One of the highest honors a TEI member can receive is the Institute’s President’s Award. At the 75th Midyear Conference in Washington, D.C., in March, TEI gave the President’s Award to Cathleen (Cathy) Stevens.
Here’s a summary of Stevens’ impressive career and TEI service, as described by TEI’s international president, Josephine Scalia, in nominating her for this award:
Cathy has been a member of TEI since 2006, and an active member of the Chicago Chapter and the Institute. Cathy retired from Brunswick Corporation in July 2024. During her career, she spent time at companies such as Arthur Andersen, S&C Electric Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Bally Total Fitness.
Cathy’s contributions at TEI’s chapter level include service as chapter president (2018–2019) and chapter representative (2013–2015) for the Chicago Chapter. She also held other roles for the Chicago Chapter that included service as chapter vice president (2017–2018), chapter secretary (2016–2017), and chapter treasurer (2015–2016). Cathy was also the chapter-level committee chair for the IRS Administrative Affairs Committee (2019–2023) and the State and Local Tax Committee (2010–2015).
Cathy has also accomplished notable service at the Institute level. She was the regional vice president for Region 6 from 2020 to 2022 and was a member of the Board of Directors from 2013 to 2015. She also served as a member of the Federal Tax Committee (2020–2024), IRS Administrative Affairs Committee (2019–2024), and State and Local Tax Committee (2008–2024), serving as chair of the State and Local Tax Committee from 2008 to 2010.
Cathy had a significant impact through her work as chair and as a member of the State and Local Tax Committee. Her organizational skills and ability to build consensus enabled her to secure prominent speakers for the committee’s sessions at the Midyear and Annual Conferences. Cathy’s creative thinking and “thinking outside the box” were clearly represented in her proposal from the State and Local Tax Committee to the Federation of Tax Administrators related to the reporting of federal tax audit adjustments to the states via an Excel spreadsheet rather than preparing amended tax returns. South Carolina adopted this proposal, and although other states did not follow, it demonstrated how TEI was always thinking about improving tax administration at all levels of tax.
In addition, Cathy individually worked with various state legislatures to get tax laws changed to advance good tax policy. Cathy worked with the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce in Oklahoma and with local business management to get an Oklahoma law changed because Cathy thought it was unfair the state rewarded only companies that came into a community with the promise of business expansion and investment, as opposed to incentivizing companies to stay if they ran into hard times. She succeeded in getting the law changed. She also worked on the refundable Wisconsin R&D tax credit with a coalition of Wisconsin manufacturing companies to increase the amount of the credit, which was quite a novel idea in tax policy.
Cathy also participated in several TEI task forces and initiatives. I had the pleasure of serving with Cathy as a workstream lead on International President James Kennedy’s strategic plan, Choosing the Path Forward. Cathy and I led the chapter development and relations workstream, which made recommendations about integrating the Institute, region, and chapters and expanding the role of the Institute’s secretary. We established regular town hall meetings as a result of this initiative, which have since evolved into regular chapter roundtables. In 2010, Cathy participated in the Vision 2020 Task Force looking into how TEI should change and react to a changing work environment and reduced tax department budgets.
Cathy’s innate creative ability, practical sense in solving issues and recommending solutions, tax knowledge, extremely pleasant demeanor, ability to de-escalate tense negotiations or spirited opinionated and passionate tax discussions, strong work ethic, and leadership skills to commandeer productive working groups all contributed to her successful tax professional career at Brunswick Corporation and to her volunteer work at the highest levels of TEI.
