Accounting Educators Symposium Webcast

Dr. Sean Stein Smith is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the City University of New York – Lehman College, where he developed the college’s blockchain and cryptoasset curriculum. He chairs the Accounting Working Group of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance and advises Crescent City Capital, a cryptoasset investment fund. Sean’s award-winning research and thought leadership on blockchain, digital assets, and artificial intelligence have been recognized by the AICPA, AAA, NJCPA, NYSSCPA, IMA, and CPA Practice Advisor, and he was named a 2026 NJBIZ Leader in Finance. He is a former member of the NJCPA Board of Trustees, a Past President of the NYSSCPA Manhattan-Bronx Chapter, and past chairperson of the NJCPA’s Emerging Technologies Interest Group (#NJCPATech). Sean also serves on the Board of Governors of Fairleigh Dickinson University and has served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.

• Professor Denise M. Stefano, CPA CGMA MBA is an Associate Professor in the Accounting Department of the Mercy College, and also serves as the Chairperson of the Accounting Program. Professor Stefano previously served as the Accounting Program Graduate Program Director and served a one-year term as the Interim Associate Dean of the School of Business. As a full-time faculty member, Professor Stefano teaches a wide variety of accounting courses, including but not limited to, Introduction to Financial Accounting, Introduction to Managerial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Cost Accounting, Advanced Accounting, Government and Not-For Profit Accounting, Global Financial Statement Analysis, Advanced Accounting Theory, and Topics from Professional Examinations in Accounting, which content addresses typical questioning found on the Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) part of the Uniform CPA Examination. As Chairperson of the Accounting Program, Professor Stefano maintains purview over the design and development of the Program’s undergraduate and graduate curriculum and serves as a key mentor and advisor to accounting students in their professional development, career planning, and job placements. Professor Stefano is currently serving on the Steering Committee for the Mercy College Middle States (cyclical) Accreditation Review and previously served on the Middle States Standards 8 and 9 teams during the College’s prior accreditation review cycle. Additionally, she serves on the College’s Strategic Planning Committee (as Co-Chair), Faculty Association (former Chair), Faculty Senate, Committee for Economic and Fiscal Matters, Multiple-Year Contract Committee, School of Business Curriculum Committee (as Chair), and is the college-wide faculty representative to the Mercy College Board of Trustees Finance and Control Committee. Professor Stefano has also served on the College’s Academic Standards, Policies, and Regulations Committee (as Chair), and Graduate Curriculum Committee. She is a New York State licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), and holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Public Accounting and Finance/Financial Management, respectively from Iona University. Professor Stefano has significant expertise in CPA Examination preparation having served as a lead instructor and Advisory Board Member to a major CPA Examination Review provider, and Senior Digital Editor of Accounting Examination products (including CPA, CMA, and CIA examinations) for a major global educational publisher. Professor Stefano is also an author of five CPA Examination preparatory books published by McGraw-Hill Professional Education. Prior to joining Mercy College, Professor Stefano’s career spanned work in both public and private accounting practice serving as Senior Auditor and Business Advisor for one Big Accounting firm, and a Senior Consultant and Director of Business Development for a spin-off company of another Big Accounting firm’s consulting practice. She has also served as Corporate Controller and Chief Financial Officer for both publicly traded and privately held companies and spent roughly 10 years as Director of Product/Content Development for a nationally-recognized provider of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) training products and services. There she developed, designed, and provided technical review of accounting, auditing, finance, ethics, taxation, management, IT, and human resource/legal course content and oversaw course production of one of the company’s major catalogs and product lines. She also co-authored several comprehensive accounting and auditing courses for a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, and provided technical assistance in the preparation of certain key accounting analyses and disclosures included in the Company’s SEC filings. Professor Stefano currently serves as a member of the New York State Society of CPAs (NYSSCPA) Board of Directors, is a former Vice President of the NYSSCPA, and former President of the NYSSCPA Westchester County Chapter. She is also the immediate Past President, and a member of, the NYSSCPA Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE) Board of Trustees and serves on the FAE’s Curriculum Committee. Professor Stefano also serves on a host of NYSSCPA chapter and state level committees and task forces, including the Future of Accounting Education Committee (formerly the Committee for Academic Advancement and Higher Education), CPA Careers, and Financial Accounting Standards Committee. She has served and previously chaired the NYSSCPA Westchester Chapter’s Accounting and Auditing Principles, CPA and Accounting Careers, Career Opportunities in the Accounting Profession (COAP), and High School Scholarship committees. Recently, Professor Stefano served on the NYSSCPA CPA Examination Evolution task force, which was charged with writing and drafting responses to more than 40 comments in a proposal issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) that addressed future significant changes to the Uniform CPA Examination. She is also a past member of the statewide NYSSCPA’s Quality Enhancement Policy Committee (QEPC). During her tenure on the QEPC, the committee drafted two “white papers”
• one that discussed Continuing Professional Education, and the other that addressed Audit Quality. In May of 2017, the NYSSCPA presented Professor Stefano with the “Dr. Emanuel Saxe Outstanding CPA Educator Award,” and in March of 2019, selected Professor Stefano to be among several influential women in the accounting profession featured on its social media platforms for Women’s History Month. In addition to her membership and significant service to the NYSSCPA, Professor Stefano is also a member of several other accounting and finance-related organizations including, but not limited to, the AICPA and Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). She is also a former member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Board of Governors. Professor Stefano remains active in a variety of volunteer activities, including (but not limited to) her service on the Scholarship Committee of a not-for-profit performing arts school, and audit committee member to a major global, not-for-profit organization dedicated to eradicating the spread of malaria throughout the African continent, and whose major donors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Professor Stefano has also served as a Board Member and Treasurer to a Westchester County-based, not-for-profit organization offering after school support and activities to elementary school children and has provided volunteer services assisting students with development of reading fluency and literacy skills in the kindergarten class at a local children’s hospital, and K-3 classes at a Westchester County-based elementary school.