Outstanding CPA in Public Practice Award
This award highlights outstanding service and professional development in public practice. It recognizes public practice CPAs who have made significant contributions to their firms and the profession by creating value, leading by example, championing new solutions, inspiring others and promoting the CPA as the premier professional designation in accountancy.
A prominent voice for the NYSSCPA and the accounting profession at large, Orumé A. Hays has been active on numerous levels for several years. Currently a Society director-at-large, she has also served as a vice president and as president of the Society’s Manhattan/Bronx Chapter. She is currently the chair of the Relations with the Internal Revenue Service Committee, and she previously chaired the Small Firms Practice Management Committee. She also serves on the editorial board of The CPA Journal. She is a regional vice president of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) and chair of the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section’s executive committee. She has organized CPE sessions, recruited speakers for events, and served as a speaker and a moderator herself. In early June, the AICPA and the CPA Practice Advisor named her as one of the 2024 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting. For her many contributions to the profession, Hays is the 2024 recipient of the Outstanding CPA in Public Practice Award.
“These roles allowed me to influence policy and advocate for fellow members of the organizations, be it for relief on tax rules and regulations, practice management tools or diversity within the profession,” Hays said. She also advocates for the early adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the profession, an initiative that she believes will have a long-lasting impact.
Hays “promotes and elevates the CPA profession for all people, particularly female accountants and CPAs, [and] supports members and students of the association, while promoting the accounting and CPA profession,” wrote Ellan Paredes, an accounting supervisor at Hays’ firm, Hays CPA LLC, who nominated her for the award. “An advocate of diversity, equity and the profession as a whole, she often promotes the accountancy and CPA profession to her students [as an adjunct lecturer] at the Lucille and Jay Chazanoff School of Business, College of Staten Island.”
Her position as an adjunct professor, as well as one as a graduate adviser at Hunter College, has been particularly rewarding, as it gives her “the opportunity to shape the next generation of accountants,” she said. “I aim to entice more practitioners to take on the role of educators, as we need more educators with practical experience in our accounting classrooms.”
One of Hays’ proudest achievements was chairing a Hunter College student career event in 2023 that featured the AICPA vice chair, Carla M. McCall, and then-NYSSCPA President Liren Wei, providing students with invaluable networking opportunities and career insights.
Another source of pride is having “organized the NYSSCPA Small Business Town Hall through the Small Firms Practice Management Committee, during the challenging times of COVID-19,” she said. “Recognizing the need for guidance amidst evolving government programs and regulations, we were able to provide crucial resources and support to our members and their clients. It was a testament to the NYSSCPA’s commitment to serving both members and community.”
She is also proud of her role on The CPA Journal’ s editorial board, which has enabled her “to contribute to the discourse on current issues in the accounting field, promoting knowledge sharing and professional development,” she said. “These accomplishments stand out because they reflect my commitment to education, advocacy and support for the accounting profession.”
In 2021, Hays organized a successful roundtable discussion with industry luminaries to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the publication. “This event celebrated the Journal’s history and fostered discussions on the profession’s future,” she said.
Hays’ work and advocacy for the profession have garnered her much recognition by her peers. In addition to 2024, she was designated as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting in 2022 and 2023, by the AICPA and the CPA Practice Advisor, and as one of the top 50 Women in Accounting for 2023 by accounting software developer Ignition.
“She is a strong advocate for the profession and in her various communities; she is always willing to lend her voice to promote the profession through interviews in accounting journals, podcasts, seminars and conferences,” said Paredes. “Her leadership, support and willingness to help many in the Society, her activities to increase minority representation in the profession, and her activities to promote the profession through interviews in accounting journals, podcasts, seminars and conferences” make her worthy of this award, he said.
Hays’ path to the pinnacle of her profession has not been a linear one. Growing up in Lagos State, Nigeria, she attended the University of Benin, graduating with a degree in sociology and anthropology. After a year of mandatory national youth service in Nigeria, she emigrated to New York. Tiring of the weather, she moved to Miami, where she pursued fashion modeling while working as a data entry clerk in the accounts payable department of Miami Children’s Hospital.
The latter experience led to a revelation. “I completely forgot about taking accounting courses in Nigeria,” she said, “but once I started doing data entry work, I became comfortable in the accounting space, and everything started to come to me. Later on, when I reviewed my transcript from my first university, I saw that I had taken a bunch of accounting courses, and then it made sense that I had taken them previously. So, I decided to press forward with accounting.”
Years later, she returned to New York, balancing acting and modeling gigs while studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she earned an associate’s degree in occupational studies. Later, after one semester as a creative writing graduate student at The City College of New York, she decided to pursue more practical career goals. She switched to the accounting and finance program at the College of Staten Island, graduating magna cum laude in 2005 and obtaining her CPA license in 2007.
After juggling numerous consulting jobs in the intervening dozen years, she returned to school at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, from which she earned her master’s degree in taxation in 2019, three years after founding her Staten Island-based firm to help small businesses, entrepreneurs, independent contractors, individuals and startups solve their accounting, finance and tax needs. Since then, she has grown her practice, while continuing to serve the Society and the profession.
Her commitment to community service and grassroots advocacy extends beyond her Society involvement. She regularly offers her free tax and accounting seminars, with the aim of providing valuable financial education to those who might not have access. She remains passionate about mentoring young professionals, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, to ensure they have the support and resources they need to succeed. “Within the last month, I have had two one-on-one sessions with ladies who reached out to me cold on Linked-
In, for some mentoring advice,” she said.
Hays’ ambitions for the accounting profession—and her role in it—continue to grow. “I aspire to continue promoting the accounting profession by highlighting the wonderful aspects of the profession to the future generation so that we can solve the profession’s image and pipeline issues sooner rather than later,” she said. “I want to encourage more young people to pursue careers in accounting and promote diversity and inclusion in the profession. By doing so, I can positively impact the profession and help ensure our continued success.”
ssteinhardt@nysscpa.org