School of Accounting will honor five at Hall of Fame and Awards ceremony

Monday, February 22, 2021

Oklahoma State University’s School of Accounting will honor five outstanding alumni and friends of the school during the 2021 Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame and Awards virtual ceremony April 29.

This year’s distinguished alumni being honored with induction into the Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame are:

• Ron Bussert, who earned both his bachelor’s degree in accounting and his MBA from OSU, is vice president for administration and finance at OSU-Tulsa.
• Melanie Middlemist, a two-time OSU accounting graduate with master’s and doctorate degrees, taught accounting classes at Colorado State University for 16 years until her retirement in 2002.
• Joe Taylor, who earned his bachelor’s in accounting from OSU, is founder and chairman of JTaylor, the largest locally owned CPA firm in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Distinguished Friend of the School of Accounting honoree is:

• Sandy Siegfried has been a longtime supporter of the OSU School of Accounting. After earning her bachelor’s degree in accounting, attending OSU and the University of Tulsa, she enjoyed a successful career in the Tulsa area.

The Early Career Rising Star is:

• V. David Russell, who earned his master’s in accounting from OSU, is a private banker for J.P. Morgan’s Private Bank.

“This group of honorees exemplifies the many ways in which accounting students from OSU positively impact the accounting profession and their communities,” said Dr. Audrey Gramling, head of the School of Accounting. “These honorees, who have proven themselves to be exceptional in their accomplishments, help fulfill our vision of building the future of accounting. The School of Accounting is very privileged to have each of the individuals committed to our success.”

Bussert has nearly two decades of higher education administrative and financial affairs experience, as well as extensive experience in the public and private sectors. As vice president for administration and finance at OSU-Tulsa, he oversees budgeting, purchasing, human resources, information technology, campus safety and facilities management, as well as capital projects planning and monitoring. Prior to OSU-Tulsa, Bussert served as vice president for fiscal affairs at East Central University. He is also a former executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

Bussert earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting and Master of Business Administration at OSU, and his Juris Doctorate at Oklahoma City University. He credits the OSU School of Accounting with providing him an excellent foundation to earn his CPA and for his career, which included service as a city finance director, the state auditor’s office as director of administration, public accounting and as a controller for a small privately-owned business.

Later, he spent more than 13 years in banking as an audit manager then director while attending law school at night, graduating magna cum laude. He was then named the bank’s assistant general counsel. He has taught as an adjunct professor at three universities.

Bussert has served on a number of community and church boards including as chair of the Tulsa Global Alliance and Bixby Metro Area Chamber Boards and two years as the treasurer for the OSU Alumni Association National Board. He currently serves as the president of the Oklahoma Association of College and University Business Officers and was a member of Leadership Tulsa (Class 36) and Leadership Oklahoma (Class XIV).

He and his spouse Ellen reside in Bixby, Oklahoma, and enjoyed their opportunity to co-chair the Ronald McDonald House fundraiser, “Fun Ball” and to serve in the Bixby Band Parents leadership, while their sons marched competitively. They have two sons and daughters-in-law.

Middlemist earned master’s and doctorate accounting degrees from OSU (in addition to her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado), which enabled her to fulfill a dream of teaching accounting at the university level. She joined the Colorado State University accounting faculty where she served in a variety of roles until retiring in 2002. In 2005, she returned to a part-time teaching role and continued to teach until June 2009.

She taught numerous courses over the years, including Intermediate Accounting I and II, Government and Nonprofit Accounting, and Principles of Accounting. In 2005, she collaborated with Dr. William Mister in the development of an online Fundamentals of Accounting course that was part of the CSU Business Certificate program which was a forerunner in online instruction. She also coauthored an Introduction to Business textbook with Dr. R. Dennis Middlemist and Dr. William Zikmund.

Middlemist’s interaction with students was not limited to the classroom. She served as faculty advisor to both the Accounting Club and Beta Alpha Psi throughout her years at CSU.

Among many teaching and service awards, she was named as Accounting Professor of the Year, College of Business Professor of the Year, awarded the Jack E. Cermak Advisor Award and selected the Outstanding Beta Alpha Psi Faculty Advisor. Middlemist is a certified public accountant and is a member of Beta Alpha Psi, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Colorado Society of Accountants and the Governmental Accountants Association.

