Jerry Ashworth is the editor at Thompson Grants. Mr. Ashworth has served as the editor of these publications for more than 22 years. He has more than 35 years of journalism experience, including the last 30 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 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 serves as Board Chair of the Bowie Business Innovation Center at Bowie State University and he is a member of the National Grants Management Association and the Grants Professional Association.

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.

David Clark is Managing Director and Practice Leader at BDO, assisting recipient of federal grants (including state and local governments, nonprofits, for profits, and institutions of higher education) in several key areas, including full lifecycle grants management, forensics and investigations, financial risk management, excellence in financial operations, and strategy. Over nearly two decades of consulting, David has supported clients in the management and administration of billions of dollars in federal grants and supported clients through audits from OIGs and False Claims Act cases. Prior to joining BDO, he served as a Director in the Risk, Internal Audit, and Cybersecurity consulting practice of another international accounting firm as well as a Senior Internal Audit Manager at one of the country’s leading financial institutions. David is based out of Raleigh, NC and can be reached at dclark@bdo.com.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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 is a professional auditor and management consultant with more than 17 years of experience, including serving as a municipal finance executive, government auditor and consultant, local government budget analyst and legislative research professional, and nonprofit board member. He currently serves as 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 also served two years as President of the Board of Directors of the National Grants Management Association and is 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 is currently an independent consultant focusing on grants, data standards and performance measurement. Since her retirement 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. Sandra has also worked 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.

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 formally (retired) served as Deputy Controller at Columbia University in the City of New York where she directed 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.