Nonprofit Conference (E1812010)

Alex is an audit partner in the Not-for-Profit and Health Care practices of PKF O’Connor Davies, LLP. He has eighteen years of experience in public accounting. His areas of specialty include audits of not-for-profit entities, health care entities and special needs clients, cost reporting as applicable to health care and not-for-profit entities, and single audits conducted in accordance with the Uniform Grant Guidance. Alex is also an adjunct professor of accounting at the City University of New York. He serves on a number of professional and academic affiliations and is a board member of the New York State Education Department State Board for Public Accountancy. He has authored articles on accounting, audit, tax and education and he has presented on both a professional and academic level.

Brad has been with Withum for over a decade, during which time he made partner and is a licensed certified public accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner in New Jersey and New York. Brad is a Team Leader for the Firm’s Not-for-Profit and Education Services Group and is integral in rolling out firm audit technology. Brad also co-hosts Withum's Civic Warriors podcast that features leaders in the nonprofit industry who are making an impact despite whatever adversity they encounter.

Brad is very active in his community and is the board chair of Coming Home of Middlesex County, which is an organization whose mission is to end homelessness. In addition, he serves as a volunteer firefighter in his home town.

Striving to provide world-class client service to all of his clients, Brad serves to be a trusted advisor to bring about mutual success.

Brad resides in Somerset County, New Jersey, with his wife, Ashley, and three children: Chase, Molly and Duke (Golden Retriever).

Rick is a partner with FORVIS (which is the result of a merger between BKD and DHG) with more than 25 years of experience serving not-for-profit organizations. He is based in the firm’s New York office and is a member of FORVIS’ Higher Education Center of Excellence, which is an internal committee focused on addressing issues important to the higher education industry. Rick focuses on audits and advisory services for not-for-profit and higher education organizations.

Prior to this role, he worked at the FASB, where he served as a supervising project manager for almost six years. In that role, he was the project manager on Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-14, Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities; ASU 2018-08, Clarifying the Scope and Accounting Guidance for Contributions Received and Contributions Made; and ASU 2019-03, Updating the Definition of Collections. He also was coordinator for FASB’s NFP Advisory Committee and Private Company Council. Before joining the FASB, Rick was vice president and controller at a large national museum in New York for seven years and a senior manager with a large international accounting firm where he worked for 14 years and specialized in audits of higher education institutions and other not-for-profit organizations.

Rick is a member of the AICPA Not-for-Profit Expert Panel. He is a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies in their Non-Profit Management program. He also has been a frequent speaker with NACUBO, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), and various state CPA societies.

He is a CPA in New York and New Jersey and is a member of the AICPA and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. Rick is a graduate of Montclair State University, New Jersey, with a B.S. degree and an M.B.A. degree.

Magdalena M. Czerniawski, CPA, MBA, is a partner at Marks Paneth LLP and a member of the firm’s Nonprofit, Government & Healthcare Group. With nearly 17 years of nonprofit industry experience, she provides tax services to a wide array of nonprofits, including charitable organizations, social welfare organizations, professional associations and private foundations.

In addition to providing tax planning and advisory services, Ms. Czerniawski specializes in matters related to ASC 740-10 (FIN 48), the reporting requirements that govern contributions, compensation, unrelated business taxable income, lobbying costs, and public support testing. She also represents her clients as an authorized representative before the Internal Revenue Service and various state agencies. Furthermore, Ms. Czerniawski’s experience includes serving clients with matters related to employee benefit plans, healthcare organizations and hospitals, affordable housing entities, foreign tax filings and payroll tax returns.

Prior to joining Marks Paneth, Ms. Czerniawski was a Senior Tax Manager with a national accounting firm, where she focused on tax consulting and compliance for many of their highest profile clients. She has published various articles on industry-specific tax matters and has served as a speaker for internal and external seminars.

Tara has over twenty years of experience working at public accounting firms with clients in all facets of the Nonprofit arena. In addition to serving clients, Tara was active in training staff and seniors in all aspects of the practice, and served as a technical advisor to her clients. Her experience with these clients, as well as overall industry knowledge, will give a distinctive advantage as a team member.

Prior to joining Sobel & Co. in 2017, Tara worked as a Senior Manager for a regional CPA firm in their nonprofit and employee benefit groups. In that capacity, Tara managed audit teams of between three to seven staff on clients in various areas of Nonprofit, including Social Service Organizations, Higher Education, Foundations and Trade Associations.

Tara was a Trustee, and the Treasurer of Holy Angels Academy in Demarest, NJ from 2006-2016. Tara is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants. Tara graduated from Felician University in 1998 with a Bachelors of Science in Accounting.

Allen L. Fetterman, CPA, MBA lectures extensively on not-for-profit accounting, auditing, federal single audits, tax-exempt issues and governance. He speaks at conferences, seminars and webcasts throughout the country. Allen was an assistant professor of accounting at a local college and has been a guest lecturer at Yale University and New York University. He has been a member of the Faculty Bank of the Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE). He is a past recipient of both the AICPA's and the FAE's Outstanding Discussion Leader Award. He has written articles published in national accounting periodicals in the United States and Israel on accounting and taxes for not-for-profit entities.

