In(ternal) control.

Nai Hwang grew up in Taiwan, the youngest of six siblings. After earning her undergraduate accounting degree there, she followed in her brother's footsteps and came to the United States. Hwang tackled a master's degree in accounting at Missouri State University before embarking on what she called the next obvious challenge--her U.S. CPA license. Later, she also obtained Certified Internal Auditor and Certified Information System Auditor credentials.

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As a CPA, Hwang has been an internal auditor for the Port of San Diego and now, the University of California, San Diego. California CPA caught up with Hwang to talk about about her career in some complex industries.

What is the most interesting part in the internal audit field?

The most fascinating aspect is consolidating financial and operational technical skills for cause and effect process analysis, and also adding the human behavioral characteristics that influence monetary and/or non-monetary outcomes of the organization.

Besides the traditional auditing hat, the management advisory role is increasingly important in partnering with management to ensure that related internal controls address management concerns.

For example, our advisory services includes business process self-assessment programs, organizational benchmarking, and a continuously auditing/monitoring program.

I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity to audit a broad array of operations: higher education, medical centers, airport and marine operations, and real estate management. All these functionalities, varieties and challenges make the job interesting.

What is unique about working for a university?

UCSD is a very large academic institution with two medical centers. It's challenging in dealing with the complexity of the various operations and providing independent assessment of the internal controls in administrative processes.

From the operational prospective, there are layers of rules and regulations--federal, state, general business, industry, university wide, campus wide and departmental. From the process prospective, there are traditional audits in financial, operational, compliance, and other management advisory services such as investigation review and special task forces. From the business-practice perspective, there are day-care facilities to financial aid offices, student housing, hospital billing and school management. From the human perspective, we work with different people--from professors, researchers, students, management, staff in all levels and external auditors from regulatory agencies. On top on all these, there are rapid changes in information technology, from mainframe systems to desktop, from departments to division, from centralized and decentralized structures.

All these combinations and variations makes my job fun, challenging and, of course, unique.

What was the last book you read?

I read several books simultaneously, depending on my mood. There's a different book in each room of my house. One thing I've been reading more about lately is emotional intelligence: how to interact with people, understand them and be understood better--generally, how to handle situations better.