Houston –Pietro “Tony” Pitts, accounting professor at Houston Community College Southwest, has been recognized for his teaching excellence by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD).

Last year the Houston West Chamber of Commerce named Pitts, a Stafford Campus faculty member, Teacher of The Year.

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Pitts has dedicated 25 years of his life to teaching at HCC and is now teaching the next generation of students he taught 25 years ago.

“Teaching is a special art. I’m a visual person; I talk about something then put it into practice, then… we move on,” says Pitts about his style of teaching. A graduate of Texas Southern University and Southern Methodist in Dallas, this professor prides himself in rarely wearing a tie because he says dressing casual makes him feel more like one of his students. Before joining HCC, Pitts was a general accountant and a financial analyst. “I got bored”, he admits about his five years in that field. “You don’t really communicate with others and my personality is to interact with others”.

Tony as he likes to be called, loves to see students who take his introductory course, start with slight fear of the class, but leave with a sense of understanding of the basics of accounting.
He’s now very busy with his distance education courses, something relatively new for him and the college. He teaches students through the worldwide web, something he didn’t even dream about when he started teaching.

His advice for students thinking about going into accounting as a major, “Make sure you like Math, working on computers, and don’t mind a desk job.”

Nominated by his colleagues, Pitts’ selection for the NISOD award was based on his educational performance and dedication to his students.

“I’m very happy, I love what I do, and I love to get calls from students I’ve touched that have gone on to succeed either in accounting or some other profession.”