Speakers

Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper is a best-selling author, consultant and internationally recognized speaker on ethical leadership and corporate governance best practices. She was named one of Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year for her role in uncovering the fraud at WorldCom, one of the largest corporate frauds in history. In addition, Cynthia was featured as one of twenty-five most influential working mothers in Working Mother magazine. 

Cynthia is a recipient of the Maria & Sidney E. Rolfe Award for her contributions to educating the public about economics, business and finance. She is the first woman to be inducted into the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Business Hall of Fame. In addition, Cynthia is an inaugural inductee of the Institute of Internal Auditors American Hall of Distinguished Audit Practitioners, and she is the first woman to receive the American Accounting Association’s Accounting Exemplar Award. 

Cynthia has been featured in national periodicals such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CFO Magazine and Business Week. She has served on panels with notables such as Anderson Cooper, Donna Brazile, and Grover Norquist and has appeared on programs including Fox Business’ America’s Nightly Scoreboard, PBS’s Tavis Smiley, NBC’s The Today Show, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CSPAN’s BookTV, CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch, and CNBC’s Squawk Box. Cynthia serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy Center for the Public Trust. Cynthia previously served as a member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and was Chairman of the Board of Regents for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. 

Cynthia served as Vice President for MCI where she and her team helped the company move forward and successfully emerge from bankruptcy. Cynthia began her career in public accounting and previously worked in Atlanta, Georgia for Deloitte and Touche and Pricewaterhouse. 

Mark C. Dawkins
University of North Florida

Mark C. Dawkins is a Professor of Accounting in the Coggin College of Business at the University of North Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in Accounting from Florida State University (1994), MBA (1987) and Masters of Accounting (1988) degrees from the University of Florida, and a B.S. in Management (1985) from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
 
He joined UNF and the Coggin College of Business in June 2015 after serving 21 years on the faculty in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia (UGA). From 2008-2014 he served as the Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the Terry College, and from 2004-2008 he served as the Director of Diversity Relations. He teaches undergraduate and graduate financial accounting classes, and has taught Intermediate Accounting, MBA Financial Accounting, and Intermediate Accounting for Non-Majors. He also has taught undergraduate and graduate accounting and college-level internship classes.
 
He has published in The Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, the Journal of Business, Finance & Accounting, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Managerial Issues, Sociological Inquiry, the Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, Management Accounting Quarterly, and other journals or newsletters.
 
He was a co-recipient of the 2006 and 2003 Beta Alpha Psi Outstanding Teacher of the Year award at UGA, and received the 2006 and 2003 Alpha Kappa Psi Accounting Teacher of the Year Award.  He is a member of the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Accountants, the Florida Society of CPAs, the PhD Project (www.phdproject.org), and the Accounting Doctoral Student Association. In August 2009, he was one of five recipients of the inaugural Ernst & Young Inclusive Excellence Award for Accounting and Business School Faculty. In January of 2014, he received the 2014 UGA President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award at the MLK Freedom Breakfast at UGA. He is the Council Chair (2016-2017) for the American Accounting Association.