Margot Cella

Margot Cella is the Vice President, Research for the Center for Audit Quality.

Cella serves as the CAQ’s liaison with the accounting and auditing professoriate. She manages the activities of the CAQ’s Research Advisory Board, which provides support for scholarly academic research; the Board is comprised of audit firm representatives and academic scholars. She also manages the CAQ-AAA Auditing Section Access to Audit Personnel Program, designed to facilitate data collection from audit firms for experimental/behavioral research projects. In January 2014, Cella was recognized by the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association with a Special Award for Merit for her support, determination and commitment to the Section and its members. Cella also plays a key role in the CAQ’s public policy initiatives.

Prior to joining the CAQ, Cella worked at Accenture LLP as Global Research Lead for the Products Group, which focused on the consumer goods, retail, pharmaceutical and automotive industries. She was the Director of Research for a large trade association, which produced over 25 major publications each year on consumer and business issues related to the food retailing supply chain. Cella began her career conducting public policy research for federal and state agencies. She directed a major study that evaluated the federal government’s inspection process for nursing homes, analyzing the consistency with which inspectors applied quality of care and quality of life standards and issued deficiency citations. Other areas of focus included health care reimbursement and utilization of services.

Cella earned her MS in biostatistics from Georgetown University.