BECKER - Key Persons
Bethmara Kessler is a highly sought-after speaker and instructor who engages and inspires global audiences to think differently about their work. She is the former Head of Integrated Global Services for the Campbell Soup Company. Bethmara's career spans over 30 years in positions that include Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Audit Executive and Enterprise Risk Management Head. Her extensive experience also includes leadership roles in audit, risk management, information technology and corporate investigations in companies including EY, Avon Products, Nabisco, EMI Group, L Brands, The Fraud and Risk Advisory Group and Warner Music Group. Kessler also served as the Chair of the Board of Regents for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Given her extensive business experience, Bethmara has deep knowledge and passion in a number of areas that fuel her speaking engagements. As an anti-fraud expert, she teaches audiences about the realities and risks of fraud, introducing them to creative ways to prevent, detect, investigate and respond to it. Her journey from a staff auditor through audit and compliance leader to a disruptive, transformational C-suite executive gives her a unique vantage point to teach differentiated perspectives on the topics of audit, compliance, ethics and data analytics. As a leader highly invested in helping others learn and succeed, a number of Bethmara's most highly requested topics include leadership, career navigation, mentoring, diversity, inclusion and belonging.
Bethmara is a CFE and received a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Baruch College. The Financial Times, in partnership with OUTstanding, an LGBT network for business leaders and allies, named Bethmara to the Top 100 Leading LGBT Executives for three years. Bethmara was also recognized as one of New Jersey's Best 50 Women in Business by NJBIZ, New Jersey's leading business journal, and one of Pennsylvania Diversity Council's Most Powerful & Influential Women of Pennsylvania.
Charles Edward Falk collaborates with Becker to develop and deliver continuing professional education courses for tax professionals. Charles is a lawyer, Certified Public Accountant and a university professor. He advises U.S. and International law and accounting firms, and trust companies on domestic and international tax and other legal related matters. His international practice includes both inbound and outbound transactions to and from the United States including structuring commercial transactions, gift and estate planning for U.S. and non-resident aliens, U.S. beneficiaries of foreign trusts and asset protection planning. His domestic practice includes business formations, business reorganizations, taxation of financial instruments and securities, bankruptcy taxation, transfer tax planning, tax litigation and other IRS related matters. Charles holds three LLM degrees from the New York University: Taxation; Corporation Law (bankruptcy and securities law); and Trade Regulation (intellectual property and antitrust law). He is the author of several books on taxation, including two Tax Management Portfolios, is a frequent contributor to professional journals and is a speaker at tax and related conferences in the United States and abroad. He has taught at Rutgers University, Seton Hall University and Farleigh Dickinson University.
Cheryl has been coaching individuals and teams in corporations since 1992. Her client list ranges from Fortune 100/500 in accounting, financial, technology and pharmaceutical, to many smaller organizations. Cheryl's popular workshops include Developing YOUR Unique Leadership Style, Retaining Talented Employees, and The Executive Leadership Program for "high potentials" in organizations. Her workshop for sales organizations, ROCKET Your RESULTS was featured in FORTUNE magazine. She is certified in Hay Group's Emotional Intelligence 360 Degree Multi-rater assessment (ECI) and TTI's DISC Style and Behavior assessment.
Education
University of Wisconsin
Bachelor of Science in Economics
David Wang is an award-winning professor in both teaching and research who received his Ph.D. from Purdue University. He mainly teaches audit analytics, data mining, IT auditing and accounting information systems. He has been invited by conferences and universities around the world to discuss curriculum design and teaching strategies and is currently listed on the Fulbright Specialist Roster for developing an analytics curriculum for accounting programs. Dr. Wang's research interests are IT management and information security management. He is currently the 2nd most productive accounting information systems researcher based on Brigham Young University's accounting researcher ranking and his papers have more than 30,000 full-text downloads from the Science Direct academic network. Dr. Wang actively serves in the professional community as an editor, reviewer and conference/workshop coordinator. He was also the president of the American Accounting Association Midwest Region in 2020, as well as the 2018 KPMG James Marwick Professor in Residence.
