APIPA 2018 Conference Instructors

Diane Arakaki

Diane Arakaki

Diane has over thirty-five (35) years of experience working in and for the public sector at the federal, state, city and special district government levels in the areas of financial leadership and management, and program/project management.

Diane is currently serving as an Administrative Services Officer for the Hawaii State Department of Transportation, Harbors Division. Prior to this, Diane served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), Administrative Services Officer for another state government agency in Hawaii, and similar positions with the regional transportation and land use planning agency in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area (Metro); the Portland Development Commission (PDC and now Prosper Portland); the Oregon State Department of Transportation; and Washington County, Oregon.

While at HART, Diane created and developed the financial team and functions including capital and operational budgeting, financial accounting and reporting, and internal controls of a new agency that was constructing the largest capital rail project in the United States--$9 billion. She also improved its financial, debt financing and operations and maintenance cost planning, and implemented an Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP).

Diane has also been with Ernst & Young in Los Angeles, the City of Santa Monica, California, federal agencies in Washington, D.C., and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

She received a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California specializing in Intergovernmental Management and Finance, and a Bachelors degree from Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

[top]
Frank Crawford

Frank Crawford

Frank Crawford is President of Crawford & Associates, P.C., Certified Public Accountants, an accounting firm located in Oklahoma City, OK. The firm specializes in providing auditing, consulting and accounting services solely to governmental entities and is a member of the AICPA and the Government Audit Quality Center. Over the last 31 years, Crawford & Associates has provided a variety of audit and accounting services to all sizes of government including many types of financial statement audits and attestation services, fraud investigations, internal control analysis, accounting policy and procedure development, outsourced internal auditing and internal monitoring, developing management anti-fraud programs and controls, quality assurance reviews, training, and expert witness services.

Mr. Crawford was the recipient of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) 2014 Private Sector Financial Excellence Award, an annual recognition of one individual who has been deemed by the AGA to have made significant contributions to the field of governmental financial management.

Frank was also recognized as a recipient of the Graduate School's "2010 Instructor Excellence Award". Quoting the Graduate School officials, "Your students and colleagues, as well as Graduate School Staff, honour and value the work that you do here, as evidenced by the many statements of support that praised your skills. Of the School's 800+ instructors, you are one of only thirteen who will receive this prestigious award this year."

Also, in 2008, Mr. Crawford completed a 4 year term as Chairman of the AICPA Government Expert Panel after serving on the Panel for 11 years, and is currently the Chairman of the Oklahoma Society of CPAs Government Accounting and Auditing Committee (19 years), and has also been involved in a number of other AICPA committees and task forces as they relate to governmental accounting and auditing, including the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee, the AICPA Government and Not-For-Profit Expert Panel, the AICPA Government Performance and Accountability Committee, the AICPA GASB 34 Audit Guide Revision Task Force, and the GASB's recent Financial Reporting Model revision Task Force. Mr. Crawford just completed a 4 year term as Chairman of the AICPA's annual Government and Not-For-Profit Training Conference after serving on the Planning Task Force of the Conference for the past 18 years.

Over the years, Mr. Crawford has assisted both the AICPA and GASB in the development of several implementation guides as a member of an advisory group, task force or technical content provider. His experience with GASB 34 implementation and audit issues dates back to June 30, 1999, as auditor of the first general-purpose government in the United States to implement the requirements of GASB 34.

Mr. Crawford is also currently working with many of the US states, territories, commonwealths and freely-associated compact governments on audit finding resolution and financial analysis projects and also serves as a technical consultant and advisor to a number of Federal Government Agencies.

Frank is a frequent lecturer, trainer and discussion leader for numerous groups, including U.S. Federal Government Agencies, various local and national CPA firms, a number of State Societies, and has also appeared in several AICPA continuing professional education videos and live satellite CPE broadcasts and Webcasts related to governmental accounting and auditing.

Commonly known as Frankie to clients, friends and family, Mr. Crawford has two children, 25 year-old daughter Madison, a Pediatric ICU RN, and 20 year-old son Blake, a two-time State Champion in HS tennis, and now playing NCAA college tennis as a redshirt freshman at Newman University in Wichita, KS. Mr. Crawford also has the good fortune to be married to Cindy Crawford (not the supermodel, but better).

