Member Awards

ACUA Awards Nominations

Awards Nominations will be open May 20, 2021 - July 1, 2021. Click on the links below to access the nominations portal. From the portal, further information on each award can be found by clicking "View description" under each award. 
 

• Member Excellence in Service Award - This Award recognizes a member who has made outstanding contributions to the mission of ACUA through exceptional service.

• Outstanding Professional Contributions Award - This Award recognizes a member who has made outstanding and noteworthy contributions to the profession of internal auditing in higher education.

• Rising Star Award - This Award recognizes an “up-and-coming” member who has made significant individual contributions in the areas of internal audit, compliance, or risk management that furthers the mission of ACUA.

Please contact Kristin Miodonski or Toni Stephens if you have any questions. 

2020 Award Recipients 

Member Excellence in Service Award 2020

Meaghan was the Web Services Director until September 2017. She was the Communications Commitee Chair from September 2017 to August 2019. She is currently the PEC Chair, having started in September 2019.

As co-chair of the Website Redesign taskforce, Meaghan was instrumental in helping to design and organize the website into the modern website it is today. In her first year as PEC chair, Meaghan has not only helped to redesign the conferences into Audit Interactive and AuditCon, but she had to convert them to a virtual format within a short period of time.

The nomination noted that Meaghan is always willing to answer questions.And, that she tries to invite those who are at conferences by themselves to social outings so they don't have to eat or go to networking events by themselves. She makes the conference more fun!
 

Outstanding Professional Contributions Award 2020

The Outstanding Professional Contributions Award was prestented to Leigh Goller, Executive Director at Duke University. This award recognizes an ACUA member who has made outstanding and noteworthy contributions to the profession of internal auditing in higher education. 

Leigh has served in key roles at ACUA and in higher ed auditing including: 

• Board member at large in 2013-14, 2012-13, 2011-12;
• External Relations Committee 2016-17, 2015-16, 2014-15
• Audit & Accounting Principles chair in 2016-17, 2015-16
• Hosted or co-hosted audit roundtable discussions at annual conferences – multiple years
• Helped design and oversee planning and education for the ACUA Leads program – ran from 2010-2013
• ACUA Faculty beginning in 2010 through current.
• Since 2015, Leigh has led Duke’s co-convening of a Research Audit Roundtable, bringing together CAEs from 30 major research institutions and has led a similar effort for higher education’s enterprise risk management

• Leigh serves on the accounting and auditing advisory board for UNC

Rising Star Award 2020


Marilyn Carnevale


Wendee Shinsato

The Rising Star Award was presented to two recipients this year! 

• Marilyn Carnevale, Senior Auditor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
• Wendee Shinsato,  Director of Audit Analytics, Operations, & Quality Assurance at California State Univ. System. 

Recently this spring, when the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the world, including our industry, Marilyn worked tirelessly to work with ACUA's sponsors and members to put together a COVID-19 Special Edition of the Journal, which was published more than a month ahead of schedule to provide timely resources to the organization.

Wendee Shinsato has been serving faithfully on the Audit and Accounting Principles Committee since December 2016.  She has consistently been an advocate for the committee and took on Director responsibilities in September 2019.  During her time with us she has organized meetings, created and organized our SharePoint, analyzed ACUA member surveys, co-written an ACUA Journal article, and helped keep the ACUA membership aware of industry changes via ICYMI articles in our newsletter and webpage. 

In 2020, Wendee created and published a 3-4 paragraph article to add to the NACUBO website giving a quick example of kick-starters aimed at getting risk officers to join ACUA.  Wendee has consistently demonstrated a willingness to share knowledge with her fellow ACUA members - through kick starters, publishing In Case You Missed It, as well as the upcoming journal entry.