Authors and Editors

  • Jerry Ashworth, Thompson Grants

    Jerry Ashworth is the editor at Thompson Grants. Mr. Ashworth has served as the editor of these publications for more than 17 years. He has more than 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, City of Bowie, Md.

    Jesse Buggs is the director of the Office of Grant Development and Administration for the City of Bowie, Md. He is a member of the Maryland Efficient Grant Application Council and Thompson Information Services’ Grants Editorial Advisory Board. He is the past Chairman of the Metropolitan Council of Governments Housing Directors Advisory Committee and a member of the Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade Connected DMV Social Inclusion Workgroup. He is a frequently requested speaker for the National Grants Management Association and the Grants Professional Association.

  • Cornelia Chebinou, NASACT

    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, the recent COVID aid legislation and is a past co-chair of the National Grants Partnership and International Consortium of Public Finance Managers.

  • Patrice Davis, Grant Works Consulting

    Patrice Davis is the founder and CEO of Grants Works, a government grant consulting company. Grants Works’ services include management consulting, government grant research, grant management, compliance assessments, and federal grant management training. She has managed multimillion dollar government grants at several nonprofit organizations including The Carter Center where she was the Grant Compliance Officer and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) where she was the Senior Director, Federal Grants Programs and Performance and managed a $54 million federal grant portfolio and oversaw monitoring of over 1,400 subrecipients. She has served as a fiscal consultant during site monitoring visits of state agency recipients of federal grants and conducted multiple training sessions on how to manage federal grants. In addition to working with Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I and II grantees as a federal employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she has also successfully acquired and managed $131 million in primary and sub-awards from several large foundations, corporations, and 18 local, state, and federal agencies. Ms. Davis has managed grants as a recipient, subrecipient and pass-through entity. She has a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management from University of Denver and a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Morgan State University. She is a member of the National Grants Management Association, Grant Professionals Association, and Georgia Grant Professionals Association.

  • Toni DeMaglio, Former Grants Compliance Officer 

    For over 20 years, Toni DeMaglio served as a compliance officer at two institutions of higher education, her primary function was to ensure that grants were maintained in the state of audit readiness, advising the institutions on potential risk factors, and developing and improving processes and internal controls to ensure compliance. She previously served as a project director on a variety federal and state grants.

  • Dan Durst, BDO

    Dan Durst is a Managing Director in BDO’s Industry Specialty Services Group and has 15 years of experience in various accounting and compliance issues related to federal government contracts, grants and cooperative agreements. Dan’s areas of expertise include cost accounting standards (CAS), uniform administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements for federal awards to nonfederal entities (Uniform Guidance), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), and Defense Grant and Agreement Regulatory System (DGARS). Dan is also well-versed in various levels of audit support including business system reviews, single audit and Inspector General audits.

  • Darla Fera, Thompson Grants

    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, Pierce Transit

    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 Administrator for Pierce Transit, a nonprofit organization that works to improve people's quality of life by providing safe, reliable, innovative, and useful transportation services that are locally based and regionally connected. 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.

  • James Huycke, Moraine Park Technical College

    James D. Huycke, MSW, is the grants coordinator at Moraine Park Technical College in Wisconsin. He has 30 years of experience in pre- and post-award related work, and more than 20 years in adjunct instruction, most of that involving research methods.

  • Dismas Locaria, Esq., Venable, LLP

    Dismas (Diz) Locaria is a partner with the law firm Venable LLP. 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, kanoco

    Karen Norris is nationally recognized in the grants community as a consultant and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Kanoco Consulting - a Karen Norris Company in Gaithersburg, MD and Lewes, DE. She has experience in grants and contracts for more than 30 years, previously as a grants administrator for educational institutions in the State of Maryland, as an author and managing editor for grants publications at a national publishing house, and currently as a consultant. Norris has served on the Board of Directors of professional associations and editorial advisory boards. She is an invited annual presenter at national conferences and regional training events, including the Grant Professionals Association, National Grants Management Association, Management Concepts, California Governor's Grants Office, and others. Norris advises clients and conducts webinars, virtual classes, and onsite grants training. The White House Conference on Aging published her white paper about health grants. Norris has provided testimony to the Maryland General Assembly supporting legislation about the de minimis indirect rate, and has responded to information requests about the grants process from the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Norris has served as a federal reviewer for the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

     

  • Jack Reagan, UHY LLP

    Jack Reagan is a partner with UHY LLP, a certified public accounting firm with offices throughout the country. Jack has over 30 years of experience in the audit and evaluation of federal, state and local government and not-for-profit financial statements, internal controls, and accounting and financial management systems and operations. He has overseen numerous projects demonstrating his extensive knowledge of accounting, financial management, auditing and budget to include developing and revising operating policies and procedures for federal and state and local government agencies and designing or evaluating financial reporting internal controls.

  • Eric Russell, CIA, CGAP, CGMS, MPA

    Eric Russell is a professional auditor and management consultant with more than 15 years of experience, including serving as a municipal finance executive, government auditor and consultant, local government budget and legislative research professional, and nonprofit board member. He currently serves a director with ENJ PLLC where he is responsible for government regulatory compliance, process improvement, and public sector management consulting engagements. Eric previously served as deputy finance director with the city of Columbus, Ohio, responsible for grants management, facilities management, construction management, real estate management, and fleet management. He also spent 13 years with Crowe LLP where he served as a senior manager responsible for governmental audits, internal audits and consulting engagements. Eric currently serves as president of the Board of Directors of the National Grants Management Association and as a member of the Thompson Grants Advisory Board. He is a Certified Grants Management Specialist, Certified Internal Auditor, and Certified Government Auditing Professional. Eric holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Stetson University and a Master of Public Administration degree from The Ohio State University.

  • Sandra Swab, Consultant

    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 worked as a consultant as a subject matter expert for companies supporting government management systems initiatives and 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 Kesslar, Esq., The Bruman Group, PLLC

    Tiffany Kesslar, as a Partner at The Bruman Group, PLLC, advises clients on federal grants compliance, and conducts trainings and mock monitoring visits of non-federal entities for fiscal and programmatic grants compliance. She also works with clients and provides audit defense on the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget uniform guidance and other administrative regulations..

  • Renotta Young, Columbia University, New York City, N.Y.

    Renotta Young 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 serves as Deputy Controller at Columbia University in the City of New York where she directs both domestic and international government and nongovernment regulatory audits related to research, tax and labor unions. Prior to joining Columbia University, Renotta was Director of Corporate Tax at the Mayo Clinic headquarters in Rochester, Minn. She also has held the position of Director of Tax Compliance at the University of Illinois where she developed university-wide tax policy and procedures. Renotta serves as a President and CEO the Brigadier General Charles Young Foundation, working with the U.S. National Parks Service on activities related to the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, and has served on the boards Her Justice, (formerly known as InMotion) a nonprofit in the City of New York, the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, and as President of the Rochester Better Chance nonprofit in Rochester Minnesota.