i am the vscpa
Two minutes with Lauren Johns, CPA
Lauren Johns, CPA, CITP, CFE, is finance director at Vulnerability Research Labs in Reston. She serves on the VSCPA’s Professional Ethics Committee and is a board member of BENEFIT Live, a group dedicated to giving back to Loudoun County nonprofits. I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT… Giving back to my community and self care. In order to give to others, you must first take care of yourself. It’s important that I take time for myself so that I can be my best professionally and to my family. Secondly, giving back to nonprofits in my community through our music festival, BENEFIT Live, a coalition of bands and community leaders uniting people with music to raise funds and awareness for nonprofits that make a difference in our community. PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THIS, BUT… I danced in the 1995 halftime show of the Hula Bowl at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii. IF I WEREN’T AN ACCOUNTANT… I entered college wanting to be an occupational therapist. I injured my hip in high school and found occupational therapy to be fascinating. Now, if I wasn’t in the accounting field, I would open a small coffee shop that would have a featured food item of my husband’s and offer yoga classes. Maybe even own a few horses.
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MY ADVICE TO FELLOW CPAs … Feed your passion, whatever that may be. I WISH CPAs KNEW… It’s okay to have a niche. Previous generations of CPAs were all-encompassing (personal tax, audit, small business, consulting, estate planning, etc). Now having a specialization is what makes CPAs special and unique. Find what you truly enjoy and pursue it! That has changed for me over the years, but internal control work and value-added process improvement is what I enjoy. THE MOST SPECIAL GIFT I’VE EVER RECEIVED WAS… A pencil box from my aunt Alice. I’ve never opened the pencil box and I look at it daily to remind me to try my best in all I do. It says, “For our future CPA or CEO, Just a little something to help you through the next couple of years. Try to wear out the points, not the erasers.” I’M A CPA BECAUSE… Of my father. When I was in elementary school, my dad was comptroller of a town in New Jersey. He would bring bank statements home to reconcile and I would line up the checks in numerical order on the floor in the family room. Looking back, this was the moment I knew I would be a CPA. n
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