Allen has served on the American Institute of CPAs Not-for-Profit Organizations Committee, Not-for-Profit Audit and Accounting Guide Task Force and Joint Trial Board. He has chaired the New York State Society of CPAs Not-for-Profit Organizations, Professional Ethics, Audit, and Quality Controls Committees and the AICPA Joint Trial Board. He has also served as Vice-President of the New York State Society of CPAs and as a Trustee of the Foundation for Accounting Education.

Allen retired in 2003 from Loeb & Troper, where he spent thirty-six years serving not-for-profit entities as an auditor and consultant, the last twenty-five years as a partner. In addition to his client responsibilities, he was the partner in charge of the firm’s quality controls and technical resources.

Allen received his BBA in Accounting from The City College of New York in 1968 and his MBA in Accounting from the Bernard M. Baruch College in 1972. He was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma, the national honorary society in business. He received his CPA certificate in 1973 and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Allen has served on the governing boards of not-for-profit organizations, including positions as President, Treasurer and Chair of the Audit Committee and the Finance Committee.

Allen and Mimi, his wife of 51 years, live in West Nyack, New York. They have two sons and four grandchildren.

Brett R. Harris is a shareholder in the Corporate group at Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. Her broad-based general corporate practice consists of both transactional matters and day-to-day client counseling on everyday business matters. She has extensive transactional experience in stock and asset acquisitions representing both buyers and sellers. She has many years of experience in document drafting and negotiation, regulatory compliance matters and policy development for a full range of clients, including publicly-traded companies, closely-held businesses, health care practices, charitable organizations, governmental entities and individual business executives.

Ms. Harris has a particular focus on counseling non-profit organizations including entity formation, establishing and maintaining tax exempt status and complying with fundraising regulations. She counsels Boards on policy matters, mission statement development and strategic planning. In addition, she advises clients on structuring and operating family foundations, including grantmaking due diligence and administration of grant agreements.

Her intellectual property practice consists of trademark screening, trademark and copyright registrations, IP licensing matters, trade secret protections, issuing and responding to cease and desist letters and interfacing with the firm’s commercial litigation team on infringement matters.

Ms. Harris has developed a practice with an emphasis on technology issues. She represents software developers, online businesses and consulting firms. Ms. Harris also advises general business clients and non-profits in addressing technology concerns, including privacy, licensing, e-discovery, development of online policies and website disclaimers, e-commerce, domain name management, establishment of employee e-mail, Internet usage and BYOD policies and addressing legal issues related to social media.

Robert R. Lyons, CPA New York, NY Rob has 40 years of experience in the field of public accounting including experience with both regional and national Big 4 accounting firms. Rob’s emphasis has been in the not-for-profit tax and audit fields for the past thirty years. In addition to professional activities, he has taught and lectured in various advanced educational programs. Prior to Joining MP&S, Rob was the Director of Not-For-Profit Tax for KPMG’s New York office and had direct responsibility for tax operations for over 250 medium to large size not-for-profit clients including various pension trust activities. Rob’s specialization includes but is not limited to the areas of unrelated business income, use of for-profit subsidiaries, IRS intermediate sanctions, alternative investments and various other exempt organization reporting and compliance issues. In addition, he has consulted extensively with non-profits in the area of planned giving and development, expansion and growth potential. He has written numerous articles in the Journal of Taxation for Exempt Organizations and Tax Advisor Direct. Rob’s book credits include: Getting Started with Non-Profits, Non-Profits-Advanced Tax Issues, the 990 Workshop, CPA: Guide to Planned Giving, and Form 990: AICPA’s Answer to Unlocking the Tax Complexities. Rob is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the New York State Society of CPAs and is a CPA licensed to practice in New York State, Florida, the District of Columbia and Virginia.

Louis Mezzina is a Senior Advisor with the Not-for-Profit Services Practice at Prager Metis, a member of Prager Metis International Group. Lou brings over 40 years of experience serving a diverse array of not-for-profit clients.

Lou has worked closely with well over 100 colleges, universities, and other not-for-profit organizations, including AARP, American Heart Association, the Archdiocese of New York, Duke University, Fordham University, Johns Hopkins University, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the March of Dimes, Metropolitan Opera, the New York Community Trust, and Wildlife Conservation Society. Beyond accounting, auditing, and financial reporting, he has assisted organizations and the nonprofit sector with respect to operations, risk management, and governance.

Lou is a noted speaker and has presented often at industry conferences, including the AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry Conference, NACUBO’s Higher Education Accounting Forum, NJCPA Nonprofit Conference, and the GWSCPA Nonprofit Symposium. His many years of leadership and service have earned him the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ inaugural Business Partners Service Award and the NJCPA Service Medallion.

Brad is an assurance principal at CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP). He has significant experience in financial reporting, tax compliance and planning for closely held businesses, SEC registrants, nonprofit organizations and strategic business planning, and in industries, such as real estate, construction, architectural and engineering, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. Brad is a member of the AICPA and the NJCPA, and was a former NJCPA president. In addition, Brad has served as an adjunct professor of accounting at William Paterson University and the College of Saint Elizabeth.