Steven and Deborah Nelson
Steven Nelson and his wife, Deborah, of Little Rock have given $100,000 to support accounting faculty in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, the UA announced Monday.
The university said that the Nelsons’ endowment, the Accounting Faculty Innovation Fund, will provide operational discretionary funding for the Department of Accounting and support the recruitment and retention of top-quality accounting business faculty.
“Generosity from alumni and friends, like Steve and Debbie, is essential to helping us elevate the accounting department in a national arena,” Gary Peters, the interim head for the Department of Accounting, said in a news release.
“Steve and Debbie understand the big picture and realize their gift will allow the department to more fully engage our faculty, develop students and ultimately enhance the accounting profession,” he said. “They have made a difference not only through their active involvement on our advisory boards but through their financial investment as well, and we are better for it.”
A Murfreesboro native, Steve Nelson graduated from the UA accounting program and then went to work in public accounting at Ernst & Whinney in Little Rock, the predecessor to Ernst & Young.
Nelson worked in public accounting for four and a half years before joining First Federal Savings and Loan and then accepted a position as controller at Dillard’s Inc. in 1988. Nelson is still with Dillard’s today, where he is vice president and controller.
Nelson is a member of the Walton College Dean’s Executive Advisory Board and former member of the Accounting Department Advisory Board.
“I saw that they needed funds with flexibility so they could retain talented faculty,” Nelson said in a news release. “So we wanted to provide them with a pool of money that would be entrusted to the accounting chair to use for enhancing their program.
“I think back to some of the professors I had – Nolan Williams, Jim Modisette and Doris Cook – and the impact they had on my career. This fund is meant to retain the future Doris Cooks at Walton College,” he said.
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