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Member Awards

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.

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2024 Award Recipients

Photo of John McDaniel

Member Excellence in Service Award 2024

John McDaniel, University of Alabama

John McDaniel is currently the Director of Internal Audit at the University of Alabama and has 25 years of experience in higher education and academic medical center administration, compliance, and risk management. Since 2021, he has been a key member of the ACUA Professional Education Committee, contributing to the success of several AuditCon events, and currently serves as the Director of Audit Interactive. He also plays an active role on the ACUA Standards and Best Practices Committee, was instrumental in founding the ACUA Sideline Committee alongside other ACUA members and has published many articles in the ACUA journal and for other organizations. John is also a dedicated participant and leader in external Quality Assurance initiatives for fellow ACUA members and has served in leadership roles outside of ACUA. [Note many other accomplishments too lengthy to list]

Outstanding Professional Contributions Award

While we do not have a recipient for the 2024 award, we remain committed to honoring excellence in our profession. Past recipients have exemplified leadership, innovation, and dedication, setting a high standard for the internal auditing community.

We encourage you to explore the accomplishments of our past honorees and to celebrate the spirit of excellence that this award represents.

Photo of Jocelyn Edge

Rising Star Awards 2024

Jocelyn Edge, Duke University

Since joining Duke University in 2021, Jocelyn Edge has embraced learning the higher education industry. Jocelyn has already made significant contributions to ACUA by 

  • Serving as presenter at AuditCon, including this conference 
  • Serving on the Communications Committee supporting social media content creation, design, posting and coordination with other committees 

She is always looking for ways to improve ACUA and deliver value to its members. Jocelyn has taken the initiative to standardize social media request processes to ensure individuals and committees have a clear path to promote ACUA activities and announcements. She’s developed innovative ways to increase content posting to reach our members across several platforms and introducing video content to help engage members. 

Erin Egan

Erin has been an active member of ACUA for the past ten years and was a member of the second cohort of the ACUA Leads program

Since then, Erin has served in a number of roles for ACUA over the years, including as

  • Governmental Affairs committee co-chair 
  • ACUA Journal article author 
  • Conference speaker and proctor
  • Mentor to other members

The subcommittee most significantly, created and provided to the membership a self-assessment tool for individual institution use. Erin has served as the director of the Auditing and Accounting Principles (AAP) sub-committee of the Standards and Best Practices committee, which has been focused on the changes to the IIA’s International Professional Practices Framework, specifically those to the new Global Internal Audit Standards. 

Under her leadership, the subcommittee was instrumental in collecting feedback and submitting ACUA’s official response to the IIA’s proposed changes and communicating the new standards out to the ACUA community through multiple avenues.

Past Award Recipients