OasisLMS

Kathleen Kizior

Kathleen is a highly accomplished accounting and financial management professional with more than 25 years of experience serving nonprofit, governmental, and federally funded organizations. She specializes in providing strategic accounting, financial reporting, and outsourced finance leadership services, helping organizations strengthen financial operations, improve internal controls, and maintain compliance with complex regulatory requirements. As a trusted advisor, Kathleen works closely with executive leadership and governing boards to enhance financial transparency, build sustainable accounting processes, and support informed decision-making. In addition to her accounting expertise, Kathleen has extensive experience managing federally funded programs, with deep knowledge of Uniform Guidance requirements, cost allocation methodologies, indirect cost rates, grant financial management, and compliance monitoring. She is skilled at leveraging technology and process improvement strategies to streamline accounting operations, improve data quality, and create scalable financial management solutions.Kathleen is also a national speaker and thought leader who regularly presents on accounting best practices, financial management, internal controls, audit readiness, grant compliance, and organizational risk management.

LuAnn Garza

LuAnn Garza, MBA, CGMS, serves as Director of Finance and Research Administration at the David Evans Shaw Institute at the University of New England. With nearly 20 years of experience in higher education, she brings a practical perspective on navigating complex grant requirements and aligning research, financial management, and institutional priorities. LuAnn is advancing an embedded Senior Research Administrator model that strengthens collaboration, clarifies accountability, and bridges the gap between central administration and research teams to foster a sustainable culture of compliance.

William Boyer

William Boyer is an accomplished financial and economic development professional with 20 years of experience in capital improvement project management, financial oversight, regulatory compliance, and securing state and federal funding. As Project and Compliance Manager and CFO for the Port of Pensacola, he oversees financial operations, budget development, and grant compliance. His leadership advances strategic infrastructure investments, maximizes public funding opportunities, and supports sustainable economic growth and operational excellence for the City of Pensacola.

Mara Ash

Mara Ash has more than 28 years of experience helping public-sector organizations strengthen internal controls, grants management, compliance, financial management, policies and procedures, and operational effectiveness. Her experience includes designing and evaluating internal control frameworks; conducting risk and control assessments; developing and revising policies and procedures; identifying and evaluating key controls; and helping organizations translate regulatory requirements into practical, sustainable business processes. Mara is an experienced national trainer and author whose internal control training emphasizes practical application—helping professionals understand not simply whether a control exists, but what risk it addresses, how it should operate, and whether organizational policies, procedures, and practices actually support it.

Taylor Burandt

Taylor Burandt is a Managing Consultant in Guidehouse’s State and Local Government practice with experience in grants management and compliance, organizational assessment, process improvement, and program implementation. She has supported the City of Baltimore with federal grants oversight, compliance, closeout, and corrective action management. Taylor brings a practical perspective on helping organizations turn audit findings into accountable, sustainable improvements to grants operations.

Ashley Meyer

Ashley Meyer serves as Grants Director in the City of Baltimore Department of Finance’s Grants Management Office. She leads citywide grants management coordination and works with agency grant and fiscal staff to strengthen grant setup, award and subaward administration, compliance, reporting, training, and closeout practices. Her recent work has included advancing Workday-based grant and subaward processes, developing tools to improve Single Audit readiness, coordinating corrective action plan follow-up, supporting stronger subrecipient monitoring, and helping agencies apply consistent citywide guidance. For this session, Ashley will provide a practitioner’s perspective on translating compliance expectations into workable tools, system processes, and sustained agency adoption.

Angie Brown

Angie Brown is a Director at EisnerAmper and a member of the Government Services Sector. She leads the firm’s Grants Management focus area, offering strategic guidance and technical assistance across the full grant lifecycle—from pre-award planning to post-award monitoring and closeout. Angie specializes in federal grants administration, grant writing, budgeting, internal controls, and program management. She has an in-depth understanding of federal compliance requirements, including Uniform Guidance and other statutory and regulatory frameworks. In addition to her technical expertise, Angie provides tailored technical assistance to organizations, helping them build capacity, strengthen internal controls, improve compliance, and enhance program effectiveness. With strong leadership, communication, and time management skills, Angie is known for her strategic approach to problem solving and her ability to translate federal requirements into actionable, real-world practices that promote accountability, transparency, and impact. Most importantly, Angie is a proud dog mom to 4-year old wired haired Jack Russell Terrier Barkley.

Jalisa Thomas

Jalisa Thomas is a Caddo Parish native currently in her 15th year as a grant professional, with extensive experience in grant administration, fiscal management, program oversight, and regulatory compliance. Her educational background includes Accounting, Business Management, and Health Administration. Throughout her career, she has managed more than $200 million in federal, state, and local funding. Her experience includes managing funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Labor, Louisiana Supreme Court, and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP). Jalisa has coordinated and provided oversight for programs including Head Start and Early Head Start, YouthBuild, Title III, and Drug Court, as well as major federal relief funding through the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Her work also includes extensive engagement with the nonprofit community, working directly and indirectly with more than 80 nonprofit organizations throughout the Shreveport-Bossier region. Her experience combines fiscal accountability, programmatic oversight, compliance, and community partnership to support the effective administration of public funding.

Amanda Hoque

Amanda Hoque is a Texas-based grants administrator with more than seven years of experience supporting public-sector grant programs and federally funded initiatives at the state and local levels. She specializes in financial and programmatic monitoring, closeout, compliance, and process improvement and has extensive experience interpreting federal requirements, navigating and utilizing federal grant systems such as Grants.gov and state grant portals, and developing practical solutions to support successful grant administration. Since joining Hagerty, she has supported ARPA programs by developing closeout procedures, conducting monitoring activities, delivering project-specific training, and implementing tracking mechanisms to ensure compliance and timely completion of grant-funded activities. As a team lead, she oversees closeout reviews, trains staff and clients, monitors project milestones, and implements corrective strategies to maintain program performance and compliance.

Helena Emenalo

Helena Emenalo is a grants compliance and technical assistance professional with more than five years of experience managing and monitoring federally funded programs administered by FEMA, the US Department of the Treasury, and the US HUD. She possesses a deep understanding of Uniform Guidance (2 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Part 200) and federal regulations and specializes in program monitoring, desk reviews, compliance assessments, and providing technical assistance to state and local entities. As a Managing Associate with Hagerty, she plays a key role in the State of Maryland’s oversight of the SLFRF program, serving as the primary point of contact for six state agencies and leading monitoring activities, compliance reviews, and issue resolution efforts. She has developed tools and resources to strengthen grant administration and has delivered webinars on grant closeout procedures and internal controls to enhance compliance readiness.

Joseph DeSantis

Joey DeSantis is a Senior Manager within EY's Government & Public Sector practice with extensive experience helping federal, state, and local government organizations modernize grants management and financial operations. He advises public sector leaders on grants transformation strategies, operating model improvements, compliance and oversight, and technology-enabled modernization initiatives. His experience includes supporting large federal agencies and state and local governments in improving grant administration, strengthening financial stewardship, and enhancing mission delivery through process, data, and technology transformation. Joey focuses on helping organizations maximize the impact and accountability of public funding programs while improving operational efficiency and stakeholder experience.

William Treanor

William Treanor is a Manager within EY's Government & Public Sector practice specializing in grants modernization, operational transformation, and program delivery improvement. He works with public sector organizations to design and implement solutions that improve the administration and oversight of grant-funded programs. William has experience supporting large federal agencies as well as state and local governments in areas including grants operations, business process improvement, technology implementation, stakeholder engagement, and organizational change. His work helps organizations modernize legacy processes, improve program performance, and enhance service delivery for grant recipients and stakeholders.