As the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), I lead the financial operations of the oldest school district in Arizona and the largest in Southern Arizona, serving a community of over 1 million people. With a budget exceeding $750 million, I oversee day-to-day financial activities, directing the Financial Services Department to support the education of over 42,000 students. My role involves advising the superintendent and school board, ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local laws, and representing TUSD at statewide school finance committees. I contribute to long and short-range planning, oversee special projects, and provide strategic analyses aligned with the vision of the Governing Board and Superintendent. Joining TUSD allows me to make a meaningful impact on the educational landscape while upholding the district's rich history and influence in the region. #CFO #EducationLeadership #FinancialManagement

Reporting to the Senior Vice President and CFO of the University of Arizona Foundation, this position manages and control the coordination of all accounting, budgeting, auditing and financial operations function to ensure the financial integrity of the University Alumni & Development Program (UADP). Serve as the fiscal officer all University accounts for UADP and provide oversight and approval of revenues and expenditures according to University financial policies. Required to prepare reports and budget request to University Senior Leadership to provide financial support to the UADP. Develop audit steps to ensure UADP staff expenditures are compliant with University financial policies. Prepare financial and administrative reporting, analysis and data analysis for predicting resource needs and development of long term plans for program growth. Develop appropriate spending guidelines and directives for accessing funding. Represent UADP at campus meetings, conference or other levels of the organization. Help lead the transition of the Arizona Alumni Association's operational transition to the UADP. Continue serving as COO and provide oversight of the Alumni Association's reporting requirements and provide reports to the board of directors and UAAA/UAF leaderships.

Reporting to the President of the University of Arizona Alumni Association, the Chief Operating Officer provides leadership and strategic direction for the UAAA’s operations and serves as a key member of the UAAA senior leadership team. The Chief Operating Officer is responsible for the efficiency and continuous enhancement of the organization and maintains control of diverse business operations to drive strategic initiatives across the UAAA. The Chief Operating Officer leads and manages a staff of approximately five direct reports and 15 total full-time equivalents in the following areas: accounting and business operations, business development, data & analytics, IT, human resources, marketing and communications, and UAAA’s membership program.

Faculty member responsible for leading instruction on coursework in Public Management for Bachelor’s degree candidates. Provide students with an understanding of the variable aspects of that impact a broad field like Public Management. Currently, I provide students with instruction in the “Ethics in Public Administration”, “The Politics of Budgeting”, and "Public Budgeting & Finance".

Responsible for planning, organization, and administration of all operational activities of the Pima County School Superintendent's Office. Development of short and long-range goals to properly institute cost projections and forecast administrative needs. Experience with the need to provide federated services with other units of Pima County to ensure the office maximizes its resources while providing high quality services to our constituents. Allocate resources so that financial and programmatic objectives work in tandem. Evaluate effectiveness of financial operations to ensure efficiency, particularly during program development. Required to have a high degree of evaluation to recommend how services might work differently or might be reallocated to ensure the same level of service. It is a continuous process to recommend, whenever possible, cost avoidance or reduction procedures. Our office is charged with the financial management of over $1 billion in assets by Pima County’s school districts; important to always provide financial guidance to our constituents. Ensure the proper management of funding through proper accounting procedures. Each school district requires its own unique vision for proper planning and implementation of resources. Understand proper business functions including financial planning and management, accounting, procurement, and implementation of auditing practices providing a transparency. Working for an elected official responsible to meet specific statutory duties, my role requires I understand how to implement these for the benefit of the public. My ability to understand the implementation of mandates ensures that the community is informed. Some of these do not always include a straight and narrow approach, but the ability for me to provide information our office maintains to have a positive relationship with the community. Being a trusted resource for information in the community requires a certain degree of credibility.

Faculty member responsible for facilitating instruction on coursework in Human Services for Associate’s degree candidates. Provide students with an understanding of the influences of developing public policy in providing human (i.e. public) services. Understanding the complexities of the variable influences on how policy is developed and implemented and the benefits and consequences of this work. Currently, I provide students with facilitation in “Public Policy Development in Human Services” and “Public Policy Development in Health and Human Services.”

My role, although brief, as a Budget Coordinator in the largest school district outside the Phoenix metropolitan area required an ability of coordinating activities and functions related to the proper implementation of a $500 million annual budget at varying levels of the organization. With over 100 schools and almost two dozen administrative departments, the interaction between the needs of a school and the views of administration tend to move in different directions. My role was to try to work as a “middle man” to ensure that the communication between school-based decision making was included as part of the decision making on a district-wide basis. It required understanding how the organization worked from senior management levels to local school levels. It demanded that I understand how to communicate the right information to the appropriate individuals in order to make sound, data-drive decisions. Due to the complex nature of how variable sources of funding interacted towards one goal of ensuring the education of a student, I was responsible for establishing processes the ensured those goals were met while also targeting funds appropriately. I was required to recommend and establish processes and procedures that monitor major federal grant budgets, use of resources that aligned with federally mandated desegregation orders, and ensure compliance with State mandates on uses of state budget support. These elements also demanded that I understand the senior management’s mission and direction for ensuring funds were targeted towards accomplishing that mission. Understanding how to synthesize expenditures into a qualitative analysis was paramount to my work. Being able to “tell the story” from the numbers is what mattered the most to individuals who had to make decisions not always knowing the intricacies of the financial operations of the organization.

Development of site-based budgets for several federal and state entitlements to assistant the District in several programmatic and grant objectives. Ensure the allocations and expenditures of these grants aligned with specific objectives and goal outcomes that are also aligned with the District’s overall mission and vision. Provide recommendations to the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning on resource allocation and re-allocation to targeted areas of need to create sustainable programs. Collaborate with the District’s academic and executive leadership on compliance and budgetary issues related to English language learner programs.

Coordinate the financial implementation of a $10 million, three-year federal grant award for five schools in the school district. I maintained constant professional collaboration with the Grant Directors and the staff at these schools to ensure that all the fiscal requirements of the grant were addressed in providing the greatest benefit to students in the implantation of the grant program. My expertise ensured that expenditures were monitored to ensure that at all times the fiscal implementation aligned with specific grant goals and desired outcomes. My role required that I maintained the integrity of the grant in accordance with the United States Department of Education’s General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) and federal cost principles outlines under Circular A-87. Evaluate the programmatic need for specific position and monitor expenditures on personnel costs. Provide training to personnel at the school-level on finance procedures and grant policies to more effectively manage the program. Effectively communicate across the district to provide efficient operation of the grant program.

Acted as a liaison with the Arizona Department of Education on student achievement and English acquisition programs to generate State and federal funding for English language learner programs totaling over $4.5 million, annually. Monitor data collection and integrity on student achievement and English acquisition to maintain compliance on funding. Monitor the activities of the Language Assessment Center to ensure alignment with procedures mandated by Governing Board policy and state and federal law.