Dr. Ann C. Dzuranin is the KPMG Endowed Professor of Accountancy at Northern Illinois University. She earned her B.S. from Fairleigh Dickinson University, her MBA from New York University and her Ph.D.from the University of South Florida. Ann is a CPA (NJ) with 15 years of experience in both public and corporate accounting.
Ann conducts behavioral research in management accounting decision-making and the ways in which accounting information systems interact with those decisions. Her publications include Issues in Accounting Education, Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Business Ethics, Management Accounting Quarterly, Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance and the Journal of Accounting Education.
Ann also received the 2018 American Accounting Association's Innovation in Accounting Education Award for her work in data analytics curriculum development. Ann's work in data analytics has resulted in invitations to present on Data Analytics and Accounting curriculum at both academic and professional conferences. Her presentations have reached over 1,800 people and her materials have been shared with more than 50 universities.
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of Decision Sciences at the Kelley School of Business
Dr. Wayne Winston is a Professor Emeritus of Decision Sciences at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics from M.I.T. and a PhD in operations research from Yale. He won more than 40 teaching awards at Indiana University. He has written more than a dozen books including "Marketing Analytics", "Data Analysis and Decision Making", "Operations Research", "Practical Management Science", "Office 365 Data Analysis and Business Modeling", and "Mathletics." Dr. Winston has taught classes and consulted for many leading global organizations. He is also a two-time Jeopardy! champion and has consulted for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks. His Linkedin class on Forecasting has been completed by over 250,000 learners. He has also published 30 research articles.
Elizabeth Lester Walsh, CPA, CITP has 30 years of management experience in accounting, systems innovation, and change management. She assisted clients on accounting and technology change initiatives. In addition, she authored various technical accounting courses for the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and Becker. Previously she served as Executive Director of Beta Alpha Psi, a not for profit accounting and information student honorary leadership organization located on more than 250 college campuses. Prior to being an Executive Director for Beta Alpha Psi, she was the Director of Knowledge Management for the AICPA in New York City. Elizabeth was also Director of Information Systems for a company in south central Virginia, leading that organization through a period of significant technological advancement. Earlier in her career she worked as a Senior Auditor for Arthur Andersen in Washington, DC, and she has taught classes at the college level. Elizabeth also ran the NYC Marathon, coached high school cross country and taught yoga. She has two children and an assortment of critters.
Job Titles:
- Government Internal Standards of Control
Heather is a CPA in the states of Tennessee and Georgia with 17 years of experience in corporate income tax. She began her career with PwC in Atlanta, where she practiced income tax accounting and compliance for clients in a variety of industries and served as an instructor for national ASC 740 associate series training. Heather has served as the tax director for public companies, including Regal Entertainment Group and, most recently, Scripps Networks Interactive. She holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree of accountancy from the University of Tennessee.
Holly Hawk, PhD, CPA, and CGMA is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Clemson University. She received her PhD in Higher Education from the University of Georgia, her Masters of Accountancy in Audit from the University of Georgia, and a Bachelors in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting & Technical Communications from Mercer University. Prior to Clemson, she taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in the Tull School of Accounting at UGA. At UGA, she also taught courses that were in partnership with the KPMG Masters of Data Analytics program. Holly also worked at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and TD Bank. At Clemson University, Holly teaches Analytics for Accounting Decision Making and Accounting Information Systems. She is the committee chair for the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers School of Accountancy assessment committee and very active attending and presenting at various academic and practitioner conferences.
Holly is also active within multiple organizations and recently named to the "40 under 40" by the CPA Practice Advisor for two years in a row, 2021 and 2022. She is an AICPA and CIMA Champion and an active reviewer and presenter at various academic conferences. Holly is a member of the AICPA Academic Executive Committee, while previously serving as a member of the AICPA Nominations Committee, the past chair of AICPA Student Recruitment Committee and an AICPA Leadership Academy graduate. As part of the AICPA Academic Executive Committee, she chaired the Distinguished Education Achievement Award Committee for the past two years. Within the American Accounting Association (AAA), Holly is the on the leadership team within the Southeast Region Program Committee, a member of the Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting Steering Committee and AAA Competitive Manuscript Award Committee. Holly received the Emerging Scholars Leader Award from the 2018 Innovation in Teaching Conference and more recently, has been inducted into the Mercer University Athletic Hall of Fame.
