ACUA Awards Presented at AuditCon 2019

November 9, 2019

The Awards Committee announced the winners of the Member Excellence in Service and Rising Star Awards at the 2019 Annual Conference ("AuditCon") in Baltimore, Maryland.

Member Excellence in Service Award

The Member Excellence in Service Award was presented to Vijay Patel, Chief Audit Executive of The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. This award recognizes a member who has made outstanding contributions to the mission of ACUA through exceptional service.

Vijay has served ACUA for over 13 years (even he cannot remember when he actually started serving ACUA!) and was the longest-serving board member in ACUA’s history, serving about a decade! Some ways Vijay contributed to ACUA include:

Directly and indirectly being involved in many decisions regarding ACUA’s mission, vision, and strategy by previously serving as ACUA President, Treasurer, and Board Member
Helping ACUA select a partner by serving on the Professional Management Selection Committee, which has sent the organization on a positive upward trajectory
Serving on the Web Team
Serving on a panel for an annual conference presentation
Serving as Chair of both the Membership and Nominating Committees
Continuing to serve as an ACUA Ambassador, helping ACUA and the Board when needed

The nomination noted that “Vijay also brings an intangible energy to the organization and its members that cannot be quantified.”

Rising Star Award

The Rising Star Award was presented to Jana Clark, Audit Manager at Kansas State University. 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. This award is intended to spotlight, cultivate, and recognize those developing the personal initiative and commitment to positively impact higher education auditing, which is essential to ACUA’s continued success.

Jana has been an ACUA member and volunteer for the past six years. During this time, she assisted in planning the midyear and annual conferences and most recently became the Program Content Committee Director, responsible for the content and format for both the revamped AuditCon and Audit Interactive conferences. Helping with the content and format for both the AuditCon and Audit Interactive conferences will directly influence how we educate and interact with professionals within our industry. In addition, Jana has served as the Distance Learning Director, has been a member of the host committee, proctor, track coordinator, conference presenter, webinar presenter, contributor to College and University Auditor journal, developed a Kick Starter, and hosted networking events at previous conferences.

Awards Committee

The Awards Committee members had the privilege of reviewing many outstanding nominations this year and the difficult job of selecting those to be honored. The committee would like to thank all of the ACUA members who took the time to recognize the contributions and service of their colleagues, and encourages participation next summer during the annual awards nomination process.

For a list of previous award recipients, see the ACUA Awards website at http://acua.org/Membership/Awards.asp.

The 2019 Awards Committee consisted of Toni Stephens, The University of Texas at Dallas; Laura Buchhorn, The University of Texas at San Antonio; Marion Candrea, Rutgers University; Doug Horr, Vanderbilt University; Whit Madere, Virginia Community College System; Meaghan Smith, Oregon Health and Science University; Kara Kearney-Saylor, Buffalo University; Terri Tarbett-Wallace, University of Southern Mississippi; and Kassie Roberts, Georgia Tech University.

About the Author

Toni Stephens

Toni is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor; she also has certification in Risk Management Assurance. Toni currently serves as the Chief Audit Executive at The University of Texas -Dallas. She received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Toni has more than 25 years’ internal auditing experience at The University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to joining the university, she worked for the Texas State Auditor’s Office.

Professionally active, Toni serves locally and nationally within several organizations. Toni is a past President of the Association of College & University Auditors (ACUA), an international association of 600 higher education institutions from the United States, Canada, and abroad. She has served in many roles within ACUA: Vice President, Board Member-at-Large, Professional Education Committee chair, the volunteer appreciation director, and the national conferences director. She was the recipient of ACUA’s Excellence in Service Award in 2006. Toni was a Board member of the Dallas Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), chaired the Certified Internal Auditor Program, and held several key committee leadership positions. She is an Advisory Board member for the UT Dallas Center for Internal Auditing Excellence and also was on the Board of Directors for the Texas Association of College and University Auditors. She also works with and mentors internal audit students on audits to provide them with actual audit experience.

Ms. Stephens’ areas of expertise are:

Adding Value as an Internal Auditor
Audit Evidence
Auditing Research
Auditing Auxiliaries
Conflict of Interest
Developing and Creating Continuing Education for Internal Auditors
Higher Education Auditing
Internal Controls
Leadership
Quality Assurance Reviews
Internal Auditing Standards
Best Practices in Audit Committees
Reconciliations and Financial Controls
Risk Assessment and Audit Planning
Understanding Business Processes
Working with Students in an Internal Auditing Environment

tstephens@utdallas.edu

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