Accounting
Illinois CPA Society Announces 2023 Young Professionals Leadership Award Recipient
This award recognizes a certified public accountant (CPA), under age 35, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in their career, in public or community service, and through involvement in professional organizations.
May. 30, 2023
The Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) has selected Kiara R. Schuh, CPA, as the recipient of its 2023 Young Professionals Leadership Award. This award recognizes a certified public accountant (CPA), under age 35, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in their career, in public or community service, and through involvement in professional organizations.
Schuh is a risk and financial advisory senior consultant with Deloitte LLP where she also co-leads the firm’s Chicago Social Impact Community (SoCom), a team of 22 practitioners seeking to create social impact through skills-based volunteering programs. Schuh was recently selected to represent Deloitte at the 2022 Out & Equal Conference, which brought together LGBTQ+ community members and allies to gain knowledge on the most pressing challenges and opportunities in LGBTQ+ workforce equity, inclusion, and belonging. She is also an advocate with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Cook County, an organization that advances advocacy for foster care children and aids in transitioning foster care youth into permanent homes.
Further, Schuh authored “Chosen Family,” a book that explores her life as a donor-conceived child raised by a single mother by choice and challenges modern stereotypes and social narratives about “non-traditional” families.
Schuh maintains active memberships with the AICPA, Gies Young Alumni Committee, and ICPAS. An ICPAS member since joining as a student, Schuh previously received two ICPAS scholarships and now serves as one of ICPAS’ Young Professional Ambassadors. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Gies College of Business.
“Kiara’s story is one of inspiration,” says Geoffrey Brown, CAE, ICPAS president and CEO. “We admire her efforts to be an active and engaged member who is committed to bettering the lives and creating equal opportunities for those around her. It’s our hope that she’ll continue to be a force for positivity in the accounting profession and inspire future generations of CPAs to act on the issues they’re passionate about.”
Schuh will be formally recognized at the ICPAS Leadership Recognition and Awards Dinner on June 8, 2023, in Chicago.