VSCPA Ignite

Cecilia Dahl

Cecilia Dahl is an award-winning business executive, author, and the founder of The Remote Leadership Lab. With decades of experience leading teams and scaling businesses, she understands the challenges that come with managing remote teams firsthand. As the co-founder of Smart Destinations, which she grew to a hundred-million-dollar enterprise, Cecilia navigated the transition to a fully remote team, discovering that strong communication, intentional leadership, and building trust were key to success. 

Her passion is helping leaders build high-performing remote teams that thrive. Cecilia believes that great communication is the foundation of effective teamwork, and she has made it her mission to teach leaders how to foster engagement, connection, and collaboration—regardless of geographic distance. Through The Remote Leadership Lab, she equips leaders with actionable tools to overcome communication challenges, reduce workplace anxiety, and drive real results. 

Her work has empowered countless remote leaders to unlock their team’s full potential, creating environments where distance is no barrier to success. In this workshop, Cecilia will share the strategies and insights that helped her build strong, successful teams, offering participants a blueprint for communication excellence.

Gary Thomson

Gary is a CPA and advisor to CPA firms. After a 34-year career in public accounting, Gary launched Thomson Consulting LLC as a platform to assist firms and their leaders to be future-ready. Gary was recently recognized by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting.  He is a past chair of the VSCPA and past member of AICPA Council. 

Jaideep Singh

Jaideep is the co-founder and CEO of Fly Fin, with 20 years of experience in building AI companies, and a proven track record of creating successful startups that have created over $3 billion in value. He is passionate about combining AI/ML with CPAs to build a game-changing tax solution. He has a BS and MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Brent McDaniel

Brent McDaniel is the Chief Digital Officer at Aprio, where he leads a dynamic technology team focused on driving growth through intelligent automation, data activation, and creating the industry’s best client experiences. With a passion for innovation and a relentless drive to shape the future, Brent partners with Aprio’s leadership and management to develop transformative solutions that enhance operations, empower team members, and deliver exceptional client results.

Bringing nearly 30 years of experience, Brent has a proven track record of aligning technology with business strategies to achieve measurable growth. His knowledge spans building organizations from the ground up – including scaling a startup into the world’s largest financial exchange – and implementing impactful, scalable solutions. At Aprio, Brent specializes in simplifying complexity and designing actionable roadmaps that fuel the firm’s strategic objectives.

Marnette Myers

Marnette Myers is a Partner at Prager Metis CPAs, a member of Prager Metis International Group.  Ms. Myers is a Certified Public Accountant and an attorney licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Marnette has over 20 years of experience in the accounting profession with an expertise in overseeing and supervising the preparation of not-for-profit, corporate, partnership, fiduciary and individual tax returns. Marnette works with closely-held businesses to develop strategies to reduce taxes for the business as well as the owners.  She also gives regular presentations to local groups and organizations regarding tax planning and changes in tax laws and regulations.

Marnette has been recognized by the Northern Virginia Magazine and the Washingtonian Magazine as a top tax advisor in the Metropolitan D.C. area for several years.

Prior to joining Prager Metis in 2019, she was the Director of Tax at Frank & Company, and also worked as an attorney in the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting) for the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.

Tina Bates

Tina Bates, CAE, is the senior vice president of strategy and innovation at the Virginia Society of CPAs (VSCPA). A member of executive management, she helps drive VSCPA organizational goals and strategic vision to empower members and the CPA profession to thrive. She oversees the organization’s member growth and engagement strategies, ecommerce and technology transformation efforts as well as marketing, communications, branding and reputation management. She also leads the VSCPA Technology & Innovation Council to help the profession stay at the forefront of innovative and emerging technologies.

A Certified Association Executive (CAE) and graduate of the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Organizational Management (IOM), Tina has 25+ years of association experience. She's a past chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Association/Nonprofit Section and the PRSA Richmond Chapter, and has served in volunteer leadership roles with the American Society for Association Executives (ASAE) and the Virginia Society of Association Executives (VSAE).

Tina received her bachelor’s degree in history and communications from the University of Virginia’s College at Wise and her master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Mass Communications. 

Karen Preston

Karen Benoy Preston is a trailblazing executive and team coach, dedicated to empowering senior leaders and high-performing teams to achieve authentic alignment and sustainable success. As President of EMCC USA, Karen is passionate about advancing coaching excellence nationwide, fostering a community grounded in growth, innovation, and transformational leadership.

