Fellows Named Next Bank of America Endowed Professor

(St. Petersburg, Fla.) May 19, 2009 – College of Business Accounting Professor James Fellows, PhD, has been named the Bank of America Endowed Professor in Business for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Named by the Florida Institute of CPAs as the 2005 Florida Educator of the Year, Fellows’ commitment to community affairs has enhanced the academic experiences of his students. Through this endowment, Fellows will continue to build professional and service opportunities for students with the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, a nationwide tax preparation service for low and moderate income taxpayers. Fellows recruited 15 students during the most recent tax season, who either volunteered or worked as interns for VITA. They processed some of the 3,700 tax returns processed in Pinellas County, helping low and moderate income families receive valuable tax credits.

“Not only do the students gain practical experience in tax preparation and working with clients, they also gain a sense of community and the reward that comes from helping others,” Fellows said. “The taxpayers who receive VITA services are often unaware of the tax credits they are allowed.”

Fellows works with the Wealth Building Coalition of Pinellas County, a public-private partnership that includes Bank of America as a primary partner and coordinates the Pinellas VITA program with the IRS. Fellows is seeking to build student interest and participation in the program and add more VITA sites for the 2010 filing season. For the 2009 filing season, there were 12 sites in Pinellas County from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg.

Fellows joined USF St. Petersburg in 1992 after 10 years at USF Fort Myers, now Florida Gulf Coast University. He is a member of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. His teaching specialty is taxation with a secondary focus on business economics and cost accounting.

The Bank of America Endowed Professorship in Business was created in 1990 to recognize USF St. Petersburg faculty doing outstanding work in the community, through support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and the State of Florida Matching Grant Program. USF St. Petersburg is dedicated to enhancing the curriculum through the Citizen Scholar model and providing students with unique educational opportunities through coursework that includes community involvement. Fellows’ appointment recognizes his dedication to instruction through community engagement, and the commitment that Bank of America has to benefit its local communities.

-USF St. Petersburg-

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