[top]
Drummond Kahn

Drummond Kahn

Drummond Kahn serves on the faculty of the Graduate School USA, training auditors and financial managers in the U.S. and overseas. Since 1990, Mr. Kahn served in federal, state, and local government auditing positions, including Chief of Internal Audit Services for the Oregon Department of Transportation, Director of Audit Services for the City of Portland, State Audit Administrator for the Oregon Audits Division, and in the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Mr. Kahn is a past national President of the Association of Local Government Auditors. He teaches graduate courses at Portland State University’s Hatfield School of Government and in the University of Oregon’s Master of Accounting program.

In 2014, Mr. Kahn was named one of the 15 Most Influential Professionals in Government Auditing by the Institute of Internal Auditors’ American Center for Government Auditing, in recognition of “professionals who have positively impacted the practice of auditing in the public sector. In 2013, the Association of Government Accountants presented Mr. Kahn the Frank Greathouse Distinguished Leadership Award for "sustained, outstanding leadership in financial management, resulting in notable contributions to the profession."  In 2018, he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Local Government Auditors.

Mr. Kahn holds a master's degree from the University of Oregon and a bachelor's degree from Whitman College.  He is a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Government Financial Manager, and Certified Government Auditing Professional.  He has served on the Comptroller General’s Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards since 2009 and has chaired the Council since 2016.

[top]
Patricia Keehley, Ph.D.

Patricia Keehley, Ph.D.

Dr. Keehley has over 30 years of training and consulting experience on topics such as leadership, ethics, performance management and measures, and government auditing. She spent a significant portion of those years on Graduate School USA assignments throughout the U.S. and Pacific and US Virgin islands. Dr. Keehley previously delivered courses at several APIPA conferences and for the audit offices on Guam, CNMI, and Palau. She frequently facilitates the December conference of the Island Governments Finance Officers Association.

In 2009, Dr. Keehley served as a Fulbright scholar in Wuhan, China. Additionally, she was Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Public Administration program at Southern Utah University. She published the second edition of her book, "Benchmarking for the Public and Nonprofit Sectors," (Jossey-Bass, 2006), which includes several chapters on how to use measures and benchmarking in audit offices. Dr. Keehley worked for the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. and the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. She currently resides in Las Vegas with her husband and daughter.

[top]
Les Kondo

Les Kondo

In April 2016, Les Kondo was appointed by a joint session of the Hawaii State Legislature to serve as State Auditor for a term of eight years. Prior to his appointment as the State Auditor, Mr. Kondo was the Executive Director and General Counsel of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission. The Hawaii State Ethics Commission administers and enforces the State Ethics Code, which establishes the minimum standards of conduct for over 70,000 state employees and officials, including state legislators, and the State Lobbyist Law. Mr. Kondo previously served as a member of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission and was the Director of the Office of Information Practices. The Office of Information Practices is responsible for administering Hawaii’s open meetings law and public records law. Prior to 2003, Mr. Kondo was a litigation attorney in private practice. He also served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Herman T.F. Lum of the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Mr. Kondo received a Juris Doctor degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

[top]
Sophia Pretrick

Sophia Pretrick

Sophia is currently working at the Office of the Pohnpei State Auditor as an Investigative Adviser for the Compliance Investigation Division. Ms. Pretrick has been a Certified Fraud Examiner since 2003 with more than 18 years of experience in fraud investigation, detection and prevention of government fraud, waste and mismanagement.  Sophia earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from Park University in Missouri, and has a Graduate Diploma in Fraud Investigation from Charles Sturt University in Australia. She is also a Graduate of the Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP) class of 2013. 

Pretrick was formerly the Chief Investigator for the Office of the Yap State Public Auditor for 18 months and before that was the Chief Investigator for the Office of the FSM National Public Auditor, where she worked there for 12 years.

Her work involves conducting fraud investigations and assisting in civil and criminal prosecutions of cases involving financial crimes. In 2006, Pretrick was named as one of the FSM National Government’s Employee of the Year. During her tenure with the Office of the FSM National Public Auditor, she was detailed with the US Department of Interior, Office of Inspector General for three (3) months on-the job training (OJT). As a result of the OJT program, Pretrick initiated and implemented the first Fraud Awareness Program for the FSM. Pretrick also participated in major lead roles investigating high profile cases that lead to conviction. Currently she is assisting the Compliance Investigation Division of the Pohnpei State Office of Public Auditor; this includes expanding the skills and knowledge of fraud investigation capacity throughout the FSM States. 

