IMA Staff Member Linda Devonish-Mills Joins Ranks of CMAs 
Linda Devonish-Mills, IMA®’s director of market advocacy, recently joined an elite group of IMA employees: CPAs who also have earned their CMA®. The combination of both designations enables Ms. Mills to bring a unique perspective to her advocacy work – and reflects the achievement of a goal that Ms. Mills worked diligently to pursue.
Ms. Mills first joined IMA in 2006 as director of professional advocacy, the first in-house IMA staffer to hold such a title. In this role, she helped to establish IMA’s professional advocacy program and to raise the visibility of IMA’s advocacy efforts within the national and trade media. Before coming to IMA, Ms. Mills had for seven years worked for AICPA where, as a senior technical manager, she was closely involved in developing the Uniform CPA Examination. That experience, she explained, provided her with “a clear appreciation of the kind of effort that goes into both creating and passing a rigorous examination.” From her earliest days at IMA, Ms. Mills said the organization was “extremely supportive” in her desire to pursue additional education. With that support, Ms. Mills obtained her MBA degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University in May 2009. Even after earning her MBA, however, Ms. Mills admitted that something was missing: “I guess you could say I was a typical CPA in that I really didn’t know much about the CMA. Once I learned about the certification, though, I was sold on how it would validate my competency. I thought of it as a missing link that, once obtained, would round out my professional background.” Equipped with a desire to earn her CMA, Ms. Mills enrolled in an onsite review course in Manhattan. She attended the course once per week for eight weeks and eventually passed Part 3 of the four-part CMA exam (she could waive Part 1, since she was a CPA). When the CMA program was revised, in late 2009, Ms. Mills only needed to take Part 1 of the two-part exam. For this portion of the exam, she studied on her own – mostly at night, on weekends, and “anytime [she] could” – and this past December, was rewarded for her efforts with a coveted CMA certificate. Relating her experience of taking the exam and the knowledge she acquired by studying, Ms. Mills said, “I think the CMA is the perfect certification for anyone working outside of public accounting. Taking my own experience as an example, after a few years in public accounting at Ernst and Young, I began my management accounting career in various roles at Time Warner. Looking back, I certainly wish I had my CMA when I worked in those positions. Now, however, I’m able to use the knowledge I gained in my advocacy role at IMA. I have a fuller appreciation and understanding of the issues that affect our members, particularly our certified ones.” In her role as IMA’s director of market advocacy, Ms. Mills helps to communicate to the membership at large about IMA’s efforts in this arena. She works closely with four volunteer technical committees, who serve as the voice for IMA members and the profession on key technical issues that impact the management accounting profession. Those committees – and their current areas of emphasis – include:
Ms. Mills encourages all members to find out more about IMA’s latest advocacy efforts by visiting IMA’s website at www.imanet.org/about_ima/advocacy_activity.aspx. She also invites any IMA member who would like to become involved in the process to contact her directly at lmills@imanet.org. |