Letter From The President

December 24, 2018

Dear ACUA Friends and Colleagues,

I hope your 2018 has gotten off to a great start! It is hard to believe that we are almost into February and the Midyear Conference is just around the corner.
I am honored to be part of an organization with core values of:

Integrity
Open sharing of Information
Camaraderie
Respect
Commitment to Excellence
Innovation

So many volunteers dedicate their precious time to keep these values alive and move ACUA forward! I want to highlight a few ways that ACUA’s volunteers have taken action to address our goals in accordance with our core values.

Several of our committees have been collaborating to better equip members with higher education specific content, with representation from Best Practices, Communications, Professional Education as well as several board members. The task force is developing and testing a process that includes the selection of content, cultivation and review of material, dissemination through a multichannel communication strategy, and dynamic response to continuing issues. This new tool will include background information, key risks and controls, sample audit steps, common audit issues, and other information to kick start members next audit on these topics. This endeavor will focus on content for the ACUA resource library, risk dictionary, webinars, journal articles, Connect ACUA, conference sessions, etc. Be on the lookout for the debut release of this new resource.

The External Relations sub-committee has been working with ACUA volunteers to reach out to other organizations, such as the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), to advance internal auditing and position ACUA to be a recognized resource to higher education leaders. Our goal is to advocate for how internal audit organizations partner with higher education leaders to build stronger governance systems that allow organizations to better achieve their goals and objectives. The more people who understand our purpose – the greater success we can all achieve.

One of many areas where ACUA provides relevant, high-quality information for member’s use on campus is in the area of auditing a varsity athletics program, and specifically its compliance with NCAA regulations. Understanding and meeting these regulations are responsibilities unique to institutions of higher education, and this undertaking carries significant compliance and reputational risk with high-profile consequences. A volunteer taskforce assessed our options over the past year and based on their recommendation, ACUA partnered with The Compliance Group, a nationallyrecognized intercollegiate athletics compliance agency, to update our comprehensive NCAA Audit Guides for Divisions I and II. These NCAA Audit Guides can be found within the “Audit Tools” section under the “Resources” tab on the ACUA website.

Please get involved, volunteer, and help us keep ACUA moving forward!

All the Best,
Sharon Kurek, CPA, CFE
ACUA President
Director of Internal Audit
Virginia Tech

About the Author

Sharon Kurek

Sharon is the Executive Director of Audit, Risk, and Compliance at Virginia Tech, serving as the university’s chief audit executive for the university and reporting to the Compliance, Audit, and Risk Committee of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors. In addition to leading the internal audit function, Sharon has institutional responsibility for facilitating and coordinating the university’s enterprise risk management (ERM) and institutional compliance programs.

Sharon is an experienced leader with proven ability to promote a culture of accountability and ethical decision-making, facilitate identification and mitigation of risks to an acceptable level, and foster continuous improvement in the areas of risk management, internal control, efficiency, policy, and procedure. She strives to be a collaborative leader with an expectation of excellence and is dedicated to advancing the risk management, compliance, and auditing professions.

Sharon has actively volunteered with ACUA since 2012, serving at the board and committee level. She holds an appointment to the ACUA Faculty Program and has presented sessions for several professional organizations including ACUA and College and University Auditors of Virginia (CUAV). Sharon has participated in a number of QAR peer review teams at several ACUA member institutions, including serving in a leadership capacity.

Prior to Virginia Tech, she worked at University of California, Berkeley, serving in a number of roles including Manager of Controls and Accountability, Senior Auditor, and Principal Auditor. She began her professional career at the Georgia Department of Audits conducting external audits of state entities, including colleges and universities for the State of Georgia.

Sharon received her MBA from Virginia Tech, bachelor’s degree in business administration (accounting) from Mercer University, and is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and the University Risk Management and Insurance Association. In addition to her formal educational training, she is also a graduate of the Commonwealth Management Institute sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University and the Senior Leadership Seminar program sponsored by the American Council on Education Women’s Network.

kurek@vt.edu

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