Special Recognition Awards honor contributions to professional initiatives

Judith H. O’Dell, president of O’Dell Valuation Consulting LLC CPA in Chestertown, Md., and Steven Levey, senior principal/CEO of GHP Horwath and senior principal of GHP Investment Advisors in Denver, received AICPA Special Recognition Awards.

The awards are given to individuals who have contributed to the success of a particular professional initiative, when their efforts warrant special recognition for contributions made of an outstanding nature.

O’Dell’s award recognizes her work for changes in private company financial reporting standards. She has more than 40 years of public accounting experience and has written and taught continuing education courses and written articles. She has served on the board of the AICPA, as a trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation, and as chair of the Audit Advisory Committee of the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Levey added financial planning services to his firm in the early 1980s and, in 1986, became one of the first CPAs to attain the Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) credential.

Levey has chaired numerous financial planning conferences and served on the AICPA Personal Financial Planning Executive Committee, the National Accreditation Commission, the Investment Planning Resource Panel, and other committees and task forces. He has been a leader in leveraging technology and continues to teach CPAs how to implement financial planning services through a workshop at the AICPA Advanced Personal Financial Planning Conference.