Education
Mercer University: Bachelor's of Business Administration, Accounting & Technical Communication
University of Georgia, Master's of Accounting
University of Georgia, PhD, Higher Education
Jacob Shortt, CPA, is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Accounting and Information Systems at Virginia Tech. Jacob graduated from Virginia Tech with both his Bachelors and Masters in Accounting and Information Systems. After graduation Jacob obtained his CPA license in North Carolina and joined PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the core audit group specializing in manufacturing clients. He then joined the risk advisory consulting practice of Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP working in the banking practice as a lead consultant. In addition to risk advisory services, he also conducted internal and external corporate trainings. Jacob worked as the cash and investments manager at Carolinas HealthCare System. Most recently, Jacob worked as a regulatory advisor at Bank of America. His teaching passions are Intermediate Accounting, Accounting Information Systems and Accounting Analytics.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities for the Accounting and Information Systems Department at Virginia Tech, he has also taught in the Executive MBA program as well as the Online MBA program. Through Virginia Tech outreach he teaches in a Data Analytics Certificate program and has taught in the Virginia Tech India program coordinating with the NMIMS University in Mumbai and the Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
James Eicher is the creator of Cognitive Management, which applies research from the cognitive sciences to organization and leadership behavior. Mr. Eicher has held leadership positions at KPMG, Booz Allen Hamilton, Symantec and IBM, and has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and Selling magazine. When an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) he worked with John Grinder on what later become known as Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. While attending UCSC he was both John Grinder's and the late Gregory Bateson's teaching assistant. His most recent work, Ecology of Truth, is inspired by Bateson's work on what he termed the ecology of mind.
Mr. Eicher is the author of the management communication text Making the Message Clear and co-author, with the late John Jones and William Bearley, of the management assessments the Matrix Manager Inventory: Leading in a Collaborative Environment; the Neurolinguistic Communication Profile; Rapport: Matching and Mirroring Communication and Post-Heroic Leadership: Managing the Virtual Organization. Jim has also authored or co-authored many articles, assessments and book chapters including Cognitive Arbitrage: The Outsourcing of Intelligence; the Leader-Manager Profile; The Change Bully: When Demagoguery Masquerades as Organization Transformation; Making Strategy Happen; Organizational drift: Why organizations drift off keel and what human resource professionals can do about it; The Execution Gap: 7 Questions You Must Ask; the Strategic Action Profile; and Cognitive Management: Managing your Organization's Mind.
Jennifer has more than 25 years of experience in designing high-quality training programs in a variety of technical and "soft-skills" topics necessary for professional and organizational success. In 2003, she founded Emergent Solutions Group, LLC, where she focuses on designing and delivering practical and engaging accounting and auditing training. Jennifer started her career in audit for Deloitte & Touche. She graduated summa cum laude from Marymount University with a B.B.A. in Accounting.
Education
Marymount University: Bachelor's of Business Administration, Accounting
Job Titles:
- Tax Specialist With Becker Education
Jennifer McAllister works full time as a Senior Curriculum Tax Specialist with Becker Education. She has a Bachelor of Accountancy from New Mexico State University and a Masters of Accountancy from Auburn University.
Jennifer has previously owned her own accounting firm in a suburb of Atlanta, GA as well as served as the Business Director of a private school. She started her initial accounting career with Arthur Andersen. In addition to that she also served as the Tax Manager of Pediatric Services of America in Norcross, GA.
Jennifer has been an instructor for Becker Education for over twenty years which is a passion of hers. She is currently the lead instructor in Atlanta, GA. She instructs all four sections of the CPA exam both in live format and online. She also writes and records CPE courses and instructs live CPE throughout the United States.
