Martin J. Benison, Ellen Gallagher, Kimberly Jones, Sandra Richtermeyer – NEIAF/AGA BOSTON CHAPTER2021 VIRTUAL WINTER SEMINAR – MARCH 25TH

Martin J. Benison Related seminars and products: 1

AGA Boston Chapter

Marty currently serves in Accenture’s State and Local Government Practice. He works with State and large City and County governments in the area of operations and management advising these entities on application improvements and business process redesign.Marty had a 30-yearcareer in state government before joining Accenture serving as Comptroller of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from January of 1999 until May of 2015.  Marty was responsible for the operations and oversight of the Commonwealth financial systemsand ensuring financial compliance andevidence of that compliance through the CAFR and SingleAudit on behalf of the Commonwealth. Throughout his careerhe focused on using technology to improves processes across government while maintaining high levels of internal controls. He is Past President of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT) and Past President of the National Association of State Comptrollers (NASC). He also served as a public member of the Professional Ethics Executive Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts (AICPA) from 2001 through 2014.  He served was chairman of the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (GASAC) from 2010 through 2015.Marty holds a B.A. in Economics from Boston College and a Masters’ Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Ellen Gallagher Related seminars and products: 1

Ellen Gallagher has worked for the federal government since 1995, originally as a trial attorney for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service in New York City and in San Antonio, Texas, and later as Special Counsel in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office of the Chief Counsel (2003-2012). In 2007, she served as a Congressional Fellow for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where her assignments included helping draft Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. From 2012-2013, Ms. Gallagher served as Senior Ombudsman within the DHS Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman.  She left that position to become a Policy Advisor in the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. In the fall of 2014, Ms. Gallagher first began reporting whistleblower concerns regarding the widespread use of solitary confinement in immigration detention.  In complaints filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Ms. Gallagher sought to bring attention to ongoing violations of law and policy that pose a danger of imminent harm, particularly to mentally ill and other vulnerable detainees.  Her whistleblowing from 2014-2019 also involved repeated outreach to members of House and Senate oversight committees.  In the absence of meaningful action to address these concerns, Ms. Gallagher agreed to go on the record with the press.  In May of 2019, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in conjunction with the Intercept, NBC News and Univision, published the results of an extensive investigation on the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention which featured her accounts.  These articles have prompted additional scrutiny by Members of Congress, legislation to restrict the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention, and other calls for reform.  With the assistance of the Government Accountability Project, Ms. Gallagher has further published articles in the Washington Post and Ms. Magazine. 

Ms. Gallagher works as a Senior Advisor in the DHS OIG Office of Inspector General.  She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, where she teaches a course entitled, Immigration and the American Ideal.  Before entering on duty for the federal government, Ellen received a Skadden Fellowship to work in New York City, where she represented children with disabilities in the public school system. Ellen earned her B.A. from Harvard College in 1984 and her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1991.

Kimberly Jones Related seminars and products: 1

An engaging and entertaining public speaker, Kimberly Jones is the CGFM and Education Programs Manager for AGA. In her roles, she promotes AGA’s Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM) certification, and markets and manages AGA’s onsite & virtual training programs. She’s been with AGA for over nine years and is the author of two published novels.

Sandra Richtermeyer, Ph.D Related seminars and products: 1

Sandra Richtermeyer, Ph.D., CMA, CPA(inactive), is Dean of the Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She works actively with a variety of professional organizations and is a frequent speaker on professional development, governance, risk management, internal control, and anti-corruption.  Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of corporate governance, accounting information systems, and nonprofit and governmental accounting. She has authored many articles in academic and practitioner publications. Her research publications have featured many topics including technology enablement, enterprise systems, nonprofit accounting, and professional issues for accountants.

In addition to her academic background, she worked as a CPA for many years in Denver, Colorado, with a practice focus on compliance, assurance, and systems implementation. Prior to becoming dean at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, she was professor and chair of accountancy and associate dean of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Prior to that, she was an assistant and associate professor at the University of Wyoming, where she also completed her B.S. degree. She is proud to be a fourth generation Wyomingite, as well as a “Triple Buff” as she received her M.S., MBA, and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.

Richtermeyer has held many leadership roles in a variety of organizations over the past 20 years. She is an active board member in a variety of organizations and regularly consults with and provides training for boards on governance best practices and leadership challenges. In addition, she coaches CEOs with an emphasis on improving working relationships and communications between board members, the CEO, and their senior management teams.

Over the past 20 years she has held many roles at IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) at the local, regional, national and global level.  She continues to serve as a director on the IMA global board where she served as Global Chair from 2010-2011.  From 2012-2018 she represented IMA® on the Committee on Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). She also currently serves on IMA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Volunteer Leadership Board Committee. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Society of CPAs and also the Educational Foundation for Women in Accounting.  She previously served as chair of the Ohio Society of CPAs Executive Board (2017-2018), President of the American Accounting Association (AAA) Accounting Program Leaders Group (2016-2017), President of the AAA Ohio Region and President of Beta Alpha Psi International (2017-2018).   She served on the U.S Comptroller General’s Green Book Advisory Council from 2013-2018 and currently serves on the United Nations Internal Control Advisory Committee.  

Richtermeyer has also served on many technical academic advisory boards for organizations such as Microsoft, Oracle, and PeopleSoft. She has received many teaching and leadership awards and is the 2013-2014 Ohio Accounting Educator of the Year and the 2011 American Women’s Society of CPAs Educator of the Year.

One of the areas she is most passionate about is women’s leadership development, and over the past 10 years she has enjoyed working with various women’s groups, giving presentations, and most importantly, listening, learning, and encouraging change and growth, both in the U.S. and abroad.