Nicole Heron

Nicole Heron is an assistant professor in the Accounting and Law division. She earned her Ph.D. in Accounting at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College – CUNY, and both her MBA with a concentration in accounting and her bachelor's degree in accounting and philosophy from the University of Scranton's Kania School of Management. Prior to joining Babson College, Professor Heron was a Fulbright research scholar, worked as a corporate accountant, and was on the faculty at Suffolk University's Sawyer Business School.
Professor Heron's main teaching interests are in managerial and cost accounting, and she has taught courses in both areas at the undergraduate and graduate level. She cares deeply about the student experience in her classroom and was awarded the Outstanding Sawyer Business School Faculty Member of the Year in 2020 due in large part to her passion for teaching and dedication to creating an environment that fosters student learning.
Professor Heron's primary research interests include corporate social responsibility (CSR) and executive compensation. In her dissertation, she examined the relationship between CEO compensation and CSR disclosure type and quality. She has also studied how the accounting literature defines and measures CSR disclosure quality, as well as its antecedents and outcomes, identifying gaps in the literature for future study. She also works on audit-related research, including the provision of CSR assurance, as well as pedagogical research, focusing on developing case studies for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses. Professor Heron's work has been published in Journal of Accounting Literature, Journal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, and Corporate Ownership & Control.