An ICF-certified PCC with master-level experience, Karen brings over 2,500 hours of coaching to global powerhouses including IBM, Chevron, EY, Google, Salesforce, and AMEX, while also partnering with public sector entities such as US Air Force, FAA, DHS, DoD, and DCSA, as well as many mid-sized organizations and fast-growing start-ups. She has honed an extraordinary ability to unlock the potential 
within individuals and teams. Karen guides senior leaders from merely surviving to finding their true voice, taking bold, aligned action, and building cultures where people genuinely thrive. Her approach to leadership transformation is grounded in authenticity, purpose, and a deep commitment to cultivating resilient, values-centered leaders who create meaningful impact.

Karen’s pioneering work in values has led to the creation of the bTrue™ Method, a powerful tool that reveals misalignments and helps individuals and teams realign with the values most critical to their success and fulfillment. Through greater self-awareness and collective alignment, Karen enables leaders to break free from fear-based mindsets, overcome organizational inertia, and foster environments where integrity and performance coexist seamlessly.

As a certified Systemic Team Coach, Karen empowers organizations to navigate complex challenges with clarity, cohesion, and confidence. Drawing on profound and proven frameworks, she partners with senior leaders and their teams to lead effectively through volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA).

Karen thrives in high-stakes environments — integrating new leaders, navigating post-M&A culture shifts, driving succession planning, and supporting fast-growing start-ups. She partners with leaders through uncertainty, anxiety, and complexity, helping them cultivate psychological safety and build cohesive, high-performing teams.

Certified in the Leadership Circle Profile, Hogan Assessments, EQ-i 2.0, iEQ9 Enneagram, and other advanced leadership tools, Karen blends data-driven insight with deep relational intelligence. She draws on proven team-coaching methodologies to guide teams through stakeholder mapping, defining purpose, and co-creating behavioral norms that strengthen collective accountability.

Her work surfaces hidden dynamics, aligns teams around shared values, and builds the trust and transparency required for sustainable transformation. A catalyst for growth, Karen has coached leaders into partnership roles, empowered teams to gain autonomy from parent organizations, and inspired countless clients to embrace authentic, values-based leadership that creates measurable impact across 
their organizations — and beyond.

At the heart of Karen’s vision is the belief that true leadership is not about titles or power — it’s about aligning actions with core values, empowering others to thrive, and building cultures rooted in integrity, respect, and purpose. As a coach, leader, and community builder, she continues to pioneer pathways for leaders to rise with resilience, authenticity, and a fearless commitment to what truly matters.

Lisa Chenofsky

Lisa Chenofsky Singer is a purpose-driven executive, leadership and team coach; mentor coach and supervisor; and change management practitioner who helps individuals, teams, and organizations grow through transformational coaching and change. She is the owner of Chenofsky Singer & Associates LLC.

Rachel Boehm

Dr. Rachel Boehm helps leaders predict and transform human behavior in the workplace, including their own, during times of change management and constant chaos. She solves people and process problems within and across teams. She helps transform reactive work environments and hustle cultures into ones that support sustainable high performance.

Kevin Matthews

Dr. Kevin Matthews, CPA, Ed.D., SHRM-CP, MST, MBA, MAcc, has over 20 years of financial and accounting experience and 10 years of HR experience. He specializes in International Taxation, Real Estate transactions, Government Contractors, and other Small Businesses (corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships.) Matthews came to the accounting industry after over eight years of service in the U.S. Navy.

Marnette Myers

Marnette Myers is a Partner at Prager Metis CPAs, a member of Prager Metis International Group.  Ms. Myers is a Certified Public Accountant and an attorney licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Marnette has over 20 years of experience in the accounting profession with an expertise in overseeing and supervising the preparation of not-for-profit, corporate, partnership, fiduciary and individual tax returns. Marnette works with closely-held businesses to develop strategies to reduce taxes for the business as well as the owners.  She also gives regular presentations to local groups and organizations regarding tax planning and changes in tax laws and regulations.

Marnette has been recognized by the Northern Virginia Magazine and the Washingtonian Magazine as a top tax advisor in the Metropolitan D.C. area for several years.

Prior to joining Prager Metis in 2019, she was the Director of Tax at Frank & Company, and also worked as an attorney in the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting) for the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.

Taylor Steffan

Taylor Steffan, LCSW, J.D., is a licensed clinical social worker and attorney. As a therapist in private practice, Steffan supports professionals in high-pressure careers as they navigate work-life balance and stress management. She has a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, a master’s in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.