Marcia Countryman, who was named the 2025 MOCPA Outstanding Educator of the Year, has a passion for helping give UMSL accounting students a head start on their career paths. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
Long before Marcia Countryman was celebrated as the 2025 Outstanding Educator of the Year by the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants this November, a summer job helped shape her career path.
The part-time job – as a DJ for a small radio station in her hometown of Pittsfield, Illinois – wouldn’t exactly be considered a traditional launching point for future accounting professors. But as she filled in doing bookkeeping duties around the office in addition to playing music on the air, she had the chance to learn firsthand how important it was to balance expenses and revenues for a small family business.
“That’s where I got my first little taste of accounting, and I liked it, so I took accounting my senior year in high school,” said Countryman, who is an associate teaching professor in the Ed G. Smith College of Business at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. “From there, I pretty much decided I either wanted to teach accounting or wanted to be an accountant. I ended up with my accounting degree in undergrad and eventually decided I wanted to teach after I was a CPA in Chicago for a few years.”
Marcia Countryman was honored at the MOCPA Awards Celebration on Nov. 13 at River City Casino. (Photo courtesy of Marcia Countryman)
Countryman earned her bachelor’s from Illinois College, her MBA from Northern Illinois University and her PhD in business administration with an emphasis in accounting from Saint Louis University. After she made the decision to pursue her full-time path as an educator, she taught at St. Louis Community College for three years before joining UMSL as an adjunct professor in 2010; she held that role until she was hired full time in 2014.
Her enjoyment of being in the classroom environment traces back to the radio station, too.
“I decided I like to talk in front of people, and that was the big thing,” she said. “When I was a kid, we’d have those book reports in school, and I would be so scared because everybody was staring at me while I was reading this report I wrote in cursive on a piece of paper. It was so intimidating. But I’ve just learned that the more you practice, the more you get to know people.”
And her experience with public speaking, jump-started by the early repetitions of speaking to listeners as a summer DJ, is one of the big reasons Countryman constantly encourages students in her classes – and any student she encounters – to get involved with UMSL student organizations.
Marcia Countryman holds the award for 2025 Outstanding Educator of the Year, as presented by the Missouri Society of CPAs. (Photo courtesy of Marcia Countryman)
“The more you get to know people, and the more you get to be relaxed and say, ‘Hey, this is just another person wanting to communicate with me,’” she said. “‘What do I have that I can share?’”
Countryman also encourages student involvement in her role as the faculty advisor for UMSL’s Accounting Club, which hosts multiple networking events – both formal and informal – that attract alumni and other accounting professionals to campus.
That’s an important element of the UMSL accounting experience for Countryman and her fellow faculty members in the department. It’s not just about teaching the accounting basics or preparing students to study for the CPA – though those are obviously important – but it’s about making sure students understand how to use what they learn at UMSL to land internships during their college experience and jobs after they graduate.
It’s very important to Countryman that she helps lay out the path for students.
“The first day in the classroom for every class that I teach, I talk about being involved on campus or being involved in things in your life, so you can network and get to know people and expand your skills, including your leadership skills, and then actually show it on your resume, on LinkedIn or wherever you are out there advertising yourself,” she said. “When you go out there to build your career, you’re going to sell somebody and say, ‘I’m going to be terrific at this job because …’ and then you fill in the blank with all your reasons.”
Multiple current and past officers in the Accounting Club were on hand to watch Countryman, who is beloved by her students, receive her award. From left: Thomas Fabry, Brett Paubel, Alex Paubel, Joshua Maichel, Drew Starr, Countryman, Angela Truesdale, Lilly Houser, Nyeal Biedenstein, Cate Hartley and Grant Ebert. (Photo courtesy of Marcia Countryman)
An easy way to measure Countryman’s impact on her students is to look at who showed up at the MOCPA Awards Celebration on Nov. 13 in the event space at River City Casino in St. Louis. In addition to a table full of family members, there was a table full of her current and former UMSL accounting students, including three Accounting Club presidents – Grant Ebert (current), Angela Truesdale (2024-25) and Brett Paubel (2023-24). Other former and current UMSL Accounting Club officers and students were at the event, too, including: Thomas Fabry, Alexandria Paubel, Joshua Maichel, Nyeal Biedenstein, Lilly Houser, Cate Hartley and Drew Starr.
That type of attendance is a reflection of how much Countryman, who started her time as president of the Missouri Association of Accounting Educators in early November, is committed to help everyone she encounters.
“Nobody in their career has a one-way path, and at UMSL we can help you find your path – the faculty, the staff and your peers,” Countryman said. “You’re going to meet people at UMSL that you’re going to know your entire life and can help you achieve all kinds of things later on. UMSL doesn’t end on graduation day. We’re your UMSL family from here on out.”
