Margaret Christ, who holds the J.M. Tull Chair in Accounting and serves as director of the J.M. Tull School of Accounting, was named associate dean of graduate programs and AI initiatives at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business. Her appointment takes effect on August 1.  

Christ succeeds Terry College Dean Santanu Chatterjee, who left the role of associate dean of graduate programs when he became interim dean in June 2025.  

“Margaret brings an exceptional track record of leadership and a deep commitment to academic excellence to this critical role,” Chatterjee said. “During her tenure directing the Tull School of Accounting, she has been a driving force behind enrollment growth and program innovation. As we look to the future, her vision will be instrumental in elevating our graduate programs and leading our strategic integration of artificial intelligence across the college.” 

Christ has served as Tull director since July 2024. During her two years at the helm, she oversaw the launch of the online Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcc) program and helped reshape curriculum to prepare students for changes to Certified Public Accountant standards.  

In this expanded role, Christ will oversee Terry’s portfolio of MBA programs in Athens and Atlanta, residential and online specialized master’s programs, and the Ivester Institute for Business Analytics and Insights (IIBAI), where she will spearhead the implementation of the college’s strategic plan to integrate AI into curriculum, research, operations and industry partnerships. 

Christ came to UGA in 2008 as an assistant professor after earning a PhD in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on management control systems. She recently launched a line of inquiry into how artificial intelligence and data analytics tools impact human judgment within accounting practices.  

That work has informed her teaching and helped her develop an evolving curriculum and class materials used in accounting programs across the U.S.  

“My objective has been for accounting students to develop an analytics mindset — the ability to think critically about a business issue and identify a way to analyze it to solve a problem,” Christ said.  

To help students cultivate that mindset, Christ has developed numerous teaching cases and curriculum materials in conjunction with the EY Academic Resource Center. She and her co-authors won the 2020 Innovation in Accounting Education Award from the American Accounting Association (AAA) for their collective efforts. The case materials have been used by thousands of accounting instructors at nearly 1,000 institutions around the world. 

In addition to her work at UGA, Christ serves as an editor at The Accounting Review and Accounting Horizons. She is currently serving as the American Accounting Association’s vice president for finance. She previously served as an editor for the Journal of Management Accounting Research.