I am a U.S. Army Veteran and proudly served in Desert Shield/Desert Storm as a Sergeant in the Military Police Corps. After my tour of duty, I obtained my B.S.B.A. in Accounting at Old Dominion University. In 2005, I earned my MBA from Webster University. My career has included service with the Auditor of Public Accounts in Virginia, a public accounting firm in Savannah, Georgia, then 16 years in healthcare administration during which I served as a Corporate Compliance Officer, Director of Internal Audit and HIPAA Privacy Compliance Officer. I also enjoyed four years as an adjunct faculty at Savannah State University, teaching undergraduate and graduate accounting and business courses. This experience confirmed my desire to be a full time professor. I searched for nine years to find a properly accredited doctoral program that I could pursue while working full time. Finally, I found the UNC Charlotte DBA program and am so very proud to have been accepted! I am currently the owner of my own tax and business consulting practice and plan to use my DBA degree to better assist my clients and to teach full time at the university level. My talent is taking complicated, sometimes ‘scary’ concepts, and turning them into understandable, achievable skills. It is such a joy to watch the light turn on for the attendees in my seminars or classes! I enjoy traveling and exploring all the fullness and beauty of this world. My dogs join me on various adventures and we support efforts to protect and help animals. I also volunteer in voter registration efforts and during elections.
I would like to pursue research in Management or Operations Management, specifically how internal auditing can assist in improving operations of a healthcare business. While there are many unique operations within a healthcare environment, I would like to explore how the pairing of operations management techniques with the evaluation and analysis of internal auditing can improve operations within a specific type of healthcare environment.