Trent Russell is the Founder of Greenskies Analytics. Prior to founding Greenskies Analytics, he joined Ernst & Youngs’ IT Risk Assurance practice where he served multiple industries. He later joined the Financial Service Office at EY and facilitated the development of data analytics procedures. Trent later led the audit analytics function for a Higher Ed and Healthcare provider. At Greenskies Trent develops audit analytics strategies, helps Internal Audit teams launch their data analytics initiatives, makes the analytics initiatives actually work, and moves Internal Audit teams up the analytics maturity model. In addition to serving his clients, Trent also hosts The Audit Podcast and facilitates quarterly audit analytics roundtables.
Justin Noble , CIA - Justin is the Chief Audit Executive at Virginia Tech. Justin leads his staff in conducting compliance, operational, financial, and fraud reviews across the University’s enterprise. Justin’s 20+ year internal audit career started at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, continued at Southwest Airlines, and most recently was at Texas Tech University System prior to joining the team at Virginia Tech. Justin has active in the profession serving both in the IIA and the Association of College and University Auditors (ACUA). In particular, Justin has served as ACUA’s President, a Board Member-at-Large, in addition to several committees and taskforces. Justin is a member of the ACUA Faculty, has chaired ACUA’s NCAA Taskforce, previously led ACUA’s Distance Learning efforts, and is a frequent speaker. For the IIA, Justin has been on the Board of Governors and is the current Vice President of the Southwest Virginia Chapter. Justin completed his Master of Architecture and Master of Business Administration at Texas Tech University.
Elizabeth McDowell, CPA, CIA has nearly 20 years of audit experience and is the founder of Audit Forward, an innovative internal audit consulting and training firm. Elizabeth is passionate about advancing and advocating for the internal audit profession and was recently recognized as one of the 2023 Internal Audit Beacons by Richard Chambers. Elizabeth makes auditing and training fun (no, really!) with the help of her mascot, Audie the Internal Otteror. In addition to training and consulting, Elizabeth is an adjunct Professor of Accounting at Front Range Community College.
Elizabeth’s most recent industry experience was at Achieve, where she was Sr. Director, Audit Strategy; prior to that, she held internal audit leadership roles at Elevations Credit Union, Fidelity Investments, and Xcel Energy after first starting her career at Ernst & Young.
Elizabeth prides herself on bringing agile audit techniques to organizations. Elizabeth is a dynamic, engaging, and enthusiastic public speaker who presents virtually and in-person to IIA chapters, Association of Certified Fraud Examiner chapters, governmental groups, and more. Read more about Elizabeth here: https://www.auditforward.com
Elizabeth’s most recent industry experience was at Achieve, where she was Sr. Director, Audit Strategy; prior to that, she held internal audit leadership roles at Elevations Credit Union, Fidelity Investments, and Xcel Energy after first starting her career at Ernst & Young.
Elizabeth prides herself on bringing agile audit techniques to organizations. Elizabeth is a dynamic, engaging, and enthusiastic public speaker who presents virtually and in-person to IIA chapters, Association of Certified Fraud Examiner chapters, governmental groups, and more. Read more about Elizabeth here: https://www.auditforward.com
Benjamin J. Sutphin, CIA, CPA, CISA, CGAP, CIGA. Ben has more than 30 years of experience auditing for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mr. Sutphin has worked as an auditor for the Auditor of Public Accounts, the Virginia State Police, the Division of State Internal Audit, the Virginia Department of Transportation before retiring as an Audit Manager at the Office of the State Inspector General. Currently, he serves as a Senior Auditor with the City of Roanoke. He is a past President of the Southwest Virginia Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditor, a former representative on the IIA North American Customer Relations Committee covering all of Virginia, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. Ben currently serves as a member of the IIA’s Facilitator Program by leading IIA courses in person and online.
Frank Jones, CIA - Frank Jones currently serves as a Management Analyst with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) in Atlanta, GA. Frank previously served as an Audit Manager in the Returns Processing and Account Service program and as an Audit Director in the Compliance and Enforcement Operations Program. His auditable areas included IRS's Small Business/Self Employed and Wage and Investment Income Operating Divisions functional offices that include Examination, Collection, Criminal Investigation, Office of Professional Responsibility, Field Assistance, Electronic Tax Administration, Media and Publications, and Stakeholder, Partnership, Education and Communication. Frank is an auditing instructor for TIGTA and has served as a Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) adjunct instructor since 2009. In addition, Frank regularly presents at Institute of Internal Auditors, Association of Local Government Auditors and the Association of Government Auditors conferences.
