Speakers
Karen Osterheld, CPA
Senior Director of the Center for Advancing Accounting Education at the American Accounting Association
Karen Osterheld is the Senior Director of the Center for Advancing Accounting Education at the American Accounting Association. In this role, she is responsible for identifying, developing, and disseminating best practices and innovations in accounting education across the academy.
Prior to joining the AAA, Karen was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Accountancy at Bentley University and was a full-time member of the faculty for 31 years. During her tenure at Bentley, Karen primarily taught introductory and intermediate accounting. Karen was also responsible for the department's academic internship program for undergraduate and graduate students.
In 2003, Karen received the Joseph M. Cronin Award for Excellence in Academic Advising at Bentley. In 2008, she was nominated Faculty Member of the Year by the student body. She has also won two Bentley University Innovation in Teaching Awards and the Bentley University Service-Learning Award.
Karen has chaired the AAA Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting (CTLA) and served as the President of the AAA's Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section. She started her professional career at Arthur Young in Boston and has eleven years of business experience, primarily as a manager in the financial services industry. She earned her B.S. Degree in Mathematics from the State University of New York at Albany and her M.B.A. Degree from the University of Wisconsin. She is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Massachusetts.
Dr. Jay C. Thibodeau, CPA
Rae D. Anderson Professor of Accounting at Bentley University
Dr. Thibodeau is a former auditor and a CPA. He received his BS degree from the University of Connecticut in 1987 and his PhD from the University of Connecticut in 1996. Dr. Thibodeau has conducted executive education programs for numerous leading firms including Fidelity Investments, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Stryker, and Bluecoat Technologies.
He is a co-author of two books, Auditing and Assurance Services (in its 9th edition) and Auditing and Accounting Cases: Investigating Issues of Fraud and Professional Ethics (in its 4th edition). In addition, he has written over 70 articles and book chapters for academics and practitioners and has published in journals such as Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Journal of Information Systems, Accounting Horizons, and Issues in Accounting Education.
Dr. Thibodeau served as the president of the American Accounting Association (AAA) Auditing Section for the 2014-2015 academic year. He has received national recognition for teaching innovations five times, winning the 2001 Joint AICPA/AAA Collaboration Award, the 2003 Innovation in Auditing and Assurance Education Award, the 2016 Forensic Accounting Teaching Innovation Award, the 2019 Innovation in Auditing and Assurance Education Award, and most recently the 2023 Innovation in Auditing and Assurance Education Award. In addition, he has been awarded two university-wide teaching awards at Bentley, the 2007 Gregory H. Adamian Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2006 Professor of the Year Award presented by the Student Government Association.