Jina Etienne, CPA, has a 32+ year career as an entrepreneur, business consultant and C-Suite leader. After a 21 year career in public accounting, including 17 years running her own CPA firm, she shifted to serving the profession as a Director at the American Institute of CPAs then President & CEO of the National Association of Black Accountants, Inc. She went on to become the first national leader for D&I at Grant Thornton, the 6th largest CPA firm in the United States. Today, she runs her own D&I consultancy practice specializing inclusive leadership and development, implicit bias and conscious communications, cultural sensitivity and awareness, and empowering authenticity and fostering belonging. She also provides 1-on-1 coaching executives, business leaders and entrepreneurs to help them improve workplace relationships, team performance and interpersonal effectiveness to lead an increasingly diverse workforce through self-awareness and mindfulness.
John has extensive teaching experience serving as a Professor at Stanford, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State, San Jose State, and is the Director and Lead Faculty of the CPA Applied Program at Golden Gate University. While teaching college courses and leading audits with the Government Accountability Office, John has been the Lead Faculty for Becker Professional Education in Northern California for nearly 30 years. In addition to teaching live CPA classes, John has been involved in recruiting, training, and developing CPA instructors throughout the State of California. John is also an author and national instructor for Becker's Continuing Professional Education program focusing on governmental accounting and auditing topics.
Before retiring in 2014, John served as a Senior Audit Manager for the Government Accountability Office which is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the U.S. Congress. In his capacity with the GAO, John led audits of the Bureau of Public Debt, Federal Reserve and IRS. He has also led work with the GAO reviewing the accounting and auditing standards setting process in the United States where he was actively involved with the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the AICPA's Auditing Standards Board. John holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the California State University in Hayward, California and is an active U.S. Certified Public Accountant and past President of the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting.
John has over 40 years of professional experience as a tax practitioner, national seminar instructor, writer, and business owner. John began his career with what is now a "Big 4" public accounting firm before founding a local CPA firm in Beaverton, Oregon. John was an owner and a managing tax partner of Gear Up Tax Seminars, a national tax seminar company. John has lectured on tax law and healthcare reform topics throughout the country at national conferences and in-house for top 100 CPA firms and the large banking industry. He has also appeared on television and radio programs seeking his expertise on tax and healthcare legislation. John is a graduate of the University of California at Davis.
John is a key instructor for Becker and works hard to keep professionals current with the latest tax guidance. John presents monthly tax webcasts (varying in hours from 2-8 CPE credits) for Becker and has been one of the featured speakers at the annual Becker tax conference.
Josh M. Rosenberg has spent over 15 years working in higher education at R1 research universities in Illinois and Georgia and is the Executive Director of Grants and Contracts Accounting at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), leading the institute's central post award, cost accounting, and research compliance functions. Before becoming a Becker instructor in 2005, Josh was a Becker CPA student and sat for the very last paper and pencil CPA exam offered by the AICPA in November of 2003. Josh is a CPA in the State of Illinois, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®).
Today, Josh teaches live workshops and online classes, develops course curriculum content, writes multiple choice questions and task-based simulations, answers Academic Support questions, and tutors students. He also serves as an online instructor and course curriculum editor for Becker's Certified Management Accountant (CMA) program.
And like a true accountant, Josh says he manages his household finances to the penny. Since 2005, he knows every dollar that has come in and every dollar that's gone out!
Education
Emory University, Bachelor of Business Administration, marketing
University of Chicago, MBA, concentrations in finance, accounting, and economics
Licenses and certifications
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Financial Planner
Julie McGinty has served as subject matter expert for Becker since 2016, working on CPA exam review for REG and most recently as a presenter of CPE courses. Julie is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Georgia. She teaches federal taxation classes at the graduate level. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree in accounting from the University of Georgia. In addition to teaching, Julie is a sales & use tax consultant, advising businesses on nexus, product taxability and compliance issues. Julie also serves as president of the board of directors for the Athens Area Diaper Bank, which distributes more than 400,000 diapers each year to babies at risk of diaper need.
