Authors Contributing to the October 2010 Issue

Catherine Allen, CPA, formed the consulting firm Audit Conduct in 2005 to help CPAs understand and comply with independence and ethics requirements. Previously, she was a senior staff member with the AICPA Professional Ethics Division and director of independence for two of the Big Four accounting firms.

Jason Evans, CPA, is the senior technical manager of the Independence and Behavioral Standards (IND/BHS) Group of the Professional Ethics Division at the AICPA. He oversees the activities of the IND/BHS team including ethics enforcement and interpreting the Institute’s Code of Professional Conduct and provides guidance to membership, state CPA societies and other interested parties on ethics and independence issues (for example, via the Ethics Hotline). He also is a liaison to the Independence/Behavioral Standards Subcommittee and participates on task forces of the Professional Ethics Executive Committee in connection with the committee’s standard-setting efforts. Prior to joining the AICPA, he was the controller of a garment company in New York City and an audit senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, working primarily with middle market clients.

Cynthia E. Bolt-Lee, CPA, M.Tax., is an associate professor at The Citadel School of Business Administration in Charleston, S.C., where she teaches taxation, auditing and introductory accounting. She worked eight years in tax and audit practice for international and local firms. Her research interests include tax ethics, accounting education, and the impact of research on practice.

Janette Moody, CPA, Ph.D., is a professor at The Citadel School of Business Administration, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in management information systems, as well as undergraduate courses in accounting and accounting information systems. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked for Price Waterhouse, GTE Corp., Eastern Airlines and Jack Eckerd Corp.

Tommie Singleton, CPA/CITP/CFF, Ph.D., CISA, CGEIT, is a scholar-in-residence at Carr Riggs & Ingram in Birmingham, Ala., and an associate professor in the Accounting & Finance Department of the University of Alabama–Birmingham. He has provided consulting services over the last 15 years in various aspects of fraud and IT audit. He is currently serving a two-year term on the Council for the Alabama Society of CPAs, and a three-year term as a member of the AICPA’s Information Technology Executive Committee.

Steven J. Ursillo Jr., CPA/CITP, CIA, CFE, CISA, CISM, CISSP, CGEIT, MCSE, is a principal and the director of Information Technology and Assurance Services at Sparrow, Johnson & Ursillo Inc., a Rhode Island-based full service CPA firm. He has been with the firm since 1994, specializing in information system security, internal control assessments, fraud detection, data extraction and analysis, and information technology assurance services. His experience in the area of information security includes consulting and implementation services and security assessments involving network and application penetration testing.

Alexandra DeFelice is a JofA senior editor. Her primary role is planning, writing and editing technology articles for the magazine and website. She also helps to drive the JofA’s social media presence through the Facebook page, facebook.com/journalofaccountancy, and Twitter account, AICPA_ JofA. She graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in journalism and, while there, minored in Spanish and English.

Vetting a Vendor: Questions to Ask Before Making an Investment page 52

James F. Leon, CPA, CISSP, Ed.D., is a visiting assistant professor and the director of IT training in the Department of Computer Science at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

Paul Bonner is a JofA senior editor responsible for overseeing coverage for CPAs who work in taxation, personal finance and CPA education. He is also an adjunct instructor teaching news writing in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sonja Pippin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at the University of Nevada–Reno. She teaches tax courses with a focus on taxation of business entities and consults for a local CPA firm. She holds a master’s degree in tax and a doctorate in business administration (accounting) from Texas Tech University. She has published articles in several academic and practitioner-oriented journals, including, in the JofA, “Tax Treatment of Adoption Expenses,” April 2010, page 44. Her research interests include legal tax research, technology acceptance in the accounting and tax environment, and tax policy.