A message from the 2023-24 Foundation Board President

Dear OSCPA Members,

After having served on The OSCPA Educational Foundation board for several years, I am honored and humbled to serve as the 2023-24 president. Thank you to outgoing President Tricia Morris for her support, guidance, and leadership this past year.

My career has been in education. Contributing over 20 years to the nonprofit sector before moving into teaching full time, I found myself almost daily with opportunities to share my love for accounting, teach non-accountants why it was important for them to understand financial information, and use my skills and experiences to help organizations. In the classroom, I see this love for accounting reflected to me in the eyes of my students. Serving on The OSCPA Educational Foundation offers another opportunity to support and encourage the next generation of CPAs.

Since 1985, the Foundation has awarded more than $2.5 million in scholarships to over 1,400 accounting students. At our annual Circle of Excellence banquet in May, the Foundation recognized this year’s scholarship recipients which included 51 students with a total of $140,500 being awarded to help support their accounting education.

As the number of first-generation and underrepresented students continues to increase, the need for these scholarships is critical in both number and size. The AICPA recently approved a Pipeline Acceleration Plan that includes growing contributions to their foundation, funding for students and candidates to help with their journey, and working with federal legislators to allow the expansion of 529 funds to cover CPA-related costs.

What will our response to the pipeline crisis be?

For many students, the cost of a college education is a barrier. That barrier gets wider and taller, but we can lower it for our accounting students with a collective effort. There are a lot of CPAs in Oregon. If we all contribute to the Foundation, we can make a difference. We need everyone to help.

Please join us by contributing to The OSCPA Educational Foundation today.