USF Student Awarded 2003 Michael J. Barrett Doctoral Dissertation Grant

Antoinette Lynch, CPA, was awarded an IIA Research Foundation grant of $10,000 for a doctoral dissertation titled The Effects of Team Composition and Creativity Training on Staff Auditor Performance in SAS No 99 Mandated Fraud Assessment Brainstorming Sessions: An Experimental Investigation.

Antoinette is a doctoral candidate from the University of South Florida and a member of the West Coast Florida Chapter of the IIA. She earned a B.S.B.A. at Christopher Newport University. Her teaching interests include accounting information systems and auditing. Her research interests include behavioral research in the areas of improving auditors’ ability to detect fraud and understanding the impact of information technology on the audit process and individual behavior.

The IIA Research Foundation provides grants to doctoral candidates who are pursuing dissertations on topics related to internal auditing. In 1990, The Foundation named the doctoral dissertation grants in memory of a leader in internal audit research and education, Michael J. Barrett, DBA, CIA. Barrett served on the Board of Research Advisors for The Foundation and in many other IIA leadership positions. He was awarded The IIA's Bradford Cadmus Memorial Award in 1990. Barrett was chairman and professor of the accounting department at the University of Nebraska in Omaha and was instrumental in establishing internal audit courses at the universities where he served, and at many other colleges and universities. The Foundation is hopeful the Michael J. Barrett Doctoral Dissertation Award (http://www.theiia.org/iia/index.cfm?doc_id=495) will provide an incentive to future professors who will continue audit research and education in our profession.

Ms. Lynch is a KPMG Doctoral Scholar, and also the recipient of the 2003 Russell Ewald Award for Academic Excellence and Human Service, a recipient of the AICPA Minority Doctoral Fellowship, McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, and University of South Florida Graduate Education Opportunity Grant. She has worked as a senior auditor for the Air Force Audit Agency and a staff auditor for Eason, Lawson, and Westphal, PC. Ms. Lynch’s work will be published in a forthcoming issue of International Journal of Accounting Information Systems. She is a member of the American Accounting Association, Association for Information Systems, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and Decision Sciences Institute.