Accounting Educators Workshop (E1811848)

Tom Cunningham is Executive Director, Corporate Accounting and External Reporting at Merck & Co., Inc. His job responsibilities include Accounting Standards, Restructuring Accounting, External Reporting and Business Development Accounting Support. Tom has been at Merck for 25 years with various technical accounting and consolidation accounting responsibilities and has been in his current role for 16 years. Prior to joining Merck in 1993, Tom was a Senior Audit Manager with Deloitte and Touche. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1985 with a B.S. in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Joanne Fiore is Vice President of Professional Media, Pathways and Inclusion at the American Institute of CPAs. In this role, she is responsible for the AICPA’s newsletters, flagship magazines Journal of Accountancy and The Tax Adviser, and other related news aggregation and advertising activities.

In addition, Fiore oversees the development of programs that engage accounting educators, refine accounting curriculum, and advance future generations of CPAs. Her teams drive student awareness of the CPA profession and promote the value of sitting for the CPA exam. Fiore oversees the Accounting Doctoral Scholars Program, AICPA Scholarships, and the efforts of the National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion. Her team supports activities related to the CGMA designation, including CGMA Magazine.

Fiore earned her BA from the University of Texas at Austin and is a graduate of New York University School of Law, admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania.

Jerry serves as an independent director and the chair of the Audit Committee for the Cohen & Steers Mutual Fund Complex. He is also a board member and Chairs the Audit Committee of inTEST Corporation (INTT; NYSE), a publicly traded technology company. Jerry also serves as the senior advisor for strategy and growth to the CEO and leadership team of Centri Consulting LLC, a professional services firm which specializes in providing financial reporting, internal controls, valuation, technical accounting research and CFO advisory services to clients in a variety of industries. Jerry is also an executive in residence at Rowan University, supporting the accounting program and coaching and mentoring students as they transition from academia to the business world. Previously, Jerry spent 36 years with KPMG where he was an audit partner serving a variety of clients and specializing in emerging growth companies. He led KPMG’s audit practice in Pennsylvania for five years and served as the firm’s Philadelphia Office Managing Partner for the last eight years of his career. He is a member of the NJCPA and serves on its Strategic Planning Committee. He is the author of Advice for a Successful Career in the Accounting Profession: How to Make Your Assets Greatly Exceed Your Liabilities.

Evan Palmer, senior manager Governmental Services at Bowman & Company LLP. His areas of expertise include the audit of municipal governments, school districts, charter schools and fire districts of the State of New Jersey. Mr. Palmer is licensed to practice as a Certified Public Accountant, Registered Municipal Accountant, and Public School Accountant.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University in 2007.

Kathy is the CFO at the Matheny Medical and Educational Center, a licensed special hospital and school serving developmentally disabled individuals, and is the 2022/23 President of the NJCPA. In 2018, she was appointed to the Governor's Independent Developmental Disability Fee-for-Service Transition Oversight Board and the Governor's Independent Mental Health & Addiction Fee-for-Service Transition Oversight Board as a representative member of the NJCPA and continues to serve on these boards. Prior to working in the nonprofit space, Kathy worked in public accounting for 17 years, most recently as a senior manager for ParenteBeard, LLC, specializing in healthcare and nonprofit industries. Kathy is a member of several NJCPA interest groups including the Governmental Accounting & Auditing Interest Group, the Nonprofit Interest Group and the Education Foundation Board of Trustees.

David has 10 years of diversified professional experience providing accounting, attest and consulting services to manufacturing and distribution clients across various industries, specifically life sciences and specialty chemical manufacturers. David’s clients are primarily middle market companies with domestic and international operations. He is currently the practice leader for the Mazars Inventory Advisory Service Group, which specializes in providing inventory management, costing, and process improvement solutions to manufacturing and distribution business. David has assisted clients with the implementation of cycle counting procedures, process improvements, standard costing updates, and various costing and margin studies. David received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Ralph is the CEO and executive director of the New Jersey Society of CPAs. He was appointed to AICPA’s National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion and the AICPA Foundation Board. Ralph is a former national and chapter president of the National Association of Black Accountants, was chair of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy’s State Society Relations Committee and is a member of the accounting advisory boards of Lehigh, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Montclair State, Felician and Thomas Edison universities and Middlesex County College. In January 2018, he was invited by Senate President Steve Sweeney to join his bipartisan Economic and Fiscal Policy Working Group. Additionally, Ralph was selected for the last eight years by Accounting Today as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting.”