Pretrick has gained National recognition for her achievements in the field of compliance investigation through such initiatives as developing and implementing the Fraud Awareness Prevention Program in the FSM.  She assisted the Office of the Pohnpei State Public Auditor in a Fraud Awareness parade focusing on youth groups and by doing proactive work visiting the schools, public officials, government employees including the general public. Recently she co-directed the Fraud Awareness video published recently entitled “Paddling Together for a Fraud-Free FSM.” 

She was formerly a Special Investigator for the FSM Department of Justice where she served as a member of the White Collar Crime Task Force.

[top]
David Rykken

David Rykken

David Rykken is a Supervisory Public Health Advisor at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

David has a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health Leadership and Management from the Fiji School of Medicine, a MPH in Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina, a Diploma from the United States Naval War College, and a BA from St. Olaf College and is a certified instructor.

David was the Chief of the Ancillary Services Division, in the Bureau of Hospital and Clinical Services, Ministry of Health (MOH) Republic of Palau (ROP). Other duties included: the HPP Coordinator, the HRSA Area Health Education Center Academic Coordinator, the HRSA Pacific Clinical Training Coordinator and the CDC Distance Learning Coordinator.

David has taught all of the Graduate School courses that lead to the Certificate in Grants Management and stays current on issues related to oversight and monitoring of grants. He has more than 15 years of experience writing, implementing and overseeing grants.

[top]
Beth Schubert

Beth Schubert

U.S. Department of the Interior employee Beth Schubert is the Office of Inspector General’s program coordinator for its Insular Areas Capacity Building Program. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) serves as the comptroller in the United States insular areas of Guam, CNMI, U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, and has audit responsibilities in the Federated States of Micronesia, The Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. Beth is the first full time coordinator for the program.

Beth is responsible for all OIG training and technical assistance in the insular islands and has launched a U.S. based training in OIG’s Colorado location, which is now in its third year. The training is available to Offices of the Public Auditor employees involved in audits and evaluations. Upon completion of this year’s program, 29 employees will have been trained onsite in Colorado, as well as numerous others through island-specific trainings during the past few years.

Beth started her federal career as an intern with the Department of the Interior in 2003, joining the OIG’s Colorado office in 2008. In 2010, she accepted a 2-year assignment located in Honolulu, and has worked in the islands on and off since 2010. In 2012, she became a supervisor, overseeing performance audits. During that time, she continued to work with the insular areas’ offices and has had the pleasure to visit the beautiful islands of American Samoa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Palau, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Yap.

Beth holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado, as well as master’s degree in policy management from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Her bachelor’s degree is in business administration with a specialization in finance from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She is a certified fraud examiner.

[top]
Jeanne Yamamura

Jeanne Yamamura, Ph.D.

Dr. Yamamura brings to APIPA more than thirty years of experience in industry and academia. She is licensed as a CPA in California and Nevada. She began as an auditor with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (now KPMG) in San Francisco, California, and moved on to work as an Audit Manager for Touche Ross & Co. in the Commonwealth of the N. Marianas. She provided internal audit services for county government and for an international financial services company. She has also worked in a variety of positions ranging from Assistant Controller to Vice President of Finance in the savings and loan industry.

Following the completion of her doctoral studies at WSU, Dr. Yamamura taught accounting information systems and auditing at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR). In 2005, she served as Chairman of the Nevada Society of CPAs, the first academic to hold the position in the organization's 58-year history. In recent years, she has been providing training to island governments throughout Micronesia and the Virgin Islands, teaching students in a sustainable MBA program, and developing content for online MBA programs.

She has written articles appearing in the Journal of Accountancy, the CPA Journal, and the Internal Auditor as well as numerous academic journals. Her research focuses on the management of professionals and includes examination of factors impacting ethical judgments as well as the impact of cultural differences.

Dr. Yamamura received a Master of International Management from Thunderbird, American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration – Accounting from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.

[top]