GAQC 2023 Auditing State and Local Governments Lightning Round

CPA

Tonya received her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Portland State University (PSU), followed by a Master of Science in Financial Analysis. She specializes in and has extensive experience performing and managing governmental audits. She is a reviewer for the GFOA Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting Award program and has assisted several of our clients in their initial submission and retention of the award. Tonya is a current Board Member of the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA). She is also a Co-Chair of the Accounting Standards Review Committee for the Oregon Government Finance Officers Association, former Chair and current member of the OSCPA Government Strategic Committee, Oregon Board of Accountancy Complaints Committee and PSU’s Accounting Advisory Board Member. Tonya is a licensed CPA in Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. Tonya is responsible for training new staff who assist in governmental and compliance audits and supervising managers, seniors, entry level staff and interns. She created the firm’s financial statement template, GASB 68 template, and is currently in charge of training numerous clients to use the template for financial statement preparation. Tonya and her husband are parents to two active kids. They enjoy spending time watching the kids participate in various sports, going to the sand dunes, and spending time on her family’s cattle ranch. She enjoys being actively involved as a committee member in various organizations including Forward Stride a non-profit therapeutic equine program which provides, promotes, and supports quality therapeutic recreation services for children and adults.

CPA

Michelle Watterworth is a partner with Plante Moran. Michelle’s responsibilities involve oversight of the technical aspects of Plante Moran’s governmental practice including implementation and continued compliance with auditing and governmental accounting standards as well as responsibilities for training the staff serving in this industry. Michelle also leads the various technical client training efforts, including live and webinar-based training opportunities focused on providing easy-to-understand applications of the governmental accounting standards. In addition, Michelle is a nationally recognized speaker on GASB matters and a member of the professional standards committee of the Michigan chapter of the GFOA. Michelle also serves as the co-leader of Plante Moran’s single audit practice. As such, she is ultimately responsible for staff training, client education and oversight of approximately 500 single audits that the firm issues annually. Michelle’s 20 years of experience working with clients in the governmental industry, providing audit and consulting services to various cities, pension systems, townships, villages, and special purpose governments, enables her to provide deep expertise to the clients she serves going beyond the role of a traditional auditor. In particular, Michelle has significant experience working with governmental pension systems and has led the implementation of GASB 67 and GASB 68 firm wide.