate professor of accounting. Her research interests are in international accounting, information systems, non-profit entities, and management accounting. She has also made much effort in integrating theory with practice in teaching cost accounting and information systems, supervised one visiting scholar from overseas, and advised two doctoral students. Li has published 12 articles in refereed academic journals such as Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting (JETA), Review of Accounting and Finance, and Journal of Global Business Management (JGBM), as well as 11 conference proceedings. She has served as a reviewer for JETA and AAA meetings.

Li teaches a broad range of courses including financial accounting, managerial accounting, cost accounting, information systems, and advanced accounting. She teaches at the undergraduate, MBA, EMBA, and doctoral students on both the NYC and Pleasantville campuses. Certified in online teaching, Li continuously explores ways to integrate theory with practices. Her consulting activities range from advising clients on internal accounting systems, internal control and forecasting, budgeting, cost analysis, to training accountants, and designing accounting guidelines for business and nonprofit entities.

Li is a board member of the Asian American Coalition for Education, which promotes fair admissions practices and equal rights for Asian American students. She has hosted a national news conference in Washington DC, and held seminars on the challenges faced by Asian Americans. She served as the vice president of the Renmin University North American Alumni Association and was a panelist at a forum on US-China economic development and cultural exchange. She frequently organized mental health seminars, certificate training, and online discussion forums.

Jessica A. Magaldi is the Ivan Fox Professor and Scholar of Business Law, as well as the associate chair and an associate professor in the Legal Studies and Taxation Department at the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. She teaches Business Law and Advanced Business Law, as well as a number of specialty law classes including Cyberlaw, Intellectual Property Law, and Employment Law on the undergraduate and graduate levels and in the Pace online programs. In 2019, Magaldi was honored with the Homer and Charles Pace Faculty Award in recognition that her commitment and mentorship has had a transformative effect on generations of talented and successful students. In 2017, Magaldi was awarded a national Periclean Faculty Leadership grant for developing a business law course for students that champions civil dialogue, civic engagement, and social responsibility in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community.

Since 2018, Magaldi has been the director of continuous improvement for the Business School and, since 2014, she has been director of the business honors program on the New York City campus. For many years, she was chapter advisor to the Pace University Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma, for which she was recognized in 2016 as the Outstanding Chapter Advisor Award for all international BGS chapters and in 2017 as the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award among all student organization faculty advisors on the New York City campus.

Magaldi has an active research agenda, which reflects her interest in understanding law and policy through the lens of whether and how business and societal goals are advanced. To this end, she has three areas of substantive focus–the law of emerging technologies, employment-related legal issues (including at the intersection of social media / technology law and employment law), and finance and tax law, especially as affected by technological innovation. She has an additional interest in related pedagogy, creating case studies that allow her to help students (and other instructors) apply theory to practice. All four of these areas share an important theme as they examine due process considerations, procedures in place to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and systems are transparent.

Magaldi is a frequent presenter of her scholarly research at national and international conferences and has been invited to lecture on her work at colleges and universities in the US. Her contributions to research (along with those of her coauthors) have been recognized by the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (Best Paper, Honorable Mention, 2018), MBAA International (Best Paper, 2017), and Great Lakes Academy of Legal Studies in Business (Best Paper, 2017 and 2018).

Magaldi is active in her department, school, university, and the profession to provide service to these communities for the benefit of students, faculty, and administration. Selected recent service activities include:

• Editorial Board Member, Journal of Critical Incidents
• Editor, Proceedings of the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business
• Associate Editor, North East Journal of Legal Studies
• Editor, Proceedings of the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business
• Conference Program Chair, Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business
• Session Chair, Society for Case Research Annual Meetings

Magaldi also has a long history of civic engagement and pro bono service outside of the academy, including with direct legal services organizations, her local community board, and as a volunteer arbitrator for NYC Small Claims Court.

In addition to her teaching and scholarly pursuits, Magaldi is a business and legal consultant, specializing in technology and intellectual property law and transactions for emerging and established companies. She advises clients on substantive legal issues and also works with in-house legal departments on business process reengineering and employee training. Magaldi recently concluded an engagement with NYSE Euronext to manage the company’s Strategic Intellectual Property Initiative.

