00;00;00;00 - 00;00;18;11 Speaker 1 Hello and welcome to another episode of the accounting for California podcast. My name is David Hemphill, information and planning officer here at the California Board of Accountancy. And I'm very honored to be joined by the 2025 president of the KBA. Yen. Si tu. Hello, miss two, how are you? 00;00;18;13 - 00;00;20;24 Speaker 2 Hello, David. How are you today? 00;00;20;25 - 00;00;29;18 Speaker 1 I'm doing great. Thank you for spending some time with us today. We'd like to learn a little more about you and where the KBA will be headed in the next year. If that sounds okay with you. 00;00;29;20 - 00;00;32;09 Speaker 2 I am looking forward to this. 00;00;32;11 - 00;00;39;26 Speaker 1 Very good. Well, you have been a member of the KBA for five years now. What inspired you to join the CBA in the first place? 00;00;39;28 - 00;01;13;01 Speaker 2 It's funny you ask that because, you know, I did not expect to be on board with CPA because I actually was interviewing for another position. Then afterward they said, how about if we actually, have you considered the Board of Accountancy? I said, I'm not a CPA, why would you I. They said, well, with your business experience as well as the fact that you do a lot of work with small businesses, you would be a great public member of CPA. 00;01;13;03 - 00;01;19;29 Speaker 2 And I said, I want to serve the state of California. So put me where you need it. 00;01;20;01 - 00;01;39;08 Speaker 1 That's great. Well, you've been a big asset to the board already so far. And part of that is the fact that you have jumped on to the, CDA leadership team now for the last three years, moving into your fourth year now. Why was it important for you to be a part of CBA leadership, and what excites you the most about your new role as president? 00;01;39;10 - 00;02;11;10 Speaker 2 I always say, if you can do something, do it with gusto. So the reason why I joined a leadership team is because I'm always very excited and I have a lot of ideas, and I love working collaboratively. So when the leadership position I'll put your name open up, I jump at the chance. Because when I do advocacy work in my own world, in my career and in life, I'm always telling people, you know, you got to step up to the plate. 00;02;11;17 - 00;02;39;21 Speaker 2 And that's the reason why I joined the leadership team. And another very good reason is I am a woman of color, and a lot of time we tend to kind of stay behind. And I would like to make sure that people can see people like myself being in a leadership position and inspire future people and women of color to take leadership roles. 00;02;39;23 - 00;02;57;24 Speaker 1 Absolutely. I love that. I love all of that. And you do so much advocacy and volunteer work. I look forward to speaking with you a little more about that here in a few minutes. But right now, let's let's kind of dig in to your agenda, your top priorities for the CBA during your term as president here in 2025. 00;02;57;24 - 00;02;58;21 Speaker 1 So what do you think? 00;02;58;23 - 00;03;32;19 Speaker 2 We work as a team. And so when we put our priority together, the leadership team, myself, the vice president and the secretary treasurer all meet with our executive officer and we come up with the priority for 2025. One of our top priority will be legislative proposals. CBA approved two proposals in September to enhance our requirement for CPA licensure and to modernize mobility in California. 00;03;32;21 - 00;03;42;24 Speaker 2 The education requirement for licensor will shift away from focus on 150 total units to now focus on the degree and. 00;03;42;27 - 00;03;43;06 Speaker 1 Write. 00;03;43;10 - 00;04;07;13 Speaker 2 The experience requiring for a licensure will be two years of general accounting experience, with an advanced degree potentially substituting for one year. The CPA also will expand its mobility provision to a CPA CPA model and concurrently expand the safeguards in place to protect California consumers. 00;04;07;15 - 00;04;21;22 Speaker 1 So these are a big deal because these legislative proposals, especially the one to enhance the licensure requirements, it's going to result in a significant change for our applicants should it become law. What excites you the most about this potential change? 00;04;21;25 - 00;04;35;24 Speaker 2 First of all, it would allow us to be able to get more people involved with a career as a CPA. In addition, this allows students to not have to go to a fifth year of university. 00;04;35;27 - 00;04;47;25 Speaker 1 Right without the 150 unit requirement. It will be interesting to follow as this progresses through the legislature this year, so that is definitely a big priority for the CBA. What are some of the others. 00;04;48;01 - 00;05;03;26 Speaker 2 Also continue education? Modernization will help. This thing CPA, CPA is striving to clarify and restructure the CTE regulations. Last year, a key workshop was formed to make suggestions for CPA considerations. 