FCBE Doctoral Student Wins Dissertation Award

For release:  April 2, 2015

Porschia Nkansa, FCBE accounting doctoral candidate, received the 2014 Michael J. Barrett Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Research Foundation.  Nkansa and her team won a $10,000 prize to help bring her research to life.  The $10,000 grant is the largest allowable amount given to the Michael J. Barrett award winners.

Dr. Charles Bailey is pleased that she has chosen him as her dissertation advisor. He said, “Interacting with her has been a pleasure and she has worked tirelessly. I admire her ability to attract other strong faculty members to her dissertation committee, including Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope of DePaul University.” Her dissertation committee members include Charles D. Bailey, School of Accountancy, James M. Lukawitz, School of Accountancy, Frances Fabian, Department of Management, and Kelly Richmond Pope, DePaul University.

Nkansa’s dissertation will focus on examining the professional skepticism of internal auditors related to fraud risk assessment and environmental characteristics. It will investigate how auditors’ skeptical judgments and actions are influenced by three environmental characteristics. Those three characteristics include the Chief Audit Executive’s emphasis on professional skepticism, the level of coordination with the external auditor, and the level of a company’s litigation risk related to previous financial misconduct. Results of the research will be helpful to chief audit executives, audit firms, audit committees, and regulators as the auditing profession is pushing for enhancements to professional skepticism and improved audit quality.

The IIA Research Foundation supports an ongoing doctoral dissertation grant program. This program provides funds to selected doctoral candidates interested in the field of internal auditing.