The Accounting Financial Women’s Alliance announced the recipients of the 2018 Women Who Count Awards during the annual Women Who Count Awards lunch Oct. 30 in Kansas City. The winners in each category are: Academic Professional: Dr. Deborah Seifert, chair of the Department of Accounting, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois; Emerging Leader: Lindsey Barth, accounting manager, BriovaRx Infusion Services, Kansas City; Industry Professional: Sharada Bhansali, co-founder, AccountantsWorld, Hauppauge, N.Y.; Public Practice Professional: Kay Gotshall, tax senior manager, Keiter, Glen Allen, Virginia; Small Business Professional: Kathryn Schrader, founder, Eaton Tax Business Services, Knoxville, Tennessee. (Read the full story.)

Anders CPAs + Advisors, St. Louis, provided staff to mentor the third-place team in the first 2018 Blockchain Challenge for Accountants: tax senior manager Lucas Luckett, audit supervisor Brian Loose, and technology systems engineer Alex Grosse. The competition was hosted by TrueUp, a gamified skill enhancement platform, and ran for two weeks, hosting 183 students from over 34 universities.