WMU specialist to help guide federal standards
April 12, 2002
KALAMAZOO -- A Western Michigan University researcher will bring his expertise in professional standards development to the work of a federal advisory council charged with ensuring that good auditing and accounting measures are used by those spending U.S. taxpayers' money.
Dr. Daniel L. Stufflebeam, director of the Evaluation Center, has been appointed by the U.S. Comptroller General to the National Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards. Stufflebeam is one of 10 new members appointed by Comptroller General David M. Walker to three-year terms on the 22-member panel.
The council is charged with working with the General Accounting Office to revise and guide the implementation of federal auditing standards, which are used in audits of federal, state and local government programs as well as in audits of entities that use federal funds. The GAO is an independent, nonpartisan branch of Congress designated to study the programs and expenditures of the federal government. It investigates how taxpayer dollars are spent and reports to Congress and the heads of executive agencies about ways to make government more effective and responsive.
In making his new appointments, Walker pointed to the importance of the council in providing him with valuable advice on government auditing standards.
"I consider the work of the advisory council to be of the greatest importance, as auditing standards are a critical component of the reporting process to help facilitate fiscal integrity and accountability," Walker said.
Serving on the advisory council with Stufflebeam are the chief auditing executives for the states of Arizona, New Jersey, Rhode Island, North Carolina and Utah as well as the inspectors general for the Federal Reserve Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Energy. Also on the council are a number of city, corporate and major accounting firm representatives.
Stufflebeam, who has been at WMU since 1973, is widely recognized for his pioneering work in developing a major model for program evaluation and for providing national leadership in the development of standards for educational evaluations. His research and that of the center he heads has been funded by a wide range of public and private organizations, including the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Marine Corps, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Alger Foundation.
The author or co-author of a dozen books and more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, Stufflebeam was named WMU's Distinguished Faculty Scholar in 1984 and won the American Evaluation Association's Paul Lazersfeld Prize in 1985. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and master's and doctoral degrees from Purdue University.
Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 269 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu