AGA TOPICS Newsletter

Former AGA Staffer Attains CGFM

In the past, Lisa Thatcher attended AGA conferences as an AGA National Office staff member to oversee the awards and governance programs. In the future, she’ll be attending for CPE.

We often introduce new staff members who come to us from the profession we serve. But rarely, if ever, have we had the privilege to acknowledge the accomplishments of an AGA staff member who has left the National Office to join the profession.

This month, Lisa Thatcher, MPA, will be the first former AGA staffer to become a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM). Lisa, 39, left AGA two years ago for the private sector, gaining the professional experience needed to qualify for the certification.

Her journey to the CGFM began in February of 1999 when she was hired as the executive assistant to then-Executive Director Charles W. Culkin Jr., CGFM.

Deputy Executive Director of Programs—and now Lisa’s good friend—Susan Fritzlen joked that they almost didn’t hire Lisa because she was late for her interview.

“I was late because of a snow storm,” Lisa said with a chuckle. She admits that when she first heard the name of the Association, she was intimidated. “I wasn’t sure I wanted the job.”

At first she was tasked with arranging Charlie’s travel and a variety of other administrative duties. Eventually, she got involved with helping him to launch AGA’s Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR) Program. Later, he asked her to call the Sloan Foundation about funding for what eventually became AGA’s other Certificate of Excellence Program—in Service Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) Reporting. By the time she left AGA, she was directing both certificate programs as well as AGA’s governance and awards programs.

Lisa credits her work on the CEAR Program for sparking her interest in a government financial management career. “When I was reading all those PARs,” she said, referring to the federal Performance and Accountability Reports, “I caught the bug to cross over to the profession.”

A Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in the 1990s, she credits her long history of embracing important issues as a further impetus for pursuing a career that would help to bring accountability to government. “I care about causes, so helping the government become more effective is as important as some of the sexier causes,” she said.

She took the logical first step by pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at American University in Washington, D.C., graduating in May of 2005.

Shortly after finishing school, she began thinking about the CGFM. At that time, she was employed by Unisys and was seeing the benefit of having the certification, both from her perspective as a government contractor and from the perspective of her employer. More and more often, she said, they were seeing CGFM listed as a preferred credential for those working on government contracts. Earning the credential would help the firm compete.

There were other reasons for pursuing the CGFM, she said. “There was personal growth and development, as well as the challenge. It was also a subject matter I am so interested in. Government financial management interests me.”

She moved to AOC Solutions in October of last year and found tremendous support among her new employers for her pursuit of the CGFM. “They were all over it,” she said. “They paid for all of it.” She was pleased when AOC’s last proposal mentioned that she had passed two of the three CGFM Examinations. “It shows I’m in the world.”

Gaining entry into that world, however, turned out to be much more complicated than she had initially anticipated. “It was so hard,” she said of taking the exams. “Definitely harder than I expected.” Lisa said she took full advantage of everything AGA offers to prepare for the exams—she took all the self-assessment tests, used the three study guides, took the three preparatory classes—one of them twice—and found a mentor. Course 2, Governmental Accounting, Financial Reporting and Budgeting, was “mind boggling.”

She focused the majority of her study efforts on the state and local government topics because she’d had the least amount of exposure to that arena before beginning the CGFM process. “I read GASB publications,” she said. “I didn’t take anything for granted.”

Now that she is officially “in that world,” she might be interested in working for the Office of Management and Budget, the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Department of State down the road. “But for now, I love what I’m doing (with AOC),” she said.

In the meantime, she remains an active member of AGA’s Washington, D.C. Chapter and participates in the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM) meetings and activities.

“I am very proud of Lisa for attaining her CGFM,” Charlie Culkin said. “It represents the culmination of four to five years of dedicated and hard work, which began with her attaining her MPA at American University. While she was completing her degree, she was gaining an understanding of government financial management while she was director of AGA's CEAR and SEA Programs. With her CGFM, she can now expand her career horizons. Congratulations Lisa!”

When Lisa looks back at her five years at the AGA National Office, she remembers the people. “The people I worked with on the staff, the board members. These were people who really care about what they do. They were really inspiring.”

Well done, Thatch.

By: Marie Sullivan Force