Jerry Ashworth is the editor of Thompson's Federal Grants Management Handbook, Federal Grants Development Handbook and the Single Audit Information Service. Mr. Ashworth has served as the editor of these publications for more than 15 years. He has almost 30 years of journalism experience, including the last 25 years in the newsletter industry covering a range of topics from federal grants and single audits to electronic commerce and environmental issues. Mr. Ashworth has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism degree from the University of Georgia and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He can be connected with via LinkedIn.

Jesse Buggs is the director of the Office of Grant Development and Administration for the City of Bowie, Maryland and the Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Housing Directors Advisory Committee. He serves on the Steering Committee of the National Grants Partnership and the Grants Editorial Advisory Board of Thompson Information Services.

Cornelia Chebinou has been the director of the Washington office of the National Association of Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT) since August 1999. She serves as the primary liaison with Congress, the administration, federal agencies and other associations on national issues of intergovernmental finance while representing state governmental positions; providing information to the membership; and assisting in the development of policy. She has served as the point person for state finance officials on implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is a past co-chair of the National Grants Partnership.

Dan Durst is a Manager at Capital Edge Consulting, with extensive experience in various accounting and compliance issues related to Federal government contracts and grants. Dan’s areas of expertise include Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal awards to non-Federal entities (Uniform Guidance), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). Dan is also well-versed in various levels of audit support including DCAA, Single Audit, and Inspector General audits

Darla Fera is the long-standing editor of the Guide to Managing Federal Grants for Colleges and Universities and its corresponding Federal Agency Weekly e-newsletter, which tracks federal grants policy issuances, rulemaking, guidance development and OIG reports and publications, as well as the editor for the two editions of A Practical Guide to Federal Grants Management - From Solicitation Through Audit. She is a member of the team presenting training and compliance webinars on federal grants management topics offered by Federal Fund Management Advisor. Given her editing experience, Ms. Fera recently took over editorial duties for Thompson's Guide to U.S. Food Labeling Law and Investment Management Compliance Guide subscriptions.

Wendi Gephart develops organization-specific grants management tools, training, and policies and procedures to create and maintain internal control systems and compliance with ever-changing funder regulations. She has worked as a grant writer and grants manager, grounded in over 25 years of practical experience, as both a grantor and grantee. Throughout her career, she has based her practice on funder regulations, rules, and policies, most recently as the Grants and Contracts Manager for Education, Training and Research Associates (ETR) a nonprofit organization that works to improve health and increase opportunities for youth, families, and communities. Additionally, Ms. Gephart works on projects focusing on capacity-building through external funding. Ms. Gephart has a 95% grant writing success rate, with over $115 million total in funding, from numerous federal, state, and private sources, including grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. She has managed several state and regional large grantor programs. Ms. Gephart has served on committees for the Grant Professional Association and currently serves on committees for the National Grants Management Association and on Thompson Grants’ Editorial Advisory Board.

Elizabeth Gombash is the CEO/Managing Member of G Team Communication, LLC, an education consulting company that provides grant lifecycle support services to higher education clients. Liz is a nationally recognized authority in grant writing and grants management, rooted in over 30 years of practical experience. She has spent most of her grants career working in higher education, most recently retiring as Associate Vice President of Strategic Grants Planning and Development at Seminole State College of Florida, but also having worked as a federal grants management specialist. In addition to grant writing and strategic concept development, Liz specializes in developing institutional grants management capacity to keep pace with evolving funder regulations and interpretations relating to internal control systems and compliance. She has delivered numerous training workshops and conference presentations around the country, and written many articles for professional publications. Liz has served as a director on the national boards for the National Grants Management Association and the Council for Resource Development, and currently serves on Thompson Grants’ Editorial Advisory Board.

Jason Guilbeault is the Director of Post Award Services at Augusta University (formerly Georgia Regents University) where he oversees all aspects of the University’s post award operations, including the Single Audit. Mr. Guilbeault has 10 years of experience in financial accounting, cost accounting, and grant management and compliance at various organizations, including MAXIMUS Consulting and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His expertise includes post award grants management, Single Audit, indirect cost rates, internal controls, and process improvement. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board at Thompson Information Services and on the Society of Research Administrator’s Educational Programming Subcommittee. Mr. Guilbeault has given dozens of presentations at various conferences/ webinars and has published several articles for the SRA Catalyst Magazine.

