Ashley is a principal in the firm’s higher education and research institutions industry practice. With nearly 20 years of experience, Ashley assists premier research universities to understand, manage, and mitigate risk through collaborative, innovative internal audit and risk advisory services. Her teams drive strategic, financial, and student success at higher education institutions through strategic and enterprise risk assessments, internal audit and compliance reviews and investigations and business process reviews. She has assisted clients in developing and reengineering infrastructures, governance practices, internal controls and business processes to mitigate risk and enhance efficiency, effectiveness and compliance in such areas as budgeting and resource management, financial management and reporting, sponsored research administration, compliance governance, student support and wellbeing and international operations.
- Leads enterprise risk assessments, compliance assessments and internal audit and advisory engagements to assist institutional leadership to better understand, prioritize and mitigate key risks
- Performs organizational and operational assessments with the goal of enhancing clarity of responsibility and authority, enabling cost savings through organizational changes, including shared services models and aligning resources and operations to strategic and financial goals
- Leads organizational and operational assessments with the goal of enhancing clarity of responsibility and authority, enabling cost savings through organizational changes, including shared services models and aligning resources and operations to strategic and financial goals
- Manages teams performing sponsored programs reviews including cost allowability reviews, control assessments and process reviews, as well as strategic and organizational structure assessments to support sponsored programs. Has provided support to more than 50 universities and not-for-profit organizations to implement the Office of Management and Budget Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance)
- Develops and enhances policies and procedures to identify and implement appropriate internal controls structures and processes and to assess and revise roles and responsibilities to ensure proper segregation of duties, efficiency of work, streamlined business processes and compliance
- Performs targeted benchmarking and provides advice to tailor and implement best practices across campus operations to better support financial, operational and compliance goals
- Served in the interim controller role at a large public university, overseeing an organizational assessment of the university’s finance and accounting staff, including the development of customer service objectives and metrics, a redesign of organizational structure and reporting lines and development of the university’s first standalone financial statements, while managing a staff of more than 30 individuals responsible for accounts payable, travel and expense reporting, vendor management and cash management
- Has provided support to more than 30 universities and not-for-profit organizations to implement the Office of Management and Budget Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance)
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
- Association of College and University Auditors (ACUA)
- Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA)
- National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)
- National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA)
- Co-hosts annual Research Audit Roundtable with Duke University
- "Auditing for Compliance – Tips and Techniques for University Auditors,” ACUA, presenter
- “Conflicts of Interest, Foreign Engagement, and Intellectual Property,” ACUA, presenter
- “From Awareness to Action: Evaluating Your Institution’s DEI Progress,” ACUA, presenter
- “How Internal Audit Can Help Support Sponsored Programs Compliance,” ACUA, presenter
- “Leveraging Federal Audit Reports to Inform Research Audits,” ACUA, presenter
- "Leading Practices for Leveraging Common Internal Audit and Compliance Structures,” ACUA, presenter
- “Performing a Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) Risk Assessment and Internal Audit,” ACUA, presenter
- "Responding Rapidly to Hotline Calls,” IIA, presenter
- "Transforming Internal Audit,” ACUA, presenter
- "Aligning Research Operations to Maximize Research Strategy,” NCURA Magazine article, co-author
- “Best Practices for Working with High Risk Subrecipients,” NCURA, presenter
- “How to Manage a Financially Focused University Research Audit Effectively,” NCURA micrograph, co-author
- "How to Work with Internal Audit: Leveraging Internal Audit for Success,” NCURA Magazine article, co-author
- “Internal Controls for Research Administrators,” NCURA, presenter
- "Taking back the Reins – Tips for Owning your next A-133 Audit,” NCURA Magazine article, co-author
- “Research Security Cyber and Data Requirements,” NCURA, presenter
- “Affiliation agreements – add value with a critical assessment,” AHIA article, co-author
- "Effort Reporting in the Uniform Guidance Era," AHIA New Perspectives & Digital Insights Article, co-author