Education
University of Georgia
Katie Harris has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting, Masters of Science in Finance from Sam Houston State University and is a PhD candidate at Kennesaw State University. She took the last paper CPA Exam in 2003 before the exam was computerized and started her professional career with Ernst & Young, LLP in Houston, TX and later with Grant Thornton, LLP in Philadelphia, PA.
After more than five years as an auditor in public accounting, she transitioned into the classroom and has never looked back. Her experiences as an auditor allowed her the opportunity to view an organization from the top down. This view afforded her with an increased understanding of accounting and financial reporting, which she loves sharing with her students each semester. Katie joined the Becker team in 2008 and has taught for the CPA and CMA Exam Reviews. She has been involved in various projects including course development, editing, and updating as a subject matter expect since 2019.
Education
Sam Houston State University
Bachelor's degree: Business Administration, Accounting
Master's degree: Finance
Kennesaw State University
PhD candidate: Business Administration
Kayla Stevko is a CPA based out of Northern California with over ten years of public accounting experience. For seven years Kayla worked at a top ten national accounting firm obtaining the role of Senior Manager. During her time with this firm Kayla oversaw financial statement audits, served as a national training instructor to the firm, and spoke about recent accounting and auditing changes at conferences. Kayla currently works at a local accounting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area where she specializes in accounting and tax assistance to small and midsize businesses. Kayla has a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from Biola University.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner at the Southwest Center for Organization Effectiveness
Krys Moskal Amdurer is a managing partner at the Southwest Center for Organization Effectiveness (SWCOE), where we consult with leaders and their teams. We provide custom designed programs on optimizing team performance, effective meetings, problem solving and decision making. Krys worked as a senior executive for learning and career development in Pearson, Warner Lambert (now Pfizer) and Johnson &Johnson. She installed talent development teams internationally, provided learning and coaching resources, implemented learning management systems, and created just-in-time programs. For 15 years, through her consulting company, Krys provided a wide range of services to Fortune 500 companies, specializing in programs addressing performance management, candidate selections, succession planning, leadership, talent management, change management, innovation and teamwork. Clients included Johnson & Johnson, Simon & Schuster, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Readers' Digest, Dun & Bradstreet, Reuters, American Express, and Sealand (Maersk). Krys has a Doctorate and Master's degrees from Rutgers University.
Dr. Sheldon's professional background includes working in academia as well as in public accounting. He started his career working for PwC in the Risk Assurance practice, with a focus on auditing the information technology environments used to generate financial statements along with attestation work of third-party service organizations (i.e., System and Organization Control (SOC) reports).
When working at Virginia Tech and John Carroll University, he taught accounting undergraduate/graduate courses on Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Accounting Information Systems and Information Systems Control and Assurance. His academic research focuses on the impact of blockchain on the accounting profession, assurance of non-financial information, and codes of professional conduct.
Education
Miami University
Job Titles:
- Director of Corp IT Services for HR Technologies
Dr. Parker is Director of Corp IT Services for HR Technologies at AmerisourceBergen and currently leads the transformation of learning systems and platforms for the Global Talent organization. Previously she was a data and analytics leader at Ford Motor Company and lead the transformation of digital services and platforms for the Global Talent organization. With 10+ years in the field of instructional design and analytics, she is an experienced performance strategist, instructional designer, data scientist and leadership coach. Dr. Parker is a thought leader in analyzing learning trends, creating data-driven organizations, and building internal people capability. She received her Ph.D. from Wayne State University (2014) in Instructional Technology & Design and is a recognized speaker in the field of digital learning. Dr. Parker also serves as adjunct faculty at LaSalle University and is a lead researcher on a Ford-funded, post-doctoral study at Purdue University.