Frank began his career with the IRS Inspection Service in 1989 and has been with TIGTA since its establishment in 1998. While with TIGTA, he has participated in several notable customer service reviews where Frank and his team have played the role of taxpayers and conducted anonymous visits to IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites. For this review, auditors evaluated IRS employees and volunteers’ ability to correctly answer tax law questions and prepare accurate tax returns. During the 2008 filing season, Frank expanded his efforts and his team conducted anonymous visits to unenrolled commercial tax return preparation companies. The results from these reviews were instrumental in the IRS establishing the Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint and Paid Preparer Strategy.
Frank has received CIGIE awards for innovative customer service performance audits, the inaugural Adjunct Instructor Training Award of Excellence (2016) and the Barry R. Snyder Joint Award of Excellence (2024) for his contribution helping redesign the Introductory Auditor Course. Frank is a mentor with more than 35 years of auditing experience. The unique blend of high energy and positive outlook on life makes his presentations motivational, leaving class participants excited and enthusiastic about the auditing profession. His educational mission is to inspire all students to go from being good to great auditors.
Frank has a BA in Accounting and Finance from Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is a Certified Internal Auditor. Frank lives in Stone Mountain, GA with his wife Lori. In his free time, Frank enjoys coaching basketball, reading, playing on-line chess, fantasy football, and spending time with his family.
Frank began his career with the IRS Inspection Service in 1989 and has been with TIGTA since its establishment in 1998. While with TIGTA, he has participated in several notable customer service reviews where Frank and his team have played the role of taxpayers and conducted anonymous visits to IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites. For this review, auditors evaluated IRS employees and volunteers’ ability to correctly answer tax law questions and prepare accurate tax returns. During the 2008 filing season, Frank expanded his efforts and his team conducted anonymous visits to unenrolled commercial tax return preparation companies. The results from these reviews were instrumental in the IRS establishing the Taxpayer Assistance Blueprint and Paid Preparer Strategy.
Frank has received CIGIE awards for innovative customer service performance audits, the inaugural Adjunct Instructor Training Award of Excellence (2016) and the Barry R. Snyder Joint Award of Excellence (2024) for his contribution helping redesign the Introductory Auditor Course. Frank is a mentor with more than 35 years of auditing experience. The unique blend of high energy and positive outlook on life makes his presentations motivational, leaving class participants excited and enthusiastic about the auditing profession. His educational mission is to inspire all students to go from being good to great auditors.
Frank has a BA in Accounting and Finance from Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is a Certified Internal Auditor. Frank lives in Stone Mountain, GA with his wife Lori. In his free time, Frank enjoys coaching basketball, reading, playing on-line chess, fantasy football, and spending time with his family.
Stacia Vernon is a leader in Crowe’s Mid Atlantic Consulting practice with a focus on operational internal audit for financial institutions. Stacia is a Senior Manager with over 11 years of experience providing risk-based operational consulting services and managing engagements for financial service organizations. Stacia serves as her client’s primary point of contact and is responsible for end-to-end project management including planning and managing internal audits, assessing the design, and operating effectiveness of internal controls, and partnering with management to deliver real time feedback and best practices from her wide industry expertise. She delivers training and educational sessions to management and the Audit Committee and has presented at industry events speaking on topics around internal audit, enterprise risk management, and cybersecurity.
David Cole has an extensive and diverse leadership and management experience covering ITsecurity, cyber assessments, regulatory assessments, IT audits, and IT operations support. Mr.Cole is currently the owner of SysAudits.com.
Mr. Cole held numerous Director of IS Audit positions at the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Inspector General, the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General and the Smithsonian Office of Inspector General.
During his carrier he has performed regulatory assessments (ITAR, FISMA, and HIPPA) of company and government IT operations, contract compliance, outsourced data centers, and IAAS, PAAS, and SAAS cloud operations. Mr. Cole also drafted national cybersecurity policy for the National Industrial Security Program
(NISP) under the Director of National Intelligence.
Mr. Cole held numerous Director of IS Audit positions at the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Inspector General, the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General and the Smithsonian Office of Inspector General.
