The Southeastern Conference recently awarded the 2024 SEC Faculty Achievement Award for the U of A to Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and David D. Glass Endowed Chair Mary C. Lacity.

 "I am proud of Dr. Lacity for being honored with the SEC Faculty Achievement Award for the University of Arkansas," said Brent Williams, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business. "This honor is a testament to her unwavering commitment to research excellence and her dedication to our students' success. Mary is a renowned scholar, dedicated teacher and wonderful colleague. I am grateful she is a member of the Walton College faculty."

Every year, the SEC recognizes faculty with outstanding records in research and scholarship from each of its member universities with a SEC Faculty Achievement Award. After the SEC Faculty Achievement Awards have been announced for each university, the SEC selects the SEC Professor of the Year from the group of recipients.  

The U of A will honor Lacity for receiving this award during Faculty Appreciation Week, which is the second week of April.  She will also be recognized at the Provost's Faculty Recognition Reception, which will be held April 10 at the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House. 

"Lifetime career distinctions are awarded to individuals, but I did not achieve this honor alone," Lacity said. "Since coming to the University of Arkansas, I've been surrounded by colleagues who epitomize our Walton College EPIC values — Excellence, Professionalism, Innovation and Collegiality. My colleagues have supported me as coauthors, mentors, staff and administrators. I am particularly grateful to Dean Brent Williams and Provost Terry Martin who have honored me with this award."

Lacity joined the U of A in 2018 as a professor in the Sam M. Walton College of Business and director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence, where she completed a five-year term through the summer of 2023. In 2022, she became a distinguished professor of information systems and the David D. Glass Endowed Chair.

Prior to joining the U of A, Lacity was a Curators' Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri. She was a professor at the University of Missouri for more than 25 years. In addition, she has served as a visiting scholar for the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a visiting professor and research fellow at the London School of Economics, a doctoral thesis faculty adviser at Washington University, a research affiliate and visiting research fellow at Templeton College at Oxford University and a researcher in the Information Systems Research Center at the University of Houston. In 2014, Lacity was inducted into the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals' (IAOP) Hall of Fame, making her one of only three academics ever inducted.

Her research focuses on blockchain-enabled solutions, decentralized identity, metaverse, ethical uses of technology and service automation. She has published over 30 books, contributed to more than 100 journal publications and served as a speaker at more than 200 events. Her publications have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, MIS Quarterly Executive, IEEE Computer, Communications of the ACM and many other academic and practitioner outlets. She is also a senior editor for MIS Quarterly Executive, a contributing editor for Journal of the British Blockchain Association, a member of the Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI) of the Global Blockchain Business Alliance (GBBC), a fellow of the Association of Information Systems (AIS), a member of the Linux Foundation's Trust over IP (ToIP) and a Certified Outsourcing Professional.

Lacity earned a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Houston. She received her bachelor's degree in business administration from Pennsylvania State University.

"I'd like to congratulate Dr. Lacity on this tremendous recognition," said Provost Terry Martin. "She exemplifies everything our land-grant mission represents. She's made significant contributions to advance research in blockchain technologies on a global scale, and she is committed to teaching, service and student success at the university. We're grateful Dr. Lacity is a part of our talented faculty, and I know she will continue to advance the university in her future endeavors."

To learn more about the SEC Faculty Achievement Awards, visit thesecu.com.

About the Sam M. Walton College of Business: Founded in 1926, the Sam M. Walton College of Business is AACSB-accredited and ranks among the top business schools in the nation.  Walton College is the largest college at the University of Arkansas, serving nearly 9,000 undergraduate, master's and doctoral students. Walton College is recognized among U.S. News & World Report's 2023 "Best Business Schools," and its undergraduate supply chain management program was ranked No. 1 in North America by Gartner. The college's Master of Business Administration program was also ranked No. 11 for best return on investment by The Wall Street Journal. The Princeton Review ranked the college's graduate entrepreneurship program as one of the top in the country for the first time in the 2022-23 year. And in partnership with the Global Campus, the U of A's online business degree program ranked No. 12 nationally among 214 institutions by U.S. News in 2023. For more information on Walton College, visit walton.uark.edu.  

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.