Michael ("Mike") Brown's extensive experience confirms his presence as a leader in the accounting community-with a commitment for student success and a passion for teaching. For over 15 years, Mike has been a senior national instructor with Becker Professional Education teaching CPA and CMA Exam Review courses, CPE courses, and starting in 2025 CIA Exam Review. He has impacted hundreds of thousands of individual students-just since 2019-in Becker's CPA and CMA Review courses and so many more through his presentations at conferences, accounting firms, universities, and in the online community. Mike's teaching is enhanced by his vast accounting experience in many industries, including manufacturing, financial, retail, real estate and service. With Becker's CPA Review course, Mike is heavily involved in the concept lecture videos in four sections: AUD, FAR, BAR, and ISC. After completing a term on the Beta Alpha Psi Board of Directors in 2021, he now serves as Becker's Professional Partner to the organization, and in May 2025 was announced as Beta Alpha Psi's Incoming President-Elect. He is a licensed CPA in the State of North Carolina, currently residing in Raleigh with his wife and two children.
Education
University of Virginia
BS Commerce (Accounting and MIS concentrated)
University of Science
MS Accounting (Audit concentrated)
Job Titles:
- VP, National Instruction and Client Relationships
Michael Potenza earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering and his Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering from The Cooper Union. He received his Master of Science in Accounting from Devry University, and finally his Juris Doctorate from St. John's Law School. Mike is a licensed CPA, Professional Engineer and admitted into the NY State Bar. Mike first started teaching for Becker in 1998 and took on new responsibilities every year related to teaching additional classes, content development and textbook editing. In 2021, Mike joined the Becker team in a full-time role as Director of Exam Curriculum and was responsible for CPA and CMA Curriculum Development, New Product Curriculum Development, as well as Academic Support. Mike now serves as VP, National Instruction and Client Relationships, he is a Becker National Instructor and still teaches REG, FAR, ISC and TCP for CPA and he also teaches for CMA and EA.
Education
The Cooper Union
Bachelor's in Engineering
Master's in Structural Engineering
Devry University
Master's in Accounting
St. John's University
JD
Peter "Sugar Bear" Olinto, CFA, JD, CPA (inactive) has a 20+ year history teaching with Becker, but his career didn't start here! Peter received his Bachelor's of Business Administration, magna cum laude, from Pace University in 1990. After working in audit at Deloitte & Touche, Pete attended law school at Fordham University School of Law in New York City, and earned his Juris Doctor degree, with dreams of becoming a tax attorney. While in school, Pete ventured into teaching, starting with LSAT and SAT prep and eventually leading into CPA Review.
Job Titles:
- CGMA
- Managing Partner of CPA Firm Gearty & McIntyre
Tim Gearty, CPA, MBA, JD, CGMA, also known as the "Dean of CPA Review," is passionate about helping young accounting professionals pass the CPA Exam and providing CPE to help accountants advance their careers! Tim is a veteran Becker instructor, having worked with the organization since 1999. The accounting career path drew Tim because of his natural love for business and inspirational college professors. Tim has been honored with various accolades over the course of his career. In 2020, Tim was ranked #4 on NJBIZ's Accounting Power 50 list, received Corporate Insider's Business Excellence Award, and was recognized on Marquis's "Who's Who in America" rankings.
Job Titles:
- Controller for Public Risk Underwriters of Florida, Inc
Tom Cox is a controller for Public Risk Underwriters of Florida, Inc. (PRU), a Brown & Brown subsidiary that offers accounting and underwriting support to the Preferred Governmental Insurance Trust, a public entity risk pool providing property and casualty insurance to local governments in Florida. Prior to joining PRU, Tom's experience includes nearly twenty years as the chief financial officer of the Act, Corp., a not-for-profit community mental heath center in Daytona Beach, and, before that, about ten years at Ernst & Young where he was an audit manager specializing in governmental and not-for profit accounting and auditing. Tom has also been an instructor for Becker Professional Review in Orlando since 1990 and been involved with various elements of either course editing and updates or course development since 1991 including governmental auditing. A senior faculty member for the course, Tom's duties have also included national instructor for various elements of the review program and both presentation and development of continuing professional education courses. He is a 1978 graduate of Stetson University, a member of the Institute of Management Accountants since 1980 and a member of both the American and Florida Institutes of Certified Public Accountants since 1982. Tom is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
Education
Stetson University: Bachelor's of Business Administration