Contact:
Lois Whitehead, Public Relations Manager
212-719-8405
lwhithead@nysscpa.org

NEW YORK, NY, May 13, 2005 – The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) presented Janice M. Johnson, CPA, JD of New York City with its Distinguished Service Award at its 108th Annual Election Meeting and Dinner held today at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel. This award recognizes CPAs who have distinguished themselves in community, charitable or civic activities on an ongoing basis.

Johnson has served on the board of directors of the YWCA of the City of New York for 17 years -- as treasurer of its Executive Committee and its chair of Development. She was inducted into the YWCA of the City of New York’s Academy of Women Achievers in 1987.

She also has served on the Board of Trustees of, and as treasurer of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church and as a member of the board of the Else School of Management at Millsaps College and the New York Women’s Foundation. She is a member of the Board of the Women's Economic Round Table, a member of the Advisory Committee for Womensbiz.US, president of Accountants for the Public Interest, president of her co-op for the past seven years, and president of the Accountants Club, an organization whose membership consists of the senior practitioners in the accounting profession.

She is on the Board and Executive Committee of the Institute for Community Living, a $50 million organization which provides residences for those with mental impairments. She also serves as a strategic adviser to the Drama Department, a theatre company based in Tribeca and is president of the Board of Community Residence Insurance Savings Plan.

She joined the NYSSCPA in February 1982 and has chaired the Taxation of Financial Institutions and Products and Depreciation and Investment Tax Credit committees. She has also been a member of the Tax Oversight, Interstate Taxation, Tax Practice Administration and Depreciation and Investment Tax Credit committees.

She authored and taught the Annual Tax Update for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), has served as chair of the AICPA's Tax Simplification Committee, and as a member of its Task Force on the Taxation of Capital Gains and its Strategic Planning Task Force. She is currently active on the AICPA Member Tax Practice Improvement Committee.

During her career, she has also been Managing Director of American Express Tax and Business Services, a director and in the financial services tax practice of Coopers & Lybrand, LLP, Managing Director of D.S. Wolf Associates, Inc., tax partner in charge of the financial services practice at BDO Seidman and as the National Director of Taxes at Oppenheim, Appel, Dixon & Co. Prior to moving to New York, she was a specialist in tax legislative and regulatory issues for AICPA in Washington, DC.

Johnson obtained her accounting degree magna cum laude with honors from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and her law degree from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

About the NYSSCPA

Representing 30,000 CPAs, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) is the oldest and largest state accounting organization in the nation.

Incorporated in 1897, the Society is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to establish and maintain high standards of integrity, honor, and character among certified public accountants. Its members are CPAs working in public practice, industry, government and education in a state that serves as the home of Wall Street and major financial institutions.

The New York State Society of CPAs is located at 3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. To learn more about the Society call 800-633-6320 or visit the Society’s website at www.nysscpa.org.