Member Awards

ACUA 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.

Please contact info@acua.org if you have any questions. 

2022 Award Recipients 

Member Excellence in Service Award 2022

Sharon Kurek, Virginia Tech

Sharon Kurek served as ACUA’s President in 2017-2018 and continues to be actively involved with various committees and holds an appointment to the ACUA Faculty. During her term as President, Sharon re-energized efforts to strengthen relations with related organizations such as NACUBO, AHIA, COGR and URMIA. The goal was to create synergies and provide more value to ACUA’s members. Her work provided the foundation for a sustainable program for years to come. She has also served as the Co-Chair for two of ACUA’s committees, the Auditing and Accounting Principles Committee and the Best Practices Committee. During her term with the Best Practices Committee, she worked tirelessly to survey ACUA’s membership and share best practices so members could learn from each other.  In addition to her years of formal service to ACUA, Sharon is always willing to serve other members of the ACUA family. She has volunteered to serve on many quality assurance reviews across the nation. In this role, she spends countless hours providing service to ACUA members and offering her expertise. She is also extremely responsive to other ACUA members with sharing of information. Because of her willingness to go above and beyond, she is considered a thought partner for many other chief audit executives and compliance officers across the country. She has selflessly given her time to ACUA and its members while broadening the role of her office and building an ERM and compliance function for Virginia Tech. Because of her efforts, many ACUA colleagues consider her a mentor and friend!
 

Sam McCall, PhD, CPA, CGMA, CGFM, CIA, CGAP, CIG served 9 years as Chief Audit Officer for Florida State University (FSU).  During his tenure he was a contributing member of ACUA, and he is well deserving of the ACUA Outstanding Professional Contributions Award.  Dr. McCall was proactive in the State University Audit Council and helped shape the Florida Board of Governor regulations which govern audit, compliance and investigative functions of constituent institutions making up the State University System of Florida. At FSU, Dr. McCall led a team of 13 internal audit staff encouraging to support the profession in all fashions.  He led his team to become the first among its peers in the State University System of Florida to receive accreditation status from the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation.  An article in FSU News quoted Sam noting, “This accreditation validates the professional work done by staff and also increases the reliance that can be placed on investigations performed in cooperation with the FSU Police Department and law enforcement agencies.” Sam not only contributed to his university and system colleagues but made a point to share knowledge with ACUA. He wrote articles, presented for webinars, served on the ACUA Faculty, and connected with colleagues at conferences.  Prior to joining FSU as Chief Audit Officer in 2013, Sam was City Auditor for the City of Tallahassee for 13 years and prior to that Deputy Auditor General for 13 of his 30 years in state government. He has served on the Comptroller General of the United State Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards, the Institute of Internal Auditors International Internal Auditing Standards Board, and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Advisory Council. He is Past National President of the Association of Government Accountants and received their Robert W. King Memorial Award and the National Intergovernmental Audit Forum David M. Walker Excellence in Government Performance and Accountability Award. In 2014, the IIA inducted Sam into the IIA American Hall of Distinguished Audit Practitioners, and also named Sam as one of the Top 15 Most Influential Auditing Professionals. That year the Association of Government Accountants also recognized Sam as their National Educator of the Year. In 2015, The Northwest Florida State College named Sam as the 2015 Alumnus of the year. In 2016 Sam was nationally recognized by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants with their Outstanding CPA in Government Career Contribution Award. In December 2016, Sam completed a five-year appointment as a member of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board that establishes GAAP for the federal government. Sam is a fantastic representation for the profession and has made outstanding contributions to internal audit, risk, and compliance.  

Rising Star Awards 2022

Amy Kozak, Western Washington University

Amy began volunteering for ACUA as the Director of Best Practices in November 2019. She has continued as the Director during this time and will be taking over responsibilities as the Committee Chair of Standards and Best Practices this September. Among her accomplishments, Amy

1. Started NCAA group; successfully recruited / staff; got training scheduled using NCAA staff (a priority of past president)
2. Implemented the Resource Library calendar that ensured routine review and elimination of irrelevant and dated materials.
3. Created a quarterly Survey Calendar which planned year in advance for surveys, eliminating overlapping surveys that ensured members were not bombarded with questions and ensured more thoughtful responses to important surveys.
4. Simplified/Clarified Survey approach. Created consistency on questions and implemented meaningful reports out of the survey. Also created a Covid survey & fixed salary survey, which were both important to members.
5. Created positions dedicated to recruiting kickstarter writers when facing difficulties recruiting members and committee was being forced to scale back on a member favorite. Due to the new position, kickstarters can continue to be published monthly. 
6. Helped create successful succession planning so we have been able to seamlessly ‘promote’ within, have effective shadowing & no open positions.
7. Led Best Practices for 4 years; taking over committee chair; presented at conferences

Andre McMillan, University of Delaware

Andre' has been a member of ACUA since joining higher ed at the University of Delaware more than seven years ago. Andre' has been active in volunteering with ACUA in various capacities and in increasing roles and responsibilities. In 2019, Andre' actively sought out deeper involvement with ACUA at the ACUA information booth at AuditCon. He joined the Marketing Task Force--a task force slated to run for two years--and was critical in the development of the conference marketing checklist. At the conclusion of the marketing task force, Andre' took over as the ACUA Community Director, where he is responsible for overseeing the administration of Connect ACUA and promoting positive interactions within the community. Andre' is always willing to help however he can and has been very proactive in advancing his volunteer involvement with ACUA.