Denise Downey, PhD Receives AAA’s Teaching Innovation Award and a Research Grant from IAASB Denise Hanes Downey, Downey, PhD, ’05 VSB, assistant professor, Accountancy & Information Systems, recently received the Teaching Innovation Award from the Forensic Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association (AAA) for her teaching case “Simply Soups Inc.: A Teaching Case Designed to Integrate the Electronic Cash Confirmation Process into the Auditing Curriculum” last August at the AAA’s Annual Meeting in New York City. The AAA is the largest community of accountants in academia, and the Forensic Accounting Section’s mission is to improve teaching and research in the field.
“ It is critical for today’s auditing curriculum to reflect the exciting changes that are occurring in practice with respect to technology.”
The case provides auditing students with an opportunity to improve understanding of current audit practice, strengthen technical knowledge of applicable standards, and develop the professional judgment skills necessary to appropriately evaluate and document the persuasiveness of audit evidence. It also gives students the chance to learn about and practice electronic cash confirmations, one of the most current auditing technologies.
“ Gaining exposure to and exploring the leading confirmation technology in the classroom has been extremely beneficial to our students.” –Dr. Downey Another one of Dr. Downey’s projects, “Coordination and Communication Challenges in Global Group Audits: Evidence from Component Audit Leaders,” has also received notable recognition from the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). As part of its “Informing the IAASB Standard Setting Process” program, the IAASB selected her team’s project to receive support in the form of 20,000 British pounds— equivalent to $28,500—to help further strategic objectives. Downey’s team was one of only two teams to receive grants for their work. The study focuses on concerns that have been raised in specific aspects of group audits such as inadequacies within the planning phase, the execution and completion phase, and overall lack of group audit leader involvement in the audit. Through a survey of component auditors located across three different countries, it seeks to identify what factors create these challenges, determine strategies that might overcome them in the future and discover how these challenges ultimately influence engagement performance. “This grant affords our team a tremendous opportunity to study an area of auditing that is of key concern to practice and regulators, both in the US and abroad,” explained Dr. Downey when asked about the grant’s impact on the project. “I am excited to be able to examine the audits of large multinational corporations from the perspective of those engaged to assist with the work in foreign jurisdictions, and to share our results with key stakeholders.”
“ I am honored that our work is being recognized by the AAA Forensic Accounting Section and thrilled that this case has been used by more than 175 universities.” –Dr. Denise Hanes Downey