Rate My Professor Michelle Harding

Michelle Harding is an Assistant Professor of Accounting in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business, a position she has held since joining the faculty in the fall of 2017. A first-generation college student, she earned her Ph.D. in Accounting from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2017, Master of Science in Accounting with a concentration in Tax from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce in 2003, and Bachelor of Science in Commerce with a concentration in Accounting from the same institution in 2002. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Florida since 2003. Prior to academia, Harding served as Controller for Sysco Inc.'s FreshPoint Nashville subsidiary from 2008 to 2013, Senior Staff Accountant at Batts, Morrison, Wales & Lee, P.A. in Orlando from 2006 to 2008, and Financial Controller for The Impact Movement in Orlando from 2003 to 2006. Her research specializes in corporate taxation and tax disclosure, as well as corporate governance and human capital. She teaches Taxation in Business Decisions to undergraduates, earning consistently high student evaluations averaging above 5 out of 6.

Harding's scholarly contributions include publications in leading journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy ("Why do audit clients voluntarily disclose the compliance and planning components of auditor provided tax services?" 2024, with Gal-Or, Naiker, and Sharma), Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory ("The Influence of Turnover among Other Top Executives on Financial Reporting Risk," 2024, with Bills, Seidel, and Truelson), Journal of the American Taxation Association ("Companies’ initial estimates of the one-time transition tax imposed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," 2023, with Chen, Erickson, Stomberg, and Xia), and Information & Management ("The impact of E-commerce capabilities on online retailer performance: Examining the role of timing of adoption," 2022, with Fuller, Luna, and Summers). Her awards include the 2021 Pamplin College of Business Faculty Diversity Advocate Award, National Tax Association Equity and Inclusion Travel Fellowship (2021), University of Tennessee Accounting PhD Student Research Award (2017), and doctoral fellowships from the AICPA Foundation and KPMG Foundation (2013-2017). She serves as Trustee for the American Taxation Association (2025-2027), on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Taxation Association (2025-present), and Chair of the ATA Doctoral Consortium Committee (2024-2025). Additional roles encompass faculty advisor for the National Association of Black Accountants at Virginia Tech and member of the department's Public Relations Committee.