2025 OSCPA Strategic Leadership Forum & Annual Meeting (1 1/2 days) [NT] – Newport

Carla McCall is Managing Partner of AAFCPAs, a preeminent, 350-person CPA and consulting firm based in New England. She is also Chair of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Carla was named one of the Most Powerful Women in the Accounting Profession in 2020-2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by the AICPA and CPA Practice Advisor Magazine. Her dynamic executive leadership, bold practicality, and enthusiasm to embrace change is setting the standard for mission driven, growth organizations.

Carla has been an instrumental force in the evolution of AAFCPAs, responsible for driving the expansion of services for our sophisticated clients beyond the core audit and tax, such as outsourced accounting, wealth management, robotic process automation, IT & cyber security, system selection & implementation, and data analytics. She thinks about the client in everything she does and puts AAFCPAs' customers in the center, at the core of our business, to provide a positive experience and meet their evolving needs.

Carla recognizes the importance of setting an influential tone at the top to inspire AAFCPAs' people-first culture and core values. In 2011, she launched AAFCPAs' Women's Opportunity Network (WON), which serves as a platform to ensure women have a clear path to leadership. In 2017, recognizing the need to expand on diversity, equity, and inclusion, Carla launched the firm's DEIB initiative. In 2018, she established the firm's Innovation Lab and Changemaker Challenge, where team members are encouraged to question everyday processes and think like entrepreneurs. And in 2021, Carla launched the firm's Automation Initiative, supported by the firm's in-house Data Analytics/Robotic Process Automation team, to help our teams realize measurable results through more efficient and effective working infrastructures. "We can only grow by nurturing and embracing innovation that helps us 'work smarter, not harder,'" said Carla. In 2022, She launched the firm's Zip2CPA credentialing accelerator program, as well as the firm's E3 Intern Accelerator Program, designed to provide opportunities for new accounting professionals who are traditionally underrepresented in the industry.

Carla commits a great deal of her personal time to mentoring young professionals and serving nonprofits so that both may benefit from her knowledge and experience in order to thrive. She leads with authenticity and her commitment to service, volunteerism, and purposeful work is contagious. She inspires new pathways to growth, sustainability, and excellence.

(03/18/25)

Jennifer Wilson

Jennifer is co-founder and partner of ConvergenceCoaching ®, LLC, a national consulting firm that helps leaders achieve success. She is a frequent speaker, writer and thought leader on topics related to leadership, talent, technology and managing change within the CPA profession. Named in the top ten of Accounting Today’s 100 Most Influential People in Accounting, CPA Practice Advisors’ Top 25 Thought Leaders and AICPA and CPA Practice Advisor’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting, Jen is an experienced change agent, shifting mindsets, business models, and empowering Next Generation leaders. She is also an avid runner, hiker, yogi, gardener, wife and mother of 3.

John Hawkins, CPA, JD, is originally from Tennessee. In 1984, he received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. During the time he attended Belmont, John met and married Mary Rowell, who was a native of Salem Oregon. After receiving his accounting degree, John wanted to go to law school. Mary wanted to go back home. Willamette University was the solution. He began working at Grove, Mueller & Swank (now REDW LLC) in 1986, after his second year of law school. John received his law degree from Willamette University College of Law in 1987. He took and passed the bar exam, the CPA exam and became a dad all within 10 weeks during the summer of 1987.

He is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, Oregon Society of CPAs, and the Oregon State Bar. He is active with the Oregon Department of Revenue / OSB Tax / OSCPA Liaison Committee and the OSCPA's Estate Planning Committee. John is currently the vice chair of the board for the OSCPA and will be chair of the board for OSCPA effective April 1, 2024. He is a past president of the Willamette Valley Estate Planning Council.

John is currently a member on the Governor's Council of Revenue Forecast Advisors, which assists Oregon's State Economist in developing tax revenue projections. He has also been an adjunct professor at Willamette University, teaching a tax class in the MBA program at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management (1991 to 2003).

(1/31/24)

Selene L. Sullivan is managing partner at Polaris CPA Consultants, LLC in Coburg. She is a Eugene native and she loves it. Selene attended Eugene Bible College, now known as New Hope Christian College. After receiving her CPA license, she became a partner to the business, merged, and helped create Principle Accounting (formerly HPBQ). She went on to create Polaris CPA Consultants, LLC.

Selene is highly involved with her community. She serves as Chair of OSCPA Legislative Policy. She served on the board of the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants as Chair. She has served as the Chair of the board of at CAFA (Christians of Family Advocates) for over 10 years. When she finds time away from her busy schedule, she enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, cooking, reading, hiking, and kayaking.