00;05;04;00 - 00;05;20;13 Speaker 1 Okay, so that'll be interesting to see some of those suggestions come along. I know it kind of started at the last meeting, if I recall, in late 2024, but there will be a lot of that in 2025. So we'll see how that all works out. That's a good one. You have another one for me. You got a lot of priorities like this. 00;05;20;15 - 00;05;47;05 Speaker 2 We have another one. This business modernization project working on integrating CPA exam application into CPA connect platform, which is an excellent platform. It will modernize the current online exam application, and it will include an online payment option, eliminating the need to write a check and mail in your remittance form. That's good. 00;05;47;07 - 00;05;53;11 Speaker 1 That's going to make a lot of students, our applicants, very happy. So I'm glad that is a priority for this year. Okay. 00;05;53;13 - 00;05;53;25 Speaker 2 And then not. 00;05;53;26 - 00;06;01;02 Speaker 1 Taking a lot of that stuff online as far as the exam application interface and the remittance forms and all that. Okay. Very good. 00;06;01;04 - 00;06;26;17 Speaker 2 And then we have one more priority, which is our outreach. CPA intend to increase the volume of our outreach events this year. We always have a good number of unkempt events with universities and we'll continue with these. But we will also look to participate in more consumer focused community events, which I'm very excited about. You know, I'm all about community events. 00;06;26;17 - 00;06;27;08 Speaker 1 Yes. 00;06;27;11 - 00;06;51;24 Speaker 2 Last fall, CPA took part in career fairs for high school and middle school students, which is so important to promote the accounting profession to youth. Just starting to think about their career path. So we will look to do more career fairs this year. Okay. In addition, communicating the pending changes from the legislative proposal will be a major focus in 2025. 00;06;51;26 - 00;07;10;27 Speaker 1 Yes, I can see that being very important because I want to make sure that all the students know what's what's coming and what their options will be if and when that moves forward. We want to, of course, put the caveat out there right now that that this is not a done deal with. We approved the proposals, but now it has to go through the legislative process, which is not a short process. 00;07;10;27 - 00;07;32;09 Speaker 1 So that will be something that we'll be following very closely here in 2025. Well, you kind of alluded to it earlier. The CBA is made up of eight public members and seven licensee members. So you fill one of those public member seats. Why do you think it's so important for there to be public members and even a majority, a public members on the CBA? 00;07;32;13 - 00;07;57;06 Speaker 2 Well, our mission is to protect the public, right. And so it's important that we have public member on CPA. Of course, the CPA members are, critical to this board as well because they have the expertise. But as a public member, I have interaction with CPA also in my business dealing, we have financial dealings and so forth. 00;07;57;08 - 00;08;15;22 Speaker 2 Every company has a CPA and or financial member in their staff, and they are very critical part of the member. And this is why consumer protection needs public members on the board. 00;08;15;24 - 00;08;38;11 Speaker 1 Yeah. Like you said, it's that good balance between those really focus on the public and then those with the expertise needed. That's good. Well, let's talk about some more because you volunteered on a number of different boards. A few I have written down here, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California Coast Credit Union Board, the San Diego Asian Business Association, just to name a few. 00;08;38;11 - 00;08;44;14 Speaker 1 So I see that giving back is very important to you, which is great. So where does this desire to get involved come from? 00;08;44;21 - 00;09;07;21 Speaker 2 Well, you know, I'm a immigrant. I was a refugee. And when I first came to the U.S., there were so many people that helped me and, to get started in the U.S.. And now I want to give back to the community. I've been involved with community in San Diego for many years, and I never served on any state board before. 00;09;07;21 - 00;09;18;00 Speaker 2 And so I'm very excited to be able to serve on this state board and and help my state, California, that I love very much. 00;09;18;03 - 00;09;28;15 Speaker 1 That's wonderful. The world needs more people like you giving back so much. With so much of your time spent in these philanthropic activities, what are some things you like to do if and when you get a little time for yourself? 00;09;28;18 - 00;09;30;05 Speaker 2 I do mom volunteering. 00;09;30;06 - 00;09;31;18 Speaker 1 Does that happen? 00;09;31;21 - 00;09;57;08 Speaker 2 More volunteering? Yeah. And less, which is my other passion. I love to travel and travel all over the world, and I just just fascinated, learning different culture. And I got the travel bug when I went to study abroad for a year. When I was in college. And it has never left me. David, I would my other thing that I love to do in my spare time is cooking. 