Anne Clem’s memory definitely serves.

Clem, assistant professor of accounting, doesn’t simply teach the 260 students in her Accounting 284 class what she knows about financial accounting and forget about them. She knows many of their names and all of their faces.

“I may not know all the names, but I remember faces,” she said.

Last Thursday evening, a student knocked on her door and asked her if she wanted her lawn mowed.

“I remembered having the kid in class two years ago,” Clem said.

Besides teaching, Clem tries hard to stay involved with her family.

“I do try to balance my family and career. I enjoy my job and students, but I also want to be active in whatever stage my kids are in,” she said.

To stay in tune with her 6-year-old daughter Allison, Clem volunteers every other Wednesday at her daughter’s kindergarten class.

“I like to see her friends. I’d hate to miss out on that part of her life,” she said. “After 45 minutes there, I am just drained.”

She said her job allows her the flexibility to take some of her workload home, giving her a chance to be with her family while keeping up with classroom responsibilities.

“I work a lot of evening hours to make up for it, but I do it because I am trying to keep family and everybody afloat,” she said.

Clem said one example of her balancing work and family was when she brought her daughter to school for “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.”

“I love it that she knows what I do. It’s not a big mystery to them when I disappear every morning and come back at night,” she said.

Although she may appear to be a “supermom,” Clem said her husband, Tony, picks up the slack.

“If I didn’t have Tony as a partner, I couldn’t do it,” she said.

Clem admits her busy lifestyle sometimes makes for some late nights.

“Some days, I am dragging in lecture, and my students know it. Sometimes, I just stumble over words because I was up the night before until 2 a.m., so I tell them why,” she said.

Students such as Michelle Werner, senior in accounting, appreciate Clem’s willingness to share an intimate side of her life.

“As an adult student, I deal with things some people don’t such as sick kids. Professor Clem understands, has been there and does everything she can to help out,” she said.

Though she juggles a busy schedule, Clem always makes herself accessible to her students, said colleague Jan Duffy, adjunct instructor of accounting.

“She often refers to her students as ‘my students,’ and she is almost protective of them,” she said. “She respects the students, while at the same time expects them to perform.”

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Anne Clem

Degrees:

• Bachelor’s degree in business accounting from Iowa State in 1990.

• Doctorate in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996.

Came to ISU: 1995

Courses taught at ISU: Accounting 284 (Financial Accounting)

Nickname: Tune. “Petunia was my nickname because I would pick petunias when we went to the nursery. My dad still leaves messages on my machine just to say, ‘Hey Tune.'”

One unique thing about your job: “My current colleagues were professors I had in class, so it has been hard to adjust. I never thought I’d be back.”

Resides in: Ames with her husband, Tony; daughter Allison, 6; son Thomas, 2; and black labrador named Holly.