Marriott School of Management professor Gary C. Cornia has been elected president of the National Tax Association, the country's most prestigious organization of tax professionals.
Cornia, who teaches public finance at Brigham Young University, is a former Utah state tax commissioner and current chair of the Utah governor's tax review commission.
"Gary has a wonderful blend of solid academic background and practical experience," says Kurt Zorn, NTA member and associate dean at the school of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University. "The NTA's main audiences are the academics and practitioners of tax, and he has a foot solidly planted in both camps."
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the NTA provides a setting for its 1,400 members to exchange ideas about public finance systems through information, research and shared viewpoints. The association also publishes the National Tax Journal, a leading academic publication focusing on public finance, policy and economics.
Candidates for president of the organization are nominated by its board and elected by the membership.
"The NTA has a very good reputation for fostering serious policy discussions, and I hope to contribute to that process," Cornia says.
Romney Institute of Public Management Director Robert Parsons says, "Gary is recognized nationally and internationally as an authority on tax issues. He has done extensive research on theoretical and applied tax matters."
Prior to his election Cornia was a member of the board of directors for the NTA from 19972001 and co-chair of the NTA study on the taxation of electronic commerce. He is a visiting senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., and will return to teach at BYU in September 2003.
Writer: Joseph Ogden
