Position 5

Barbara Whitehorn, MBA, CTP, currently serves as director of financial services for the City of Sedona, Arizona. A long-time participant in GFOA programs, Barbara has served on the Committee on Retirement and Benefits Administration (2012–current) and the Committee on Budgeting and Fiscal Policy (2019–2022), and has been a featured speaker at GFOA conferences, most recently in 2024 at the session “Doing Your Homework: Due Diligence for Financial Services Providers.” She is an active member of GFOA’s Women’s Public Finance Network (WPFN), LGBTQIA+ Caucus, and Small Government Forum, and previously served as president of WPFN (2019–2020).

Barbara is a graduate of GFOA’s Advanced Government Finance Institute and the Leadership Academy and has drawn on GFOA best practices throughout her career—from working to secure voter support for $74 million in infrastructure bonds in Asheville, North Carolina, to strengthening financial policies and audit outcomes in the multiple cities she worked for including Asheville, San Bernardino, California, and Sedona, Arizona. Barbara’s commitment to ethics, transparency, and professional development continues to guide her work, and she is pursuing the CPFO designation. Her goals for GFOA include expanding collaboration with state associations to strengthen local government advocacy and supporting the next generation of finance leaders.