DeWayne Searcy knows firsthand how much college professors have on their plate. That’s why Searcy, together with wife Shelley, has pledged $100,000 to establish the DeWayne and Shelley Searcy Research Fund in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business, a strategic investment in what he calls the “invisible” work of faculty scholarship.
During 13 years in academia—starting as an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Miami to Associate Professor and Director of the School of Accountancy at Auburn University—Searcy balanced teaching classes, advising students, conducting departmental meetings, and keeping up with various administrative tasks, leaving precious little time for research.
Searcy is used to juggling responsibilities. As an accounting student at UAB (class of ‘91), he took advantage of the university’s flexible schedule to work his way through school, benefiting from the mentorship of beloved faculty like the late Ollie S. Powers while gaining firsthand accounting experience.
“Ollie was the first one who started giving me the idea that being a professor could be a good life,” Searcy said. “I credit him with opening up that door for me. He was one of the best professors I ever had.”
After a few years removed from his undergraduate studies, Searcy returned to UAB to earn his master’s in accounting in 1996. Spending the better part of a decade in private practice as a CPA and in industry did nothing to diminish the appeal of a life in higher ed, so Searcy took advantage of an “off-ramp”—and Shelley’s unwavering support—to pursue a Ph.D. in accounting and logistics at the University of Tennessee.
Searcy and his family moved back to the Birmingham area in 2016, where he currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Cowin Equipment Company. While Searcy may have left academia for a few years, his enthusiasm for teaching is still unmistakable. “It’s so rewarding to teach students at the collegiate level,” he said.
Research, by contrast, did not come naturally for him, but he understood the responsibility of professors to publish. “To me, research is highly difficult, but professors must research. Finding funds to support your research is definitely an added burden.”
A supportive administrator can alleviate that burden, and Searcy said he witnessed at Auburn the leadership of Christopher Shook, now the dean of the Collat School of Business. “He understood his department, he understood what was needed, and as dean—even as department head—the most important thing you can do is make sure your faculty are aligned with the mission,” Searcy said. “Not just at the university and the college level, but at the department level. If everyone isn’t on the same page, it’s your job to make sure that they are. Being department heads at the same time at Auburn, I saw Dean Shook do just that.”
One of Shook’s top priorities at Collat is investing in faculty scholarship, aligning the school with UAB’s Growth with Purpose strategic initiative to generate $1 billion in annual research expenditures. When Searcy asked his former colleague the best way to support his alma mater, Shook proposed helping to accelerate innovation.
“DeWayne’s gift will help us build a culture of celebrating research excellence in the Collat School of Business,” Shook said. “There is a strong correlation between doing great research and being a great teacher. Research keeps our faculty current, and how can we expect our students to learn if we have stopped learning ourselves?”
Shook is currently planning to use the Searcys’ support fund to establish research awards that match Collat’s current teaching awards, as well as to fund potential research expenditures.
“Most donors want to support facilities and students—when you start talking about research, their eyes glaze over,” Searcy said. “I knew it was important to the university, and I’ll tell you from experience where it has impact: faculty retention. Faculty retention is hugely important and always on the mind of department heads. Shelley and I wanted to do our small part to support Dean Shook and Collat in an area of strategic importance to UAB.”
More fundamentally, Searcy is just happy to find a way to give back to his alma mater. “Everyone starts somewhere, and I started with UAB. They gave me the foundation, gave me the drive, to accomplish my goals no matter what path I took.”