The Deloitte Foundation awarded a $25,000 Doctoral Fellowship to Jess (Berube) Filosa, a fourth-year accounting Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.

In an effort to help strengthen the pipeline of accounting faculty who are preparing the next generation of business leaders, Doctoral Fellowship awards are given annually to 10 top accounting Ph.D. candidates across the U.S. Presented to students who plan to pursue academic careers upon graduation, the award is intended to help cover expenses during the recipients’ final year of coursework and the subsequent year to complete their doctoral dissertation.

Filosa joined the Accounting and Information Systems Department Ph.D. program in the fall of 2019. She received her B.S. in business administration from Bowling Green State University in 2015 and her M.S. in accounting from the University of Virginia in 2016.

She spent three years at a big four accounting firm in the IT audit practice in the Richmond, Va., and Cleveland offices where she supported internal control over financial reporting audits and worked on system and organization controls reporting engagements. Filosa’s research primarily uses archival methods to examine issues in auditing including risk oversight, the regulatory environment, and technology. In her dissertation, she is examining the implications of third-party risk on audit outcomes using textual analysis.

Each year, accounting doctoral students from more than 100 universities are invited to apply for the fellowship. A selection committee composed of eminent accounting educators chose this year’s recipients who were nominated by accounting faculty at their institution. Since its inception, the program has supported nearly 1,200 Ph.Ds.

“These grants are awarded at a critical time in a doctoral student’s academic career journey,” said Erin Scanlon, Deloitte Foundation president. “This financial support encourages the selected Ph.D. candidates to devote themselves full time to the final step of researching and writing their dissertation and is one way the Foundation can help to strengthen the pipeline of accounting professors who are helping to prepare students for the future of work.”

When asked about the award, Filosa shared, “I am very grateful to the Deloitte Foundation. I am eager to focus on my dissertation full time and develop a research paper that contributes to both academia and practice.”

 

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