Kara Kearney-Saylor

Board Member-at-Large

Kara Kearney-Saylor, CRMA, CIA

University at Buffalo

Kara Kearney-Saylor is the Director of Internal Audit at the University at Buffalo (UB) and leads a strategic and comprehensive risk assessment and internal audit program that supports UB’s mission, plans and goals. She implemented Enterprise Risk Management and serves on UB’s Information Security Privacy Advisory Committee. She has been an advocate for Information Security and Data Governance at UB, previously serving as the Interim Information Security Officer. Prior to UB, Kara was employed at Boston University in the Audit department for ten years, most recently as the Interim Director of Internal Audit. 
 
 
Kara has served as an ACUA volunteer for almost fifteen years in various capacities. Most recently, Kara served as the Standards and Best Practices Committee Chair for the Association of College and University Auditors (ACUA) for six  years.  During her tenure as Committee Chair, she has expanded the number of tools provided to ACUA members including Kickstarters and Data Analytics and authored two Kickstarters.  Prior to that, Kara participated on the Membership committee for a number of years.  She was the recipient of the Rising Star award in 2018 for her efforts.  Kara’s tries to actively share and educate fellow auditors by presenting at multiple ACUA conferences, ACUA webinars, as well as local and national conferences including IIA, MISTI, and EACUBO.   She also serves in her local chapter of the IIA, co-chairing the Academic Relations committee.
 
She has Bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University and a Master’s Degree from Boston University. Additionally, Kara is a Certified Internal Auditor and has a Certification in Risk Management Assurance.