Academic Degrees
PhD, Accounting, University of Kentucky
MBA, Finance, DePaul University
BS, Accounting, DePaul University
Professional Certifications
Certified Public Accountant (Illinois)
Biography
Elizabeth Murphy is a professor emerita at the School of Accountancy & MIS. Before taking emerita status in 2019, Murphy taught introductory, intermediate and advanced financial accounting courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including governmental and nonprofit accounting. Murphy has also taught in DePaul's former CPA Review. Prior to teaching at DePaul, she was an instructor at the University of St. Francis. Her previous work experience also included positions at KPMG, Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, Internal Revenue Service and Marshall Field's.
Murphy continues to serves on the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) FAR Content Sub-committee, which reviews and approves questions for the FAR section of the CPA exam. She also serves as an Illinois delegate on the AICPA Council, has served as a member of the Illinois CPA Society's Board of Directors, and has co-chaired the 2010 Education Summit Planning Committee, with a history of past service on many other committees/task forces. She served as the Illinois CPA Society's Diversity Initiatives Task Force Chair from 2013 to 2015 and was a member of the Women's Executive Committee. In 2009, Murphy was invited to serve on the Illinois Board of Examiners’ Education Advisory Task Force and continues to attend their annual conferences. She also helped to create and continues to annually revise the Illinois CPA Society’s FAQ Brochure for CPA candidates. She is a member of the American Accounting Association, the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, the AICPA, and the Illinois CPA Society. Murphy has served as treasurer of her town home association since 2002 and has also served as secretary since 2016.
During her academic career, Murphy has received numerous awards. Her list of awards include: the 2020 Illinois CPA Society Lifetime Achievement Award; the 2019 DePaul University Via Sapientiae Award, DePaul’s highest award given to DePaul employees; the 2014 Constantine "Gus" Economos Distinguished Teaching Award; the 2013 DePaul Women in Action Award; the 2013 Illinois CPA Society Special Achievement in Volunteerism Award; the 2012 DePaul Socially Responsible Faculty Award; the 2009 DePaul Student Organization Advisor of the Year; the Inaugural 2008 Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Leadership in Advancing Diversity Award; the 2005 Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator Award; the 2004 DePaul Office of Multicultural Student Affairs Achievement Award; the 2002 DePaul Quality of Instruction Council Excellence in Teaching Award; the 1997 DePaul Ledger & Quill Excellence in Education Award; the 1990 DePaul Ledger & Quill Teaching Excellence Award for Educational Research; and the 2003 Houghton Mifflin Technology Innovation Award.
Murphy served as the second faculty advisor to DePaul's Midwest Association of Hispanic Accountants (MAHA) from 2003 to 2018, and served as the faculty advisor for the DePaul Chapter of the National Society of College Scholars. She was also the first faculty advisor to the first graduate accounting student organization at DePaul, Graduate Students for Accounting (GSA), which she helped to found in 2010 and served as the GSA faculty advisor until her retirement. From 2000 to her retirement in 2019, she served as the faculty coach to MAHA student case teams who have won first place in numerous local and national competitions, including four first place wins in the KPMG/ALPFA national case competition.
Murphy has offered CPA Exam Workshops for MAHA since 2004 and was invited to offer these workshops to all accounting students by the DePaul Career Center. About 200 accounting students (graduate and undergraduate) attended these non-mandatory workshops each quarter. These workshops informed students about the content of the CPA Exam, the Illinois Educational requirements, the application process, and strategies for applying and taking the exam. Murphy has also been invited to give these CPA Exam workshops at other Illinois universities and through the Illinois CPA Society.
She has served on DePaul curriculum committees at the university, college and school level, including being a charter member of DePaul's Academic Program Review Committee and the university's Promotion & Tenure Policy Committee, where she has served as chair from 2008 through 2014. Murphy also has served as chair of the Student Recruitment & Retention Committee of the DePaul President's Diversity Council, and was a member of the council since it was created in 2006 until 2013.
Murphy has published articles on accounting education and ethics in journals that include the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Finance, Journal of Accounting and Finance Research, The Journal of Accounting Case Research, Business & Society Review, Journal of Accounting Education, Strategic Finance, Ohio CPA Journal, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Kent/Bentley Journal of Accounting and Computers, College Teaching and Learning Journal, and the American Journal of Business Education.