Speakers

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Dawn Alston

Dawn Alston is the senior vice president for Business and Financial Affairs and chief financial officer and treasurer at Spelman College. This appointment in 2019 marked a new chapter in her distinguished 20-year career at the institution. In this significant role, Alston oversees the Division of Business and Financial Affairs, ensuring the College’s financial health and operational excellence.

 

A native of Washington, D.C., Alston has been with Spelman since 1999, initially joining as a research technician in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry. Over her 17-year tenure in the Division of Business and Financial Affairs, she was responsible for budgetary oversight of Administrative Support and auxiliary services. In her new role, she manages Facilities Management and Services, the Office of Human Resources, and the Office of the Controller. She also shares oversight of Public Safety and Dining Services with the Division of Student Affairs.

 

Before her tenure at Spelman, Alston served as a compliance officer at the Department of Defense and worked as an adjunct biology instructor at Wofford College and Tri-County Technical College. Her diverse background and extensive experience within Spelman have uniquely prepared her for this leadership role. Alston’s strategic vision and financial expertise are expected to drive Spelman College towards achieving its strategic goals, ensuring the institution’s continued growth and success. Her leadership is instrumental in upholding the College’s mission of supporting stellar students, faculty, and staff, and fostering an environment of excellence.

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Ashley Ensley

Ashley Ensley is the National Sector Leader for Financial Services at Forvis Mazars, providing strategic leadership for the firm's banking and capital markets, asset management, credit union, insurance, fintech, and digital assets practices. In this role, she helps shape growth strategy, talent development, industry innovation, with focus on the firm's Unmatched Client Experience® across the sector. Ashley also serves as co-chair and U.S. representative on the Forvis Mazars Global Financial Services Committee.

 

With more than 20 years of experience, Ashley advises financial institutions ranging from SEC registrants and large regional banks to community banks, investment funds, and emerging fintech organizations. She specializes in external audit, internal controls, SOX and FDICIA compliance, SEC reporting, and governance matters. She has assisted clients through numerous merger transactions and advises organizations on accounting and regulatory developments, public company readiness, internal audit and risk management programs, and complex financial reporting matters.

 

In addition to serving clients, Ashley is a frequent resource for firm personnel and industry stakeholders on emerging accounting, regulatory, and strategic issues affecting the financial services industry. She is committed to developing future leaders within the profession while helping clients navigate evolving market expectations, technology transformation, and regulatory change. Ashley is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and TXCPA and is a frequent speaker at national and state industry conferences on accounting, regulatory developments, strategy, governance, and emerging industry trends. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Accountancy from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

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Doreen Levine

Doreen Levine is a Partner at Ernst & Young LLP and is the Americas FAAS Health & Life Sciences Sector Leader and the Consumer and Health Industry Leader. She focuses on assisting companies with accounting, reporting and project management related to transaction events (IPO’s, acquisitions, divestitures), sustainability initiatives, finance transformations and adoption of new accounting standards. She primarily supports public, private and entrepreneurial companies in the health and life sciences sector. Her experience also includes companies in the consumer health, technology, media & entertainment, and industrial products sectors.

 

Doreen provides accounting and reporting assistance for client’s acquisitions, divestitures and other capital markets transactions, including public and private company equity and debt offerings. She has supported large Finance Transformations by providing accounting and reporting experience, including ERP and other financial statement related software. She also advises clients on a broad range of topics such as reporting (financial and non-financial), internal controls, and reporting and governance around their sustainability initiatives. Her vast breadth of experiences includes significant project management while working with cross border and cross functional teams.

 

She joined Ernst & Young in 2004. Prior to her current FAAS role, she was an EY National resident covering various accounting topics and prior to that was in the EY audit practice for 8 years.

 

Doreen holds a B.S. and M.S. degree in Accounting from Syracuse University, and co-leads EY’s recruiting at Syracuse University. She is a Certified Public Accountant in New York and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

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Denise Lucas

Denise Lucas is Vice President & Assistant Controller, Responsible Business and Technology at IBM, where she oversees the Responsible Business controllership as well as AI governance for IBM Finance & Operations. Her team manages mandatory environmental, social, and governance reporting, partners with key stakeholders, and drives a strong management system for IBM’s responsible business activities and non-financial reporting. She also leads efforts to operationalize AI governance requirements and embed responsible technology principles into IBM’s culture and daily execution.

