Kellie McNulty

• Cashier
• Waitress - high school and college
• Construction, general labor - high school and college
• Shift manager at deli - college
• Hotel Front desk - College
• Accountant - college internship

13320 West 142nd Street

Overland Park, KS 66221

August 12, 2015

SUBJECT: Letter of Recommendation for Ms. Kellie M. McNulty

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Dear Sir or Madam:

Thank you for the opportunity to recommend, with the greatest possible enthusiasm and conviction, Ms. Kellie M. McNulty to your organization. She is a highly intelligent and dedicated individual whose keen analytical abilities, matched with her exceptional communications skills and her engaging personality, mark her as a valued employee of virtually unlimited potential.

It has been my pleasure to have served as Ms. McNulty’s co-worker for nine years. She is an auditor (GS-12) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Audit Services (OAS), Region VII field office; I serve as the writer/editor for the same organization, stationed in the Region VII regional office. In this capacity, I interact frequently—both electronically and face-to-face—with all of the audit managers and staff within a business unit of roughly 60 people. The nature of my position is such that I become involved, not only with the audit reports themselves (which come to fruition near the end of the audit process), but also with the earlier stages of audit work, as teams and individual auditors who are on site, analyzing complicated records, and developing preliminary findings, often communicate with me regarding the most effective ways to explain those findings and convey them on paper to a broad audience of stakeholders.

My point is that I am very fortunate—very fortunate—to work with a group of truly talented and committed people. On a daily basis I am struck by the acuity of their analytical skills, the diligence with which they pursue the highly detailed and technical work that they perform, and above all the unforced devotion they exhibit to their roles as unsung stewards of the taxpayers’ money. In the context, then, of a conspicuously remarkable team in OAS Region VII, Ms. McNulty stands out for the simple though laudable fact that she exhibits all of these qualities at a depth and breadth that elevates her above her almost all of her peers. She is extremely perceptive and energetic in her auditing work; she has the self-discipline to stick with an extremely complex issue until she has understood and resolved it to her satisfaction; she deploys her sharply analytical mind and inquisitive nature to its maximum advantage; and she never for one moment loses sight of the importance of integrity and openness in her dealings with auditees, co-workers, and supervisors.

There is more. While my own association with auditing and auditors dates only from 2006, that time has been sufficient to help me understand that as our world, our interconnected global economy, and our technology have grown steadily more sophisticated and intricate, the very nature of auditing itself has likewise grown, expanded, and multiplied upon itself. In the face of these phenomena, very talented and capable auditors have from time to time struggled a bit to keep up, especially insofar as technology is concerned. To her very great credit, Ms. McNulty has seized every opportunity—both in the workplace and in particular on her own time—to expand her own capabilities and competencies, not only in professional development as an auditor, but also in acquiring high levels of proficiency in a wide range of software applications. Her unhesitating willingness to set these challenges for herself and then to meet and exceed them—her willingness, that is, to consciously venture outside her comfort zone—speaks admirably and accurately of her professionalism, her work ethic, and her dedication to the organization and its needs. After all, the undeniable fact is that in enhancing her own abilities and competencies in these ways, Ms. McNulty has also—as she is of course well aware—immeasurably contributed to the betterment of the organization as a whole.

This same positive judgment can be applied to Ms. McNulty’s communication skills. Both verbally and in writing, she is a precise and elegant communicator. In auditing, each of these is as important as the other. During on-site work as well as telephonic and electronic interactions with auditees, it is critically important that an auditor be able to express herself clearly, crisply, and professionally. An inexact and unfocused question or request for information, for instance, will in all likelihood produce an imprecise and unhelpful response, which can often engender mutual frustration and tension and will almost always result in time delays and wasted resources. A number of individuals have commented to me over the years that Ms. McNulty is particularly adept at expressing herself clearly and precisely, thereby minimizing or eliminating the possibility of such unhelpful outcomes. The importance of this attribute cannot be overstated: audits are of course inherently adversarial in nature (nobody wants to be audited), and it takes a particular kind of personality, and a great deal of patience and self-discipline, to deal positively with auditees who are entirely capable of being recalcitrant, evasive, or downright hostile. An auditor’s best ways to work through these dynamics are by remaining professional and unemotional, by communicating precisely, and by refusing to be intimidated and refusing to back down from whatever inconvenient truths the auditor has discovered that have caused the auditee to react in the way that he or she has. Ms. McNulty amply and consistently demonstrates that she understands this fact and acts accordingly.

By the same token, Ms. McNulty is unquestionably a fine writer, whose submitted work is routinely well-organized, clearly conveyed, and highly persuasive. It is important in this regard to note that I often do not know which staff members have crafted an audit report, or part of an audit report, when a manager sends it to me for editing. Again and again over the years, I have edited a piece of written work, commented positively on its near-flawless quality, and then been told “Kellie wrote that.” She has an admirable ability to organize and present complex and multi-layered material (and it is with respect to organization and structure that most of her peers have their greatest difficulty), to craft smooth and fluid sentences and paragraphs, and to ask me questions and convey suggestions regarding ways to strengthen those abilities even further. It is not going too far to say that if everybody in OAS Region VII had these attributes, developed to the extent that they are in Ms. McNulty, then I might well be out of a job.

More to the point, I will add here that Ms. McNulty is a personable and engaging co-worker and a loyal, positive influence in the office. She is, however, subject to a tightly restricted career ladder in our organization, the effect of which is to make promotion very difficult. More specifically, the fact that our truly remarkable management team in OAS Region VII has not seen a departure or retirement this decade (and may not see one until next decade) has inevitably created a cascade effect in which senior auditors who are qualified to advance to the next level cannot do so unless they move out of Region (which none want to do), which in turn makes it difficult for all of our qualified auditors-in-charge, such as Ms. McNulty, to be promoted to senior auditor. Speaking then just for myself, I will—as I recently told Ms. McNulty, when she asked me to write this letter—miss her if she does leave us. (When she asked me why I said that, I replied, in all honesty, that it is because she pushes me—she is willing to ask incisive questions and offer alternative suggestions (many of which I end up accepting) to some of the stylistic edits I make to her written work—and I both like and admire her willingness to do that.) I will indeed miss her and her contributions to our work in this Region, but I certainly understand her desire to continue advancing and to put new challenges in front of herself. Our loss will undeniably be your gain.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to comment about this truly exceptional individual; I recommend her to you as enthusiastically and wholeheartedly as I possibly can.

Sincerely,

Christopher M. Riley

Writer/Editor

DHHS/OIG/OAS/Region VII