I find it fulfilling to work as a consultant providing tax preparation and planning services to financially secure individuals and families. Beyond tax preparation and planning, I help these individuals through challenging times in their lives, whether they are starting a new business, planning for retirement, preparing for transfers of wealth to the next generation, or looking after loved ones from a prior or younger generation.

I have been fortunate to serve in a position that has challenged me to take on progressively more responsibilities throughout my career. Over the years, my portfolio of skills has developed into a broad range of areas, the common threads of which seem to be intellectual curiosity and attention to detail. At present, my position involves the following:• Conduct specialized policy and political research at the request of the Senator and Chief of Staff.• Advise staff regarding complex topics, such as pension valuation methods or the impact of specific federal tax rules, with a focus on communicating difficult material to constituents.• Analyze legislative and political matters to identify opportunities and pitfalls.• Analyze and document the Senator’s accomplishments for South Dakota, including assessing social and economic impacts policy actions have on local communities.• Prepare concise, thorough analyses of legislative oversight activities and emerging issues.• Review content and form of written communications prepared under the Senator’s signature.• Direct and supervise the 17 staff members who prepare written communication under the Senator’s signature. Over the years, I have also:• Researched, wrote and designed numerous reports, brochures and publications from the Senator regarding a variety of topics, including federal budget priorities, agricultural policy, and several health policy publications.• Designed and wrote numerous public opinion surveys.• Redesigned the Senator’s constituent correspondence system into a more effective system with strong accountability controls. The innovative design was recognized as developing new best practices by our software vendor, and other Senate offices have adopted many of these processes.

• Counseled political candidates concerning issues, messaging, opponent record, and position viability.• Conducted self- and opposition political research.• Analyzed candidate financial statements and campaign compliance reports.• Vetted donors and other campaign affiliates.• Generated research to support candidate positions and provide third-party verification of candidate assertions.

In 2004, I decided that a good way to learn how federal tax policy really affects ordinary people was to go out and prepare individuals' tax returns. During tax season, I was hired as a part-time tax preparer at Jackson-Hewitt, where I prepared federal income tax returns for everyone from diplomats to people receiving receiving Earned Income Tax Credit, and everyone in between. This position gave me firsthand experience in a broad array of individual income tax matters, including setting up depreciation schedules for a home-based business, reporting gains from stock trades for a day-trader, and doing extensive research to support the income exclusion available to specified employees of certain treaty organizations.

When Tom Daschle was elected to the United States Senate and Tim Johnson was elected to replace him in the House of Representatives, I was hired in a dual role working for both the lone Congressman from South Dakota, as well as the Democratic Leader of the United States Senator in his (and my) home town. The position provided a unique opportunity to represent both officials while helping South Dakotans interact with their federal government.Every single day presented a new challenge. During the height of the 1980s farm crisis, I worked with distraught farmers who were on the verge of foreclosures that would take from them farms that had been in their family for a century. I worked with veterans who had suffered the many traumas of war, including the lingering effects of the horrors of Vietnam, as well as the newer injuries incurred during the first Iraq war. I helped members of American Indian tribes find economic opportunity in some of the most impoverished areas of our nation, and I helped adoptive parents work through the often-lengthy process of obtaining visas for their foreign-born children. In this position, I:• Resolved constituent problems with federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies.• Successfully resolved several high-profile cases.• Represented the Senator and Congressman at public gatherings and in meetings with constituents.• Articulated the officials’ views, both orally and in writing.• Planned and coordinated official events.• Staffed the Senator and Congressman at meetings and events in South Dakota.• As Service Academy Director for Congressman Tim Johnson, developed an outreach program to recruit rural, Native American and other underrepresented applicants. Aspects of this recruitment program were selected by West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy as model recruitment tools for other nominating officials.