(4/26/23)

Adam Abplanalp serves as Managing Partner & CEO at Cobalt, P.C., a real estate-focused CPA firm located in Portland, Oregon and Honolulu, Hawai'i, which he founded in 2015. Adam's practice focuses on providing tax, accounting, and advisory services, primarily to real estate owners, investors, managers, brokers, and developers. 

As part of his public accounting practice, Adam is a recognized expert in Oregon, Washington, and Hawai'i state and local tax laws, tax planning, and compliance, and he routinely testifies before and works with the Oregon Legislature, Oregon Department of Revenue, City of Portland Revenue Division, and various other state and local tax authorities. Adam is a frequent speaker on real estate and state and local taxation, both for CPAs and for real estate industry professionals. Since 2018, Adam has also served on the City of Portland's Revenue Division Appeals Board. 

In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Oregon, Hawai'i, New York, and Washington, he holds a Chartered Professional Accountant license in British Columbia, Canada, is a Certified Fraud Examiner, and is licensed as a Real Estate Principal Broker in Oregon and Managing Broker in Washington. 

Adam has been an OSCPA member since 2010, has served as a leader on various OSCPA committees, and is the 2024-25 OSCPA Board Vice Chair.

(3/19/24)

Jason serves as Partner in Charge of Talbot Korvola & Warwick’s Tax Department. He joined TKW in 2002 after fourteen years with a national accounting firm. As a licensed CPA and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), he is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA). Jason is a Past Chair of the OSCPA and participates as a coach in the Society’s Coaching Program. Over the years, he has presented for the OSCPA as well as numerous other organizations in local and national conferences. Jason’s expertise is in providing tax consulting and planning services to middle-market businesses, their owners, and tax exempt organizations. He also specializes in state and local compliance issues and Internal Revenue Service representations. Another of his strong suits is advising clients with regard to the tax aspects of business sales or purchases, business entity choice and business structure. Jason graduated from the University of Utah with Bachelor of Science degrees in both Accounting and Finance and a Master of Professional Accountancy with an emphasis in taxation. He and his wife are the proud parents of three children: one daughter and two sons. Jason enjoys fly fishing and other outdoor activities; volunteering for his church; spending time at the coast; and listening to his wife play her fiddle (she plays bluegrass, swing, jazz and Celtic music).

Nicole Palmateer Hazelbaker is a strategic communications expert with experience in government affairs, fundraising, campaign management and public relations. Nicole founded Bravio Communications in 2005 and serves a diverse client base in the pharmaceutical, social, and human services, public safety, technology, financial and corporate interests.

Prior to establishing Bravio Communications, Nicole served in various development and government relations roles with high profile national non-profits. She achieved a national presence for an at-risk youth mentoring program and revitalized local affiliates of a breast cancer advocacy group. She has managed government relations efforts, built comprehensive communications campaigns to raise brand awareness, crafted fund development campaigns and implemented legislative plans to build coalitions and secure funding. Bravio Communications is one of the only minority owned lobbying firms in Oregon and is a certified Oregon Minority & Women Owned Business Enterprise.

Nicole is known for her solid legislative relationships at the local, national, and federal levels. Whether the work demands passage or defeat of bills, appropriations, or coalition building, she advances her clients' agendas efficiently and effectively.

Nicole holds a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Public Relations and Communications from George Fox University as well as a Master's in Political Science from the George Washington University. Nicole, an adopted orphan from Latin America, is the sixth generation of her family to graduate from rural Elkton High School and remains active in the communities of Elkton and Salem, Oregon, where she currently resides.  

(3/9/22)

Sherri McPherson, IOM, CAE, is President/CEO of the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants.

As chief staff of OSCPA, and its membership of nearly 3,900 members, McPherson works with volunteers, professional staff and various stakeholders to represent, support, advocate and enthusiastically advance the Accounting profession. The Society’s membership represents five generations, comprised of CPAs, prospective CPAs, students, former CPAs, retired and life members in all phases of their diverse careers. OSCPA represents individual members located in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, nationally and internationally as well as Oregon CPA firms. 

She joined the Society in 1981 and has held the position of President/CEO since 2011. She held several prior positions with the Society, including prior as Director, Continuing Professional Education, and Vice President, Professional Development from 1989 to 2011. 

McPherson is a member and former Board member of Certified Public Accountants Society Executives Association (CPA/SEA) where she serves on volunteer activities supporting the profession. She is also a Past President of Oregon Society of Association Management (OSAM), and a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

(7/18/23)