During his carrier he has performed regulatory assessments (ITAR, FISMA, and HIPPA) of company and government IT operations, contract compliance, outsourced data centers, and IAAS, PAAS, and SAAS cloud operations. Mr. Cole also drafted national cybersecurity policy for the National Industrial Security Program
(NISP) under the Director of National Intelligence.
Will Pellisero CPA, CIA, CISA (top) and Danny Nuccio CPA, CFE (bottom) are both Internal Auditors at the City of Charlotte. Danny is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) with a master’s in accounting from East Carolina University. He spent seven years at the State of Maryland's Office of Legislative Audits before joining the City of Charlotte a year and a half ago. Will is a CPA, Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) with a master’s in accounting from Appalachian State University. He’s worked at the City of Charlotte since 2011 and has been with the Internal Audit Department since 2016.
Danny and Will are committed to leveraging AI responsibly to improve audit processes and maintain ethical standards. They have collaborated to integrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) throughout the entire audit process, treating AI tools as a learning sandbox. They focus on using generative AI to enhance audit efficiency while prioritizing data privacy. They used ChatGPT to help write this bio, saving at least 5 whole minutes of their time 😊.
Niki White, CPA - As the Chief Grown Officer for SRA Watchtowe,r she has over 20 years experience in Enterprise Risk Management, Capital Management, Audit and tax. Prior to SRA Watchtower, Ms. White was the SVP Chief Risk Officer and Controller for First Capital Bank where she led the implementation of ERM and Capital Planning, updating of the COSO framework, and enhancement of the internal audit program to align with the ERM risk structure. She led the expansion of the ALCO Committee reporting and training, and oversaw the management of interest rate risk and liquidity as enhanced forecasting and analysis. Prior to First Capital, she was an Audit Manager for Yount Hyde & Barbour where she supported clients through the development and execution of risk and audit strategies. Prior to Yount Hyde, she was a Tax Associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers where she supported clients through corporate tax and multi-state tax issues. Ms. White is a Certified Public Accountant and earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting at Pennsylvania State University. She also earned a Certificate in Leadership from University of Virginia, Darden Executive Education Program, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and a Board Member of the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Steve Kruskamp, Vice President Sales. As Vice President for SRA Watchtower, Mr. Kuskamp focuses on new business and partnerships for our Watchtower platform offering. Previously, Steve was a Senior Director for S&P Global Market Intelligence, a data/tool service provider for strategic decision-makers in Finance. He managed the new business and account support teams for the U.S., and the sales and client services group in the Knowledge Center, a professional training and development division focused on financial knowledge and acumen for banking, insurance, energy, real estate, and media industries.
In addition to over two decades working for or advising community banks and credit unions, Steve is well known for maturing a small bank’s e-commerce and online marketing strategy propelling that institution to the national spotlight via innovative social media and digital consumer engagement strategies. He has an Executive MBA from Loyola University in Maryland and holds two undergraduate degrees in business and technology.
In addition to over two decades working for or advising community banks and credit unions, Steve is well known for maturing a small bank’s e-commerce and online marketing strategy propelling that institution to the national spotlight via innovative social media and digital consumer engagement strategies. He has an Executive MBA from Loyola University in Maryland and holds two undergraduate degrees in business and technology.
Michelle Fowler, CPA, CIA, CIA, CRMA serves as Audit Director for Old Point National Bank, headquartered in Hampton, Va. Michelle has been with Old Point since March of 2023. Prior to that, Michelle owned her own internal audit consulting firm, Fowler & Company, for 22 years. She has been working in banking and internal audit since 1990. Michelle’s specialized focus is on internal audit, training, QARs, risk, internal controls, and compliance. Michelle is an engaging and highly rated speaker, speaking at many IIA sponsored events. Her diverse internal audit training and varied work history gives her a unique perspective and provides current “real world” experience. In addition to other board positions, she has served previously as President and Board member of the Central Virginia IIA and ISACA.
Aimee Scharff CPA, CIA, CISA With 18 years in financial services and 9 years in internal audit, Aimee Scharff brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the internal audit profession. As an Audit Program Manager for Umpqua Bank, the West Coast’s largest headquartered regional bank, she specializes in team development, talent management, and training. She holds CPA, CIA, and CISA certifications with an Master’s in Business Administration. Additionally, she has been a speaker for local and national IIA webinars and training, and a contributor to the book Clarity, Impact, Speed: Delivering Audit Reports that Matter, 2nd edition by Margie Bastolla.