Champlain College Accounting Professor Honored by VT Society of CPAs

Nicole Morris of Williston Named to 2017 "Women to Watch" Award

Burlington, VT (09/26/2017) — Nicole Morris, CPA, CGMA, MBA, and Associate Professor of Accounting at Champlain College's Stiller School of Business has been named a 2017 "Women to Watch" winner by the Vermont Society of Certified Public Accountants (VTCPA). The award will be presented at the VTCPA Women to Watch Summit on Thursday, Sept. 28 at the Hotel Vermont.

Founded in 1933, VTCPA, which is based in Montpelier, has been working to strengthen the accounting profession in Vermont and has a diverse membership of nearly 800 members in public practice, business, industry, government, and education.

In receiving the honor, Morris was cited for being " A lifelong learner herself, and a living role model for accounting students. She is currently pursuing her doctorate while continuing to successfully juggle the demands of her faculty role. Nicole possesses the rare combination of being a diligently hard worker while also being a naturally talented educator."

Morris, who lives in Williston, graduated from Siena College in Loudonville, NY in 2000 and received her MBA from Marist College in 2007. She has worked for GE Healthcare, Vermont Federal Credit Union, and KPMG LLP. She joined Champlain College as a faculty member in September 2008. She is working toward her Ph.D. in Management from Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The 2017 VTCPA Women To Watch Summit will recognize VTCPA members who have made outstanding contributions to the accounting profession, their community, place of employment and/or to the development of women as leaders.

The afternoon summit on Sept. 28 will include a keynote address at 2 p.m. entitled "Women in the Profession" presented by Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, CPA, CGMA, chairman, AICPA Board of Directors.

Ellison-Taylor will look at "how the accounting profession continues to evolve and the role that women play in our profession has become more relevant over the years. But the question we should be asking is whether women in leadership roles have progressed in our profession at an acceptable rate. Are women taking their place at executive levels, and if not, how can we make that happen? We will look at the current gender trends in our profession and explore the current challenges and strategies to further the goal of women in leadership."

The presentation of the Women to Watch Awards will happen at 3:30 pm, followed by a panel discussion by Morris and the other award recipients:

• Sharon Asay CPA, Director of Taxpayer Services for the Vt. Dept. of Taxes;
• Gwen E. Flewelling, CPA, Partner, O'Brien Shortle Reynolds & Sabotka, PC;
• Sarah E. Richards, CPA, Audit Partner, Gallagher, Flynn & Company, LLP.

For more information about the VTCPA Summit and to register for the event and the celebration dinner,

For more information about VTCPA,

For more information about Champlain's Accounting program

About Champlain College: Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and over 90 residential undergraduate and online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 382 Colleges: 2018 Edition. For the third year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by U.S. News & World Report's 2018 "America's Best Colleges," and an "A+ School for B Students" and is ranked in the top 100 Regional Universities in the North. Champlain is also featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2018 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, and is a 2018 College of Distinction. For more information, visit www.champlain.edu.

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