A West Georgia Technical College accounting instructor has been elected an officer of the Georgia Association of Accounting Educators, and will become president of the association in the next four years.

Joey Sanders was recently named to the four-year progressive leadership role and will start as secretary of the organization before advancing to treasurer, then to vice president and finally to president in 2020. As president, Sanders will host the annual two-day meeting of the association, which will likely be held in the Carrollton area, where Sanders teaches at the Carroll Campus.

Sanders will serve as the first president to come from a member of the Technical College System of Georgia, as all former presidents have been accounting faculty members at University System of Georgia institutions.

“I am both honored and humbled to be chosen to serve in this role,” Sanders said. “I am all about expanding educational opportunities for our graduates, and I fully intend to take advantage of the opportunities that this position affords to promote ways for us to work more closely with our counterparts within university system.”

The GAAE began in the 1950s and has always consisted primarily of USG accounting professors, Sanders said.

Three of WGTC’s accounting instructors, Sanders included, began attending GAAE meetings in 2011 and have diligently worked to encourage more involvement by TCSG accounting faculty over the years in order to hopefully change their perception of the accounting programs at our technical colleges.

“As evidenced by last week’s election results, we’ve come a long way in our efforts, as in four years I will be the first TCSG accounting faculty member to serve as president of the organization,” Sanders said.

Babs Russell, dean of the WGTC School of Business and Public Services, said Sanders will be a great fit as an officer of the association.

“This is such an honor for Joey, and certainly something he’s been working toward for quite some time,” Russell said. “We are appreciative of his willingness to serve and to accept this leadership role.”