00;09;57;14 - 00;10;01;04 Speaker 2 So we're going to have to get you a meal. I am good for you. 00;10;01;05 - 00;10;08;28 Speaker 1 Oh, I am so ready for that. I'll take that any time. Elaborate a little on on the travel. What are some of your favorite locations recently? 00;10;09;02 - 00;10;26;03 Speaker 2 I just went for a month to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Oh, I've been to Spain in Mark. I've been in Spain and Portugal before, but first time to Morocco and to the continent of Africa. Very excited and it was a beautiful trip. 00;10;26;05 - 00;10;41;12 Speaker 1 Wow. Oh that's great. Let's learn a little bit about your own company unique to consulting. Obviously you founded that and have been doing that for a couple of decades. I believe somewhere in that range. Tell us a little bit about what you do with that company. 00;10;41;15 - 00;11;09;18 Speaker 2 It my consulting firm is basically I do a lot of, community outreach. Most of my career is working in the community, and I have built a lot of relationship. And my specialty is working with the underserved community in San Diego, especially. And I do a live project relating to water because I have been on the San Diego County Water Authority for over 16 years. 00;11;09;18 - 00;11;14;26 Speaker 2 So water is a it's in my blood. 00;11;14;28 - 00;11;17;22 Speaker 1 I don't know if that's healthy or not, but, 00;11;17;25 - 00;11;18;29 Speaker 2 But probably not. 00;11;18;29 - 00;11;42;22 Speaker 1 Probably not. But water obviously, in California is always a huge, huge deal and a huge issue. So that's that's great that you have some some expertise in that. Like you said, your company focuses on providing outreach services for for ethnic or underrepresented communities. And that's a priority for the CBA as well. Do you plan on bringing some of that experience into your role as president of the CBA? 00;11;42;25 - 00;12;09;09 Speaker 2 Oh, absolutely. And one of the reason why I want to be, on the leadership role and, currently serving as president is to share. I mean, we have a very diverse and ethnically and economically state. So we want to be able to highlight those people. And, I as you can see from our priority outreach, is going to be a pretty big part of our priority. 00;12;09;09 - 00;12;12;23 Speaker 2 And David and I are going to be doing some great work. Right, David? 00;12;12;23 - 00;12;33;01 Speaker 1 Yes. Well, I look forward to, getting some of your expertise in this, department and everything else as we, as we move forward this year. So that's going to be great. So luckily, we'll have some good outreach for our for our Californians. How about we finish off with, a little bit advice from the president? What would you tell a young person who's considering accounting as a career? 00;12;33;07 - 00;12;42;17 Speaker 2 You know, if I had to do it over again, now that I've learned so much about, accountancy and CPA, I would have chosen this. 00;12;42;22 - 00;12;44;18 Speaker 1 My major. Hey, there. You know, I. 00;12;44;18 - 00;12;57;12 Speaker 2 Would have been in deep have have a lot of independency. I would have, ability to climb the corporate ladder and make pretty darn good money and swell. 00;12;57;13 - 00;13;01;10 Speaker 1 Solutely so you could start your own business. So many options. 00;13;01;10 - 00;13;14;11 Speaker 2 There is so many options. It does this license open up so many opportunities for you? And it sounds like very fun too, because you get to tell everybody what to do. 00;13;14;13 - 00;13;21;08 Speaker 1 Yeah, you get to let them know how, we're all that money's going and everything, and there's so many different industries you could jump into. 00;13;21;11 - 00;13;25;17 Speaker 2 Exactly. I mean, you have the world is your oyster. 00;13;25;20 - 00;13;37;13 Speaker 1 That's cool. A lot of people do choose kind of mid-career changes. And so we see that we see that to people deciding to be become a CPA. So it does not necessarily even need to be all young people. 00;13;37;16 - 00;13;45;15 Speaker 2 I think you might be hitting a hand. I'm, I'm not sure I have a midlife crisis, but I might change my career. 00;13;45;17 - 00;14;08;10 Speaker 1 You might be busy enough as it is, but, Well, we appreciate you sitting down with us, president to and learning a little bit about you. I personally, from knowing you the last few years, I think you're a fascinating individual. And we're very pleased that you will be at the helm of the CBA for 2025. And we are very, very proud that you chose to share some of that life experience with us here on the podcast. 00;14;08;10 - 00;14;09;22 Speaker 1 So thank you for joining us. 00;14;09;29 - 00;14;13;01 Speaker 2 And thank you for inviting me to this board card. My first. 00;14;13;01 - 00;14;15;10 Speaker 1 One. Yeah. You're really your first podcast. 00;14;15;11 - 00;14;16;18 Speaker 2 Yes, absolutely. 00;14;16;18 - 00;14;27;01 Speaker 1 Oh okay. So get you a button or something? Okay. Congratulations. Well, everyone, thank you for listening to this episode of the accounting for California podcast. We'll see you next time.