Taylor is a founder and has been a key catalyst for the growth and development of the JTaylor firm. Since 1999, JTaylor has grown to more than 90 employees. The firm offers the highest quality professional advisory, assurance and tax services, which has enabled double-digit revenue and head count growth annually. With an eye on sustainability, JTaylor has achieved a remarkable succession to the next generation, a young firm among its peers with nine of its ten partners 50 or under.

Taylor’s professional development began at OSU, where he also met his wife, Lynnice. They were married after their sophomore year and graduated in 1979. The greatest endorsement of their education and commitment to the university was sending their three children to OSU, where the two oldest graduated with accounting degrees. Stephen is a practicing attorney in Fort Worth. Jolynn earned her master’s in accounting at OSU and joined PwC before arriving at JTaylor, where she is a tax partner. Their youngest son, John, also graduated from OSU, with a degree in international business, followed by an MBA, and then on to Catholic seminary.

JTaylor is an active recruiter at OSU for advisory, assurance and tax positions, full time and internships. Despite COVID-19, JTaylor kept its commitment to four OSU student interns during the summer of 2020 and already has committed to its first three for 2021. The firm is active in many phases of OSU accounting recruiting activities.

In the community, Taylor has made a significant contribution, including serving on a wide range of civic and north Texas boards. His longest tenure (31 years) has been with Sixty and Better, Inc., a charity that has served the needs of older adults through 25 Tarrant County community centers since 1967. He served two terms as president of the board and four terms as the Sixty and Better treasurer. He also is a member of the AICPA, the Texas Society of CPAs and the Fort Worth Chapter of CPAs, and has served in leadership roles at the state and local levels.

Siegfried grew up in Tulsa and earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting after attending OSU and the University of Tulsa. After a stint in the accounting department at a large oil company, she was employed by Stanfield + O’Dell P.C., and served as a shareholder for many years.

She was appointed to the Oklahoma Accountancy Board as a board member in 2020 and currently serves on the audit and budget and legislative/rules promulgation committees. A member of the AICPA, she is also a member of the Oklahoma Society of CPAs and served as president during the fiscal years 2002-2003.  She has also served on many committees of the OSCPA, including the taxation committee and professional ethics committee.

Siegfried has been president of the Tulsa Chapter of CPAs, the Tulsa Tax Club and the Rotary Club of Tulsa Foundation. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Directors for the University of Tulsa Conference of Accountants and has served on the OSU School of Accounting Advisory Board. She currently sits on the board of directors of EPC Benefit Resources Inc., a national not-for-profit that serves her church’s denomination, and has served in various capacities on other not-for-profit boards.

Her love of OSU runs deep. Her parents met at and both graduated from OSU. Her husband, Kerry, and daughters Laura Winter and Jennifer Hughes, also graduated from OSU. She is supportive of OSU academics, including being a member of Women for OSU, and is a proud supporter of OSU sports.

At J.P. Morgan, Russell advises families, entrepreneurs, professional athletes, Fortune 500 executives and non-profits. Since graduating from Texas Christian University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance and OSU with a master’s in accounting, he has enjoyed a decade of experience as a financial services and investment management professional serving as a trusted advisor to institutional and individual clients. He has worked for companies such as TPG Capital, Ernst & Young’s Financial Services office, UBS Wealth Management and Portrait Financial. He is also an adjunct professor in finance and Luther King Capital Management Center for Financial Services Teaching Fellow at TCU’s Neeley School of Business.

His interests outside of work extend to art, travel, sports, civic engagement and non-profit board leadership. His focus is working with organizations engaged in education advocacy and policy, criminal justice reform and impact investing.

Russell currently serves on the board of directors for both Social Venture Partners Dallas and Dallas Afterschool, in addition to being both its board secretary and governance chair, and TCU Chancellor Young Alumni Advisory Council. In addition, he volunteers with the City of Dallas Office of Arts & Culture and Prison Entrepreneurship Program. He has also been selected to local fellowships for his civic engagement and leadership qualities: Social Venture Partners Dana Juett Residency Fellowship (2020), Leadership ISD Fellowship (2018), and Dallas Regional Chamber Young Professional Program (2015). Originally from Detroit, he now resides in Dallas.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sarah Johnson | OSU School of Accounting | 405-744-8046 | sarah.johnson11@okstate.edu