Fifth Edition Marquis Who’s Who INSIGHT 25 VICTORIA MARY SHEFFIELD Consultant USAID’s Child Blindness Program Alexandria, VA www.usaid.gov/childblindness What are two key behaviors/personality traits that allow you to be effective in your role? I like leading and working with effective teams on initiatives that get results for beneficiaries. What is the most important issue/challenge you are dealing with in your industry? The challenges that the pandemic has had on our grantees and partners, which drives them to adapt to achieve results. What innovations or technologies do you feel will shape the future of your industry? The development of innovative software for tracking patients needing care and ensuring they receive that care. Also, developing the effective use of artificial intelligence for diagnosing eye diseases in low- to middle -income environments where ophthalmic professionals do not exist. MARILYNN J. SMILEY, PHD State University of New York at Oswego Oswego, NY youtu.be/I56b5-ATxbs What is the most important issue/challenge you are dealing with in your industry? We need to make others understand the importance of education because it can turn them into better people, not just earn them more money. It can help people get more out of life because they’ll understand everything much more in-depth. How do you feel your industry has changed/evolved? After my residency in 1964 and 1965, Oswego started becoming a liberal arts school. We had professors from more diverse backgrounds and strong language and philosophy departments. We also offered more in-depth courses in music history, music theory and applied music. Our college changed completely, and the attitudes were different — there was this new interest in politics and pop culture. ELLEN V. SPRINGER Founder Springer and Company CPAs PC Kennesaw, GA www.springercpa.com/ What is the most important issue/ challenge you are dealing with in your industry? The constantly changing government regulations and rules. Congress has even changed the rules mid-tax season. The second challenge is talking to government officials (IRS) about notices and updates. Sometimes, we sit on the phone for hours and nobody answers, or we are cut off near a shift change or when the IRS agent answers, their computer is down. What innovations or technologies do you feel will shape the future of your industry? I believe some technologies have complicated our business. I used to be able to talk with a person at the IRS or a vendor and then followupwith a letter or email and the issues would be handled. Now, we have to deal with the latest technology integrated into the websites of different entities and a person isn’t involved. Whenwe try to involve a person, they don’t care or want to be helpful. I feel like I am fighting for everything these days. I believe that scanners and ocular readers that put information into softwarewill continue tomake paper obsolete, but a person still needs to verify the data. It still requires a tax professional to reviewand think about the client’s situation and consider what other tax lawsmight benefit the client and then provide that information to the software. Software and computers are still limited in their performance andmay not catch everything for more complicated tax situations.
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