Darla Karnes | SIU

Darla Karnes is a senior lecturer in the School of Accountancy. Karnes has been a faculty member in the College of Business since 2000. During that time she has taught over 140 classes and 7,000 students in the areas of financial and managerial accounting, and taxation.

Currently she is a course coordinator for Financial Accounting and teaches Financial (ACCT 220), Managerial (ACCT 230), and Intermediate Accounting (ACCT 322) courses. Karnes began online course delivery for Accounting 220 and 230 in 2012. This past year she authored the first Interactive Presentations for McGraw Hill’s Fundamentals of Financial Accounting – 4th Edition. In 2011, Karnes was named SIU NTT Teacher of the Year.

Karnes earned her undergraduate degree at SIU in health care management in 1985 and worked in the health care industry for over 15 years prior to becoming a faculty member in the College of Business. In 1997, Karnes passed the CPA in the state of Illinois and in 2000 earned her Master of Accountancy with specialization in taxation from SIU. “Encouragement from my former tax professors at SIU changed my life,” she said. “They encouraged me to go to grad school and then encouraged me to apply for the teaching position. I never dreamed it would end up being a career.  Fifteen years later there is nothing I would rather do professionally than to be in a room full of students who are eager to learn and willing to embrace a challenge. I have the best job in the world and teaching in the College of Business is icing on the cake.”   

Karnes enjoys working with College of Business students because of their determination and commitment to education. She said, “It is apparent our College of Business students are happy to be here and are very eager to learn. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a student work hard, accomplish something they never thought possible and flourish.”