James D. Huycke, MSW, has served as Associate Director of Grants at Moraine Park Technical College in Wisconsin since 2013. Previously, Jim was employed as a Grants Specialist at Lakeshore Technical College, and as the Interim Director of the Health Profession Opportunity Program at Gateway Technical College. Jim has a bachelor’s in psychology from Marquette University, and a master’s in social work at UW—Milwaukee. His experience in health and human services includes the roles of counselor, outreach specialist, psychotherapist, and social worker, as well as program and executive director. Jim has served as an adjunct instructor at Carroll, Carthage and Mount Mary Colleges, and at UW—Milwaukee

Dismas (Diz) Locaria is a partner of Venable's Government Contracts Group. His practice focuses on assisting government contractors in all aspects of working with the Federal government. He has extensive experience assisting clients with regulatory and contract/grant term counseling, compliance (including ethics and integrity compliance), responsibility matters, such as suspension, debarment and other contracting/grant exclusions, small business matters and GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracting.

Karen Norris is nationally recognized in the grants community as a consultant and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for kanoco - a Karen Norris Company in Gaithersburg, Md. She has experience in grants and contracts for more than 20 years, previously as a grants administrator for educational institutions in the State of Maryland and as an author and managing editor for national grants publications. She has served on the Board of Directors of professional associations and editorial advisory boards. She is an invited annual presenter at national conferences and training events, including the Grant Professionals Association, National Grants Management Association, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), Management Concepts, Thompson Information Services/Columbia Books, and the former Council for Resource Development (now CASE), among others. Ms. Norris conducts webinars, virtual classes, eLearning, and onsite grants training at national grants forums and for federal, state, local and territorial governments and other nonfederal entities. The White House Conference on Aging published her white paper about health grants. Ms. Norris has advised and responded to information requests about the grants process from the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management. Ms. Norris has served as a federal reviewer for the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Heather Pullen has been a grant industry professional for over 14 years. She started her career in the Florida Small Cities CDBG Program at the Florida Department of Community Affairs in 2006, and then moved to the private sector as the lead Grant Administrator for Langton Associates, Inc. in 2009. She has been an active member of the Grant Professionals Association since 2016 and the National Grants Management Association since 2018, and has provided government employee training on a variety of grant administration topics to several Florida local governments.

Kelly Rancourt, CPA is a principal in Clark Nuber’s Audit and Assurance Services Group. Kelly has over 12 years of experience performing audits for not-for-profit and healthcare organizations. She is a co-author of the annual Knowledge Based Audits of Health Care Entities published by CCH, a Wolters Kluwer Company. She is a member of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), and the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants (WSCPA), where she is Co-Chair of the WSCPA Not-for-Profit Conference Planning Committee.

Eric is a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Government Auditing Professional, and a Certified Grants Management Specialist. He holds a Master’s of Public Administration degree from The Ohio State University (OSU) and a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from Stetson University. He currently serves as President of the Board of Alumni Advisors at OSU’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, serves as Vice President of the National Grants Management Association’s Board of Directors, and serves as a member of Thompson Grants Advisory Board.

Sandra Swab is currently an independent consultant focusing on grants, data standards and performance measurement. She most recently retired from the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, where she served as its data manager and senior advisor for grants, performance and data standards. She has also worked as a senior manager at KPMG and SiloSmashers after having worked at the Office of Management and Budget as a senior policy analyst in the Office of Federal Financial Management. She has more than 30 years of government experience in grants, finance and program management.

Tiffany Winters Kesslar joined Brustein & Manasevit, PLLC, in July 2006 and became a partner in 2011. Ms. Winters assists her clients with both fiscal and programmatic aspects of federal education programs, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Ms. Winters also works with clients on the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars and other administrative regulations, such as the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) and the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR). Since joining the Firm, Ms. Winters has developed and conducted trainings on federal grants management and the fiscal and programmatic requirements under ESEA and IDEA. Ms. Winters also conducts mock monitoring of State educational agencies and local educational agencies for fiscal and programmatic compliance with ESEA Title I, Part A, Title II, Part A, Title III, Part A and IDEA Part B and Part C. Ms. Winters co-authored the IDEA: New Expectations for Schools and Students, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Edition and contributes to the 504 Compliance Handbook, published by Thompson Publishing Group. Ms. Winters also actively represents several charter schools in IDEA due process litigation.

Renotta L. Young is the deputy controller for Columbia University in New York City, N.Y. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University Of Illinois College Of Law at Champaign-Urbana and a Bachelor of Arts from Central State University in Ohio.  She currently is responsible for and directs both domestic and international government and nongovernment regulatory audits related to research and tax. Prior to joining Columbia University, Renotta was Director of Corporate Tax at the Mayo Clinic headquarters in Rochester, Minn., where she led the corporate-wide tax department and co-directed the parent company’s economic impact initiative during her tenure,