 

With almost 20 years of finance and accounting experience, Denise previously served as ESG Assistant Controller and Director of Accounting Policy & External Reporting, where she managed global accounting policies and SEC filings. She also worked within Investor Relations, led IBM Accounting’s role in the $34B acquisition of Red Hat, and assisted in the implementation of various accounting standards, including ASC 606 and ASC 842 standards.

 

Earlier in her career, Denise spent nine years at Deloitte. Beginning her career in the assurance practice, followed by two years in Deloitte's National Office Accounting Services group focusing on revenue, leases, and leading the business combinations team.

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Ellie May

Ellie May was elected Senior Vice President and Controller of The Coca-Cola Company in May 2023 and appointed Chief Accounting Officer effective June 1 2024. In this role she overseas the Accounting and Reporting; Controls, Policy and Governance; Sustainability Reporting and Governance; and Enterprise Risk Management functions for the global company.

 

Prior to joining Coca-Cola, Ellie was an audit partner serving companies in the retail and consumer products industry for over 20 years. May was also a partner in EY’s National Accounting practice in New York and spent three years in EY’s capital markets and audit practices in Germany and Belgium. In these roles, she has been responsible for overseeing the global audits of large multinational companies, supervising engagement teams, monitoring standard-setting activities, and developing EY’s interpretive guidance on the topic of revenue recognition.

 

Throughout her career, Ellie also served other public and private clients in various audit and advisory capacities in industries including manufacturing, logistics, service and healthcare. Ellie is active professionally and in the community. She is a member of FEI’s Committee on Corporate Reporting, the SEC Regulations Committee of the Center for Audit Quality and the UGA CFO Roundtable Advisory Board and serves on the board of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta.

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Carmelina Pagliero

Carmelina is a Certified Public Accountant with over 25 years of valuable business experience in both public and corporate accounting. She has experience in the application of US GAAP to client contracts, financial statements, and internal and external/SEC reporting. She leads innovation and change in financial processes through technology and data analytics. Carmelina fosters creativity and collaborative thinking across the organization.

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Christine Tammara

Christine Tammara assumed the role of Senior Vice President and Controller of PepsiCo in May 2025. As PepsiCo’s Principal Accounting Officer, Christine oversees PepsiCo’s global financial reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley processes, division controllership, and other corporate control departments, including shared services. In this role, Christine works closely with PepsiCo’s Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and leads PepsiCo’s control transformation initiatives. Christine has over two decades of experience in accounting, external and internal reporting, auditing, controls and automation. Prior to this role, Christine served as Senior Vice President, Controller, PepsiCo Beverages North America since June 2023, where she drove the sector's control agenda, oversaw financial reporting and control execution, and partnered with the business on accounting and transformation solutions.

 

Prior to that, Christine served as Senior Vice President and General Auditor from February 2021 to June 2023. During her tenure as General Auditor, Christine led the audit function to continue delivering core assurance to PepsiCo and the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and established a strategic agenda focused on expanding the utilization of technology and data, promoting new ways of working and building a diverse team. Since joining PepsiCo in 2007, Christine has held various positions within Corporate Control, including Vice President and Assistant Controller, Technical Accounting and Policy, with responsibility for setting the accounting policy and Sarbanes-Oxley agenda, as well as functional stewardship for the Control teams in Global Procurement, Information Technology and the Global Groups. During this time, she has overseen the accounting for multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, the implementation of various efficiencies (including driving automation and streamlining accounting policies) and the global adoption of new accounting standards. She is also active in roundtable discussions with consumer product group controllers.

 

Prior to joining PepsiCo, Christine was Associate Director of External Reporting at The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., and started her business career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. Christine is a CPA and holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Economics-Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross.

 

She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and NY State Society of CPAs. Christine is based in Purchase, N.Y.