GROUNDBREAKER: STAN ROSS ACCOUNTANCY CHAIR MASAKO DARROUGH

Masako Darrough, chairperson of the Stan Ross Department of Accountancy, acknowledges her status as the first woman ever to chair the Zicklin School’s most populous department, but she tends to shrug off its significance. “Maybe I’m minimizing it, because I don’t like to think that way,” she admits. She wants to be judged solely on her merits as a scholar and teacher.

Darrough began her academic career as an economist. Her undergraduate degrees and even her PhD from the University of British Columbia are in that field. She came to accounting late, via her interest in information gathering and decision-making. “Accounting, after all, is information; and information accounting is related to game theory,” Darrough explains, making the pedagogical links.

Originally from Tokyo, Darrough is a much-traveled academic who taught at seven universities, including UCLA and Columbia, before coming to Baruch in 1998. She loves New York City for its many cultural offerings and for its varied ethnic foods. They make up for the generally “neurotic” East Coast lifestyle, she says.

Teaching Baruch students, Darrough says, gives her a deep sense of satisfaction and pride. Darrough concedes she would like to see the curriculum broadened to include more options for students. The problems, as ever, are time and resources. “We have a huge undergraduate program,” she points out. “In addition, there are the MS, MBA, and doctoral programs. They all have open houses, job fairs, and lots and lots of paperwork.” Nevertheless, Darrough seems serene and fully in command—she feels she is contributing to something important and valuable. The students she taught at Columbia University, she recalls, “would do fine with me or without me.” A Baruch degree changes the life expectations of students; here “education is a much bigger thing.”

—Zane Berzins