Smith celebrates excellence in teaching and research

Kingston, Ont. – Last month, the Smith community gathered to celebrate the contribution of its students and faculty to excellence in teaching and research through its 2025 Research Excellence Awards.

“This event is a highlight of research excellence at Smith. It’s a chance to pause and to acknowledge our researchers’ tremendous impact within the school and beyond,” said Interim Dean Lynnette Purda in her opening remarks. 

Six faculty and two students were celebrated during this year’s reception, held at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. 

Anthony Goerzen, Sobey Professor of International Business, and Steven Salterio, Stephen J.R. Smith Chair of Accounting and Auditing were both honoured with the Award for Research Excellence. 

Goerzen, whose research has been widely published in the field of strategy and international business, joined Smith in 2010. His work explores the behaviour and performance of multinational corporations with a particular focus on location strategy and cooperative strategies. One of his recent papers co-authored by Ari Van Assche of HEC Montréal and James X. Zhan looks at global sustainability reporting standards and the future of international business. Goerzen’s research has been cited over 5,000 times, and in 2023 he won the Journal of International Business Studies “Decade Award” for the most influential research published over the last 10 years.

“Research is often a lonely pursuit, one in which there are mountains of negative feedback and just the occasional affirmation,” Goerzen shared in a pre-recorded video message in which he offered advice to current and inspiring research students.

“Engage with or connect your detailed research question to a big, global, intractable issue,” he said. “Something that really captures your attention, your imagination, something that you want to talk to your friends about, or to your mother when you call her on Sunday. The world is on fire in so many ways, let it light you on fire too, and you won’t need to be persuaded to keep going because you know you’re doing something important.”

Fellow Research Excellence Award winner Steven Salterio came to Smith in 2003. His research interests span accountability, auditing, decision making, governance and performance measurement. His most recent work co-authored by Smith PhD alum Yi Luo evaluates comparative audit regulatory effectiveness by the Canadian Public Accountability Board, an independent Canadian regulator charged with improving audit quality in Canada.

Salterio’s work has been widely referenced, with over 9,000 citations, and he is a recipient of the Lifetime Notable Contribution to Behavioral Accounting Research Award from the American Accounting Association.

“I want to thank my co-authors who have been on this journey with me. In particular, my PhD students. I’ve had 11 of them myself and influenced the careers of another dozen. And in particular, I’d like to highlight my most recent co-author, Yi Luo, who has been co-author in five of my papers,” Salterio said in his award acceptance speech. He also offered a heartfelt thank you to his wife, Leslie, acknowledging her as the “centre of his research excellence” and expressing deep gratitude for her unwavering support throughout his career.

The New Researcher Achievement Award was given to Assistant Professor of Accounting Erica Pimentel and Assistant Professor of Accounting Blake Steenhoven, who both joined the business school in 2021.

Pimentel’s work is in the area of financial accounting and explores how technological disruption impacts professionals at work. She has published 12 peer reviewed articles, including two in FT50 journals. Her latest research delves into how introducing a permissioned blockchain in a supply chain context impacts accountability relationships and the process of rendering an account.

“When I got here and looked around my area, I felt like I was surrounded by the titans of accounting research, folks like Steve Salterio, Mike Welker. They took me under their wing; they offered me advice,” shared Pimentel when accepting the award. “To all the people that have allowed me to believe in myself and achieve things that I never, never dreamed of: I feel like I’ve found my forever home here at Smith where I can be myself but be pushed to be an even better version of who I am today.”

Also in accounting, Steenhoven’s research focuses on the judgment and decision making of investors, managers and other capital market participants in financial disclosure settings. He has published four papers in an FT50 publication, including his most recent work, which looks at CEO gender and responses to shareholder activism.

“I think we all know that there is a lot of luck that goes into publishing papers, and while I’ve worked really hard, I do acknowledge that I’ve been really fortunate early on, and what that’s really done is given me a lot of the flexibility that would normally come with tenure,” Steenhoven shared in a recorded video message played at the ceremony. “I’m really grateful to Smith for encouraging this kind of flexibility, and I’ve really been using it to try to push the boundaries of research.” 

Jana Raver, Associate Dean, Faculty, and Marie E. Shantz Professor of Organizational Behaviour was honoured with the Smith Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, an award recognizing excellence in teaching and dedication to student learning. Raver’s students describe her as a remarkable educator who doesn’t just teach the material, but transforms how they think.

Raver herself said it is a privilege to teach in the PhD and MSc programs. “It’s that combination between research excellence and passion for teaching,” shared Raver. “You’re able to be as ‘research’ as it gets. Diving deep into the current evidence, the most technical scholarly and theoretical work that’s out there, and also shaping students at the same time and taking a rich, constructive development lens on everything.”

The Smith Graduate Supervision Award, was awarded to Laurence Ashworth, Associate Dean, Research, and Distinguished Faculty Fellow of Marketing. He was praised for fostering an environment where students feel heard, supported and capable, and where curiosity is celebrated.

“Working with graduate students is an enormously motivating part of what I do. Working through ideas with them, helping them develop as researchers, seeing them progress, seeing them struggle, allowing them to struggle for some periods,” Ashworth shared, addressing the students in the room. “Without interacting with you, without working with you, without having the feedback and the ideas and the sessions we have together—I definitely wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.”

Two PhD candidates were also recognized for their contribution to Smith’s vibrant research community.

PhD candidate Ali Ahmadi received the PhD Student Research Excellence Award, an award recognizing a PhD student who has demonstrated exceptional academic progress and outstanding research potential. Ahmadi has two papers currently under second-round review, one with the Journal of Business Research, and another with Human Relations, an FT50 journal. His dissertation explores the concept of “competitive surprise”, specifically, how firms can disrupt their competitors through unexpected actions. Ahmadi thanked his mentor, Goce Andrevski, for his guidance and support throughout his PhD journey. 

The New PhD Student Research Excellence Award was presented to Smith Commerce and MSc alum Tara Rezvan. The award recognizes an early-stage PhD student who has already demonstrated outstanding academic progress and promising research potential. In her first year, one of Rezvan's projects has already been submitted to the Association for Consumer Research, one of the top conferences in the field of consumer behaviour. Rezvan, who is also a recipient of the Queen's Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award in part for co-founding the undergraduate focused Research Impact Hub, continues to mentor junior researchers, helping foster the next generation of scholars. 

“The awards we present today honour outstanding research contributions, exceptional graduate supervision, excellence in graduate teaching and the scholarly promise of our PhD students,” said Dean Purda. “They’re a reflection not only of individual achievement, but also of a vibrant and supportive community and culture that we build together.”