Earlier in her career, Magaldi was a law clerk to the Hon. James B. Zagel, US District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois and in-house at two internet start-up companies during the Internet boom and bust of the late 1990s and early 2000s. She started her legal career as an associate in the Strategic Sourcing and Technology Group in the New York office of the international law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.

Magaldi received a BS, magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Albany and a JD from New York University School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the New York University Review of Law and Social Change.

Steven S. Mezzio, PhD, CPA, is a former partner with PwC, and is currently a full-time clinical associate professor of accounting for the Pace University Lubin School of Business. He is the faculty advisor for two business honors student organizations: Beta Alpha Psi (2014–Present) and Beta Gamma Sigma (appointed 2018). In 2018, he was appointed executive director of the business school’s Center for Excellence in Financial Reporting. He holds the following professional certifications: CPA, CIA, CISA, CISSP, CCSA, and FSA I.

Mezzio received his PhD in 2017 from New York University (NYU), specializing in higher education administration and workplace learning; a master’s in public accounting from the University of Miami; and a BBA in Accounting from Pace University. Prior professional services experience includes the following:

• PwC: Audit staff to Partner at PwC, serving in the audit and assurance practice, national audit methodology and quality group, and the risk and internal audit consulting services group.
• RGP: Global leader of governance, risk, and SOX compliance services and co-leader of the key account–management group for RGP, a public company (RECN) that was originally a division of Deloitte.

From 2002 to 2011, he was an adjunct professor while working full-time in professional services. In 2012, he joined as a full-time clinical assistant professor of accounting while at the same time enrolled in a doctoral (PhD) program at NYU (graduated in 2017). In 2016 he was promoted to associate professor. In 2018 he was appointed executive director of the Lubin School of Business Center for Excellence in Financial Reporting.

• Teaching: Specializes in audit/assurance, COSO, internal controls, ERM, and sustainability. Also teaches advanced accounting; information systems; accounting for international exchange program students; courses helping freshmen acclimate to university life; course coordinator for courses in ERM and internal auditing.
• Innovation: Developed courses in ERM. Developing a course in fundamentals of sustainability reporting. Led transformation of the Student Engagement and Relationship faculty committee.
• Research: AICPA Journal of Accountancy Editorial Advisory Board. Editorial advisor, The CPA Journal. Published research on business school sales of non-degree executive education (2016). Published articles appearing in: Strategic Risk; Internal Auditor; IT Audit; and Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance.
• Service: Faculty Committees: Curriculum | Student Engagement | Academic Standards | Constitution
• Student Engagement/Mentoring: Faculty advisor for two national business honors student organizations: Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) and Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS). Faculty advisor for student teams participating in the Deloitte Audit Innovation Campus Challenge. Created the Pace Chess Club in 2018.

In 2011 he founded Sebastian Tommas Consulting (STc) LLC to provide advisory services in governance, higher education, sustainability, and training. His current roles and experience include the following.
Community Board of Advisors, PBS Channel Thirteen

• Audit Committee advisor, Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance
• National instructor, AICPA, COSO Internal Controls Certificate CPE Program
• NYSSCPA Foundation for Accounting Education, Board of Trustees, president, EVP, and trustee
• NYU School of Professional Studies (SPS), global executive certificates, adjunct program developer
• UN (United Nations) Global Compact, member of the PRME Working Group on The Sustainability Mindset

Mezzio is a frequent speaker on a range of topics, including the following.

• 2018: American Accounting Association (AAA) National Conference, Data Analytics in the Audit Process
• 2017: NYSSCPA web-based panel discussion, Fake Earnings: Perspective on Non-GAAP Earnings
• 2017: Columbia University Symposium Panel on Auditing Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)
• 2015: AAA Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting (CTLA) joint proposal with Morgan Stanley on Embedding Data Analytic Learning in a Flipped Classroom (was selected for the CTLA)

Previous service roles included the following: CPA Exam Content Committee member during the recent radical transformation of the CPA exam (2012–2016); Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) SEC Regulations Committee member (2013–2016); member of a cohort that contributed to the creation of the SASB’s first certification examination (2013–2016); member of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) International Auditing Standards Board.

