Nina T. Dorata, Ph.D.

Dr. Dorata earned a Ph.D. in Accounting, with a minor in Finance, from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2003. She also holds a B.S. in Accounting and an M.B.A. in Taxation from St. John’s University and is a registered Certified Public Accountant in New York State.

Prior to joining the faculty at St. John’s University, Dr. Dorata taught at State University of New York at Old Westbury, where she served as Chair of the Accounting and Business Law Department. She also taught at St. Joseph’s College, where she co-founded the Accounting Club. Over the course of her academic career, Dr. Dorata has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in financial accounting, managerial accounting, taxation, auditing, and financial reporting.

Dr. Dorata’s professional experience includes serving as an auditor at Price Waterhouse & Co., where she worked with clients in the financial services and manufacturing industries. She later served as Assistant Vice President of Corporate Accounting at E.F. Hutton & Co. Inc. and as Director of Financial Reporting at Staff Builders Inc., both Securities and Exchange Commission registrants. In addition, Dr. Dorata has provided consulting services to a variety of organizations and has served on audit committees, further strengthening her expertise in financial reporting, governance, and regulatory compliance.

Dr. Dorata’s research interests focus primarily on financial reporting, capital markets, corporate governance, and accounting education. Her dissertation, “The Impact of Post-Acquisition Activities on Bid Premium in the Market for Corporate Acquisitions,” integrated her professional experience in financial reporting with scholarly analysis of business combination accounting treatments, post-acquisition CEO compensation, and restructuring charges associated with pricing in the market for corporate control. Her dissertation was advised by Bikki Jaggi.

Drawing on her experience serving on the audit committee of a school district with a $175 million budget, Dr. Dorata identified a significant gap in research on governance structures in public finance and their influence on budgetary outcomes in public school districts. She has presented research papers at numerous national and international academic conferences and forums.

More recently, Dr. Dorata’s scholarship has concentrated on accounting education and higher education policy, particularly examining the transfer and tuition barriers community college students face as they pursue accounting degrees at four-year institutions. Her research has contributed to broader discussions regarding educational access, transfer equity, and the future of accounting education.

Dr. Dorata has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, including the Accounting journals Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Journal of Applied Business Research, Managerial Finance, Accounting Forum, Review of Business, and The CPA Journal. She also served as a Technical Expert in Business Combination Accounting for CCH and authored the book Accounting for Business Combinations, Goodwill, and Other Intangible Assets: Interpretations of U.S. and International Accounting Standards. In recognition of her scholarship, she received the 2007 Best Paper Award at the Financial Services Institute Symposium.

Throughout her career, Dr. Dorata has received numerous honors recognizing excellence in teaching, scholarship, leadership, and service. In 2008, she received the Dr. John Dobbins Professor of the Year Award from the Student Government and the Beta Alpha Psi Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year Award for her dedication to students. She also received the 2008–2009 Dr. John W. Dobbins Outstanding Service Award from the Peter J. Tobin College of Business for her work with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which has since evolved into a campus-based virtual VITA initiative.
Additional honors include the 2010–2011 PwC Faculty Fellowship for Recognition of Teaching Excellence, the Ernst & Young Inclusive Excellence Award for Accounting and Business School Faculty Honors, and co-recipient status for the 2019 PwC INQuires Grant. In August 2011, St. John’s University awarded Dr. Dorata the Outstanding Faculty Service Medal, followed by the Outstanding Faculty Achievement Medal in 2015. In 2020, she was selected as the VIP nominee for the Values and Inclusion University Award. In 2022, Dr. Dorata received the prestigious New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants Dr. Emanuel Saxe Outstanding CPA in Education Award. Most recently, she was recognized as a semi-finalist for a Fulbright Program award.

Dr. Dorata is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and is a former member of the American Accounting Association. For many years, she has served as Chair of the NYSSCPA Future of Accounting Education Committee and continues to play an active role in shaping the future of accounting education through professional organizations and collaboration with accounting educators, practitioners, and regulatory stakeholders.

Administrative experience includes serving as the inaugural Director of the Bachelor of Science in Business program at St. John’s University, where Dr. Dorata successfully grew the program to nearly 600 students, making it the largest major within the Peter J. Tobin College of Business. She also served as Associate Dean of Strategic and External Partnerships, where she focused on developing academic, corporate, and community collaborations to strengthen student opportunities, institutional partnerships, and external engagement initiatives.

Dr. Dorata also has extensive experience with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation and business school quality assurance initiatives. She played a leadership role in maintaining separate AACSB accounting accreditation for the Department of Accountancy at St. John’s University and was responsible for AACSB reporting, accreditation review preparation, assessment coordination, and site visit activities. Her AACSB-related leadership also included faculty mentoring, curriculum oversight, assurance of learning initiatives, and strategic program development across multiple campuses and instructional modalities.

In addition to her internal accreditation leadership, Dr. Dorata served as an Accounting Member on AACSB Peer Review Teams for Suffolk University (2019), Loyola University Maryland (2020), and Santa Clara University (2021). Her AACSB experience reflects a strong commitment to continuous improvement, academic quality, strategic planning, assessment, and innovation in business and accounting education.Teaching areas: financial accounting theory, business combinations accounting, and advanced accounting topics.Capital markets and financial reporting, merger and acquisitions, audit committee and governance, climate risk disclosures, and sccounting education.

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