Position 5

GFOA Activities

• GFOA Member for twenty years
• Served on GFOA’s Canadian Issues Committee (2004-2009 and 2012-2017) and was co-chair of its Standards Committee
• Past GFOA Annual Conference speaker and training presenter on Planning and Costing (San Antonio, 2011); The Halifax Experience with Municipal Tax Reform (Seattle, 2009); Building a Multi-year Financial Strategy (Denver, 2002)

Contributions to the Profession/Jurisdiction

• During career worked for all three levels of government: federal, provincial, and municipal
• Recommended budget process for senior management and Regional Council; led annual budget cycle including broad financial strategy, expenditure levels, debt targets, and municipal tax rates; managed relationships with and between departments on budget issues
• Moved current organization from a single-year focus to multi-year focus; created low-income support for taxpayers and significant support for city building initiatives including Regional Plan
• Drove an initiative to end the area tax rating of volunteer fire departments, which led to a stronger, more equitable rural fire service and helped bring the rural and urban parts of the community together
• Served as president of the Association of Municipal Administrators for Nova Scotia; during term worked towards more sustainable funding; strengthening the mandate to work closely with its sister organization, the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities and, updating its governance structure to provide stronger service
• Lectured at the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, on topics of Financial Administration and Budgeting; designed and taught courses for Masters of Public Administration program including Executive MPA and Distance Education MPA
• Participated in two international volunteer initiatives through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), one in the Ukraine and one in Sri Lanka
• Provided consulting for the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board on municipal restructurings; qualified as an expert witness
• Mentor to students
• MPA, CPA, CMA certifications

Goals for GFOA

GFOA should enable excellence in Public Finance for government through the following ways:

• Share information among members through conferences, best practices, research, webinars, and publications
• Offer training opportunities for members
• Provide services to Members including consulting
• Advocate on Public Finance issues
• Promote and encourage diversity

Education

Dalhousie University, Master of Public Administration

University of Kings College, Bachelor of Arts – Political Science