AASHTO Journal - AASHTO Names New Leaders for Audit Committee

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently named new leaders for its Committee on Internal and External Audit, each of whom will serve two-year terms.

[Above photos by Maine DOT & Arizona DOT]

AASHTO’s audit committee develops and maintains standards for audit procedures that are sufficiently flexible for use by state departments of transportation, yet standardized enough to achieve uniformity and provide member agencies alternative solutions for compliance with audit requirements that also meet their individual needs.

Helen Eagen, audit manager within the Office of Audit at the Maine Department of Transportation, will serve as the committee’s chair.

Eagen – who has over 20 years of government auditing and compliance experience – has served as Maine DOT’s representative on the AASHTO Internal/External Audit Committee since 2012. She previously held the positions of vice chair and secretary of AASHTO’s audit committee as well.

Eagen holds a master’s degree in business administration from Thomas College with an emphasis in accounting and is an Institute of Internal Auditors Certified Government Auditing Professional.

Concurrently, Vickie Murphy – chief auditor for the Arizona Department of Transportation – will serve as the committee’s vice chair.

After graduating from the University of Montana, Murphy started her audit career working for the Montana Legislative Auditors Office, then became an internal auditor for the Montana Department of Corrections.

Eventually she moved to the Montana Department of Transportation and held several roles before moving into the chief auditor position. After 15 years, she retired and moved south to Arizona before rejoining the industry with the Arizona DOT.

Murphy holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with emphasis in Accounting and an emphasis in Finance.

She is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Government Auditing Professional, Certified Internal Control Auditor, Certified in Risk Management and Assurance, and Certified in Control Self Assessments.

Murphy has also been actively involved in national committees related to the AASHTO Internal/External Audit Committee since 2007.

She served on the Peer Review committee for six years, serving as the chair for the last year of her time there. Murphy then stepped in as chair of the Peer Review again two years later when they needed some assistance, as well as serving as secretary of the Internal/External Committee in 2018/2019 and again from August 2022 through August 2024.