Des Moines Chapter Aga Spring Training Seminar

DES MOINES CHAPTER AGA SPRING TRAINING SEMINAR

Speaker Biographies

Karen Austin David L. Cotton Melinda J. DeCorte David Johnston Wendy Morton-Huddleston Lance Noe Kraig Paulsen Rob Sand

Karen Austin

Chief of Staff, State Treasurer’s Office

Karen Austin serves as the Chief of Staff for State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald. Karen earned her B.A. degree in sociology and political science from Simpson College in 1990, her Certified Public Managers certification (CPM) in 2008 from Drake University and her MBA from the University of Iowa in 2015. She has worked in the Treasurer’s Office since 1990, was promoted to deputy treasurer in 2003 and chief of staff in 2019.

David L. Cotton, CPA, CFE, CGFM

Cotton & Company Chairman

Dave Cotton is chairman of Cotton & Company LLP, Certified Public Accountants, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Dave is the vice-chair of AGA’s Professional Ethics Board. Dave chaired the Fraud Risk Management Task Force, sponsored by COSO and ACFE and is a principal author of the COSO-ACFE Fraud Risk Management Guide. Dave has testified as an expert in governmental accounting, auditing, and fraud issues before the United States Court of Federal Claims and other administrative and judicial bodies. Dave was the recipient of the ACFE 2018 Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year Award (“presented to a CFE who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fraud examination … based on their contributions to the ACFE, to the profession, and to the community”).

Melinda J. DeCorte, CPA, CFE, CGFM, PMP

Partner, Cotton & Company

Melinda serves as the Chair of the AGA’s Professional Ethics Board; as the representative for the Dallas chapter for the AGA’s National Council of Chapters (NCC); and as the Chapter Director for Area 3 on AGA’s National Governing Board (NGB).

Melinda DeCorte has more than 20 years of accounting, auditing and government financial management experience. Ms. DeCorte is experienced in applying applicable OMB, GAO, and AICPA methodologies and requirements and ensuring that audit teams comply with professional standards. Prior to her career in public accounting, she served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army, Finance Corps. She has authored several articles on professional ethics in the AGA Journal of Government Financial Management and regularly speaks on ethics, audit, and internal control at professional development conferences and training seminars.

David Johnston

Lead Planner, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Dave Johnston has been with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management for 17 years. He is the lead planner, and has worked numerous disasters, including the 2007 blizzard, 2008 tornados and flooding, 2011 sustained flood stage on the Missouri River, Lake Delhi dam break, and what he is presenting on today: the 2020 pandemic response.

Wendy Morton-Huddleston, CGFM, PMP

AGA National President, 2020-2021

Wendy is an Advisory Principal and Risk Business Line Leader in Grant Thornton Public Sector LLC. Wendy has over 25 years of experience providing insights to federal, state, local and not- for-profit clients. Wendy’s professional experience is in enterprise risk management, business process optimization, financial management and strategic planning. Wendy served as President of the 2,000 member Washington, D.C. chapter of AGA from 2016-2017. Wendy chairs the 17 member AGA National Governing Board and is an inaugural member of the Council for the Advancement of Women and National Council of Chapters.

Wendy holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Norfolk State University, an MBA in Management and a MS in Finance from the University of Maryland and an Executive Leadership Certificate from Cornell University.

Lance Noe

Director, Center for Professional Studies

Lance Noe serves as the Director of the Center for Professional Studies, College of Business and Public Administration at Drake University. In that role he develops specialized certificate and professional programming for public, nonprofit and private sector organizations. He also serves as a member of the CBPA faculty teaching in the Drake MPA and MBA programs and is the lead instructor for the Iowa Certified Public Manager® professional designation. His areas of teaching, consulting, research and publications include public policy, grant writing, fund raising, state and local government, conflict management and negotiation and leadership. His education includes degrees and post graduate work at Iowa State University, Florida Atlantic University and Drake University.

Kraig Paulsen

Director, Iowa Department of Revenue

Kraig Paulsen was appointed Director of the Iowa Department of Revenue on February 25, 2019 by Governor Kim Reynolds. Previously, he was director of both Supply Chain Initiatives and Business Analytics Initiatives at Iowa State University’s Ivy College of Business. He also is a past commissioner at the Iowa Department of Transportation and served in the Iowa legislature for 14 years and as Speaker of the House for 5 years. Paulsen received his bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University, his Master of Business Administration from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a law degree from the University of Iowa. He honorably served our country in the United States Air Force where among other duties he served as a Missile Combat Crew Commander, an Operations Group Senior Weapon System Instructor, Flight Commander and as a Squadron Director of Operations in a training squadron. Additionally, Kraig has worked as a production supervisor in a manufacturing plant, was in the private practice of law and as corporate counsel at CRST International in Cedar Rapids.

Rob Sand

Auditor of State

Rob was born and raised in Decorah, Iowa. He found a passion for public service in high school, when he worked for two years to build a public skate park. He graduated from Decorah High School in 2001. After high school, Rob attended and graduated from Brown University. There, he built a reputation for being able to work productively with individuals of all political persuasions. He built a class on political diversity that led to the creation of an institute for productive political discourse that still thrives today. He also published or presented research in three areas and taught at a reading camp for children. While there, Rob was named a Harry S Truman Scholar. After college, Rob chose to return to Iowa to attend the University of Iowa Law School on a full merit scholarship. He was the first student ever to be both a President of the Iowa Student Bar Association and an Editor-in-Chief of a law journal. He also led a student volunteer effort to commit over 1,000 hours of volunteer labor to cleaning and rebuilding Cedar Rapids after the 2008 floods. Before graduating he was awarded the Hancher-Finkbine Medallion, the University of Iowa’s highest award. As an Assistant Attorney General, Rob focused on prosecuting financial crime. He successfully prosecuted attorneys, investment advisors, embezzlers, and those who exploit the elderly. Rob additionally prosecuted a wide range of other crimes, including sexual abuse, robbery, murder, attempted murder, and perjury.