Wheeling Jesuit alumnus Richard Riley '84 is one of six who received WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching for 2013.
Riley and the other award winners were honored April 11 during a Week of Honors event.
The WVU Foundation began giving out the awards in 1985 as a way to celebrate faculty who've established patterns of distinguished teaching and exceptional innovation in teaching methods, course and curriculum design, and instructional tools.
At 29, Riley reached what would be a pinnacle to most careers but instead was a plateau.
He was chief financial officer of a successful business, but wasn't sure if he was moving in the direction he wanted to move. After consulting with two of his mentors, one at WVU and another at Wheeling Jesuit University, Riley decided to pursue a doctorate degree and rejoin the world of academia.
The world of academia has been a better place since.
“It was more of a leap of faith than anything,” said Riley, the Louis F. Tanner Distinguished Professor of Public Accounting at WVU. “But I've been here 15 years and I absolutely love it.”
Riley's passion for education shows in the innovative courses he has designed and the interest he takes in students' success.
He is best known for developing courses like Fraud and Forensic Accounting Case Investigations, which challenges students to investigate and find solutions for real-life fraud cases. The cases come from Riley's own professional experience, including those he's heard of and worked on with federal fraud investigators.
He also teaches Marketplace Business Simulation, which requires a student team to manage a personal computer manufacturing company in competition with other student teams. Student teams are expected to make all financial, operational, marketing, production and other strategic decisions required to manage the business and, at the end of the exercise, they report the results of their company's performance, including return on investment, customer satisfaction and market share to venture capitalist investors.
Riley was also one of the authors of Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination, popular forensic accounting textbook, and helped B&E establish a new doctoral program in forensic accounting.
“The hallmark of my classroom approach is to create very challenging, simulated real-world experiences for my students,” Riley said.
That method has proven successful.
As Laura Seybold Greene, a human resources professional and WVU executive MBA grad said of one of Riley's courses: “Simply put, Dr. Riley brought to life what books could not.”
In addition to his teaching responsibilities at WVU, Riley is in his second term as president of Wheeling Jesuit's Alumni Council.
