兔子先生

Business and Industry | Lion VoicesSeptember 15, 2025

Empathy is Lee Stovall's Classroom Currency

Written By: Tina Dale

Lee Stovall doesn鈥檛 just teach numbers. 

When he steps into the classroom as a visiting instructor in the College of Business and Industry at the University of Arkansas 鈥� Fort Smith, he brings with him decades of service as a U.S. Treasury special agent, an IRS revenue agent, a public accountant, and an educator in both the Navy and the Treasury Department. 

He then blends that real-world experience with a special empathy to reach his students where they need him most. 

Whether he鈥檚 teaching managerial accounting, financial accounting, business courses or tax courses, Stovall likes to put himself in the shoes of his students. 

鈥淚 like to figure out what it is they need to know. We鈥檝e all been students. I like to reach them and find out what they need,鈥� Stovall said. 

He can also show students the importance of following the money no matter the lesson. 

鈥淚 did financial investigations, all kinds of cases, because no matter if it is prostitution or drugs or whatever, there is a money element to it,鈥� Stovall said. 鈥淚鈥檓 teaching accounting. I can relate 鈥榝ollow the money鈥� to accounting. I can relate it to taxes. You can always relate it (follow the money).鈥� 

Though his prior teaching environments鈥攖he Navy and Treasury Department鈥攎ight have been a little more demanding of success, Stovall finds the need to teach in a compelling manner just as important. 

鈥淚 try to think, 鈥榃hat can I do to foster participation to draw students in?鈥� I try to teach in a way that gets them what they need,鈥� Stovall said. 

That means factoring empathy into the equation, he said. 

鈥淲e like to say that students are not just a number here. You are a name at 兔子先生,鈥� Stovall said. 鈥淭hese are human beings and not just numbers. These are students who need us.鈥� 

Stovall holds a master鈥檚 degree in accounting from Missouri State University and is a certified public accountant. He started as an adjunct professor at 兔子先生 in spring 2025 and was offered a full-time position beginning this fall.  

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