CAQ directors receive Special Award of Merit

The Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) and its Executive Director Cindy Fornelli and Director of Research Margot Cella received the Special Award of Merit from the American Accounting Association.

The AAA Auditing Section Executive Committee confers the Special Award of Merit to individuals and institutions who have had a singular impact on the Auditing Section and its members. In the past decade, only one other individual has received this award.

The CAQ, which is affiliated with the AICPA, actively engages with the academic community through various initiatives and activities. These include the center’s support of independent research through its Research Advisory Board grant program and its annual symposium, which brings together practice leaders and audit research scholars and students. The CAQ also produces tools and resources that educators can use in their classrooms.

The CAQ partners with the AAA Auditing Section, notably through the Access to Audit Personnel Program. The two organizations established the joint program in 2013 to generate research on issues that are relevant to audit practice, while providing doctoral students and those professors seeking tenure with access to audit firm personnel to complete the research study protocols.