Activities

• Audit Committee, Community Health Action of Staten Island 2014-present
• Board Member and co-founder, Agnes McCarthy Charitable Foundation 2021

Kaustav Sen, PhD, is a professor of accounting. His research on corporate governance, financial reporting, and stock price anomalies have appeared in Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance (JAAF), Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics (JCAE), Journal of Corporate Finance (JCF), Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR), and other journals. He has presented his research at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), awarded research funding by the National Stock Exchange (NSE India), received best paper awards from the American Accounting Association (AAA Ohio) and Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and his research has been cited by the Economist. In the past, he served as the Accounting Department’s Ernst & Young scholar.

Sen serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of International Accounting, Auditing & Taxation and as a reviewer for several journals in the areas of financial reporting and corporate governance in emerging markets. He has been a consultant to large financial institutions such as Prudential, New York Life, and GE Capital in the areas of equity investment strategies and risk.

Sen primarily teaches classes in financial, managerial, and systems. He has received the Innovation in Teaching Award at Lubin and received curriculum development grants from Verizon and SAP.

Charles Tang is an associate professor and the chair of the Accounting Department. Tang joined the Lubin School of Business in 1997. His research is primarily in the area of accounting information, auditing, and equity valuation. His research has been published in prestigious academic journals including Journal of Accounting and Economics, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Strategic Management Journal, among others. He has presented his research at national and international conferences including the American Accounting Association’s annual conference. Tang has served as a reviewer for academic journals including the Journal of Business Ethics, and as a member of several doctoral dissertation committees at Lubin and other business schools.

Tang’s research work has been cited by other scholars in published research papers over 500 times as of September 2017. One of his research papers was listed as the Social Science Research Network’s Top Ten Downloaded Papers in the area of Accounting and Finance in recent years. In the database of accounting researchers maintained at Brigham Young University, which ranks publications in top accounting journals, Tang is ranked among the top 100 researchers internationally in auditing research by a number of publications in the past six years. Tang was a recipient of Lubin’s Excellence in Research Award in 2015.

Tang teaches financial, managerial, and international accounting courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Tang’s teaching is highly rated by students. He is a recipient of the Kenan Award for Teaching Excellence in 2014, Pace University’s highest honor for teaching.

Tang served as the acting chair of graduate programs in accounting in 2012-2013, and the faculty advisor to Pace’s Iota Lambda Chapter of BetaAlphaPsi, an international fraternity of honor students in accounting, finance, and information systems, in 2007-2013. He was a recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award from the BAP National Headquarters, and the Excellence in Service Award from the Lubin School of Business in 2013.

Ping Wang is an associate professor of accounting at the Lubin School of Business. She joined Lubin in 2011 and has served as the faculty advisor for Pace’s chapter of ALPFA since then. She is the co-chair of the Lubin Faculty Scholarship Committee and the co-editor of the Lubin Business Review.

Her research focuses on executive compensation, voluntary disclosure, and financial regulation. Her dissertation, entitled “Consequences of Voluntary Disclosure for CEOs: Evidence from Issuing Earnings Guidance in the Face of an Earnings Surprise,” received best doctoral student award at the American Accounting Association’s Mid-Atlantic Meeting in 2011. Her co-authored paper, entitled “Heartland Payment Systems: Cybersecurity Impact on Audits and Financial Statement Contingencies,” received the Best Contribution to Teaching Award at the 22nd Annual Ethics Research Symposium in August 2017. She has published in Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Accounting Horizons, and Research in Accounting Regulation. Her research was featured on Harvard Law School Corporate Governance forum and Dow Jones Institutional News. She presented several papers at American Accounting Association section and regional meetings in the past years, and served as an ad hoc reviewer for these meetings as well.

She regularly teaches Intermediate Accounting, Financial Reporting, and Accounting Research Project at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She has served as a core course coordinator in the Accounting Department since 2013.