Tennessee Society of Accounting Educators Conference

Dr. Charlie Apigian is the Practice Leader and AI Strategist for the data and AI practice at LBMC, where he guides organizations through AI strategy and transformation. Known around Nashville as "the data guy," he brings over 25 years of experience as a data scientist, educator, and community advocate.

Dr. Apigian is the author of AI Reimagined: A Leader's Guide to Thinking Different with Data (January 2026), a practical guide to AI strategy transformation that helps organizations move from vision to measurable outcomes. His approach combines deep technical expertise with strategic business acumen, translating complex data and AI concepts into actionable solutions.

A 2025 TEDx speaker, Dr. Apigian has published over 30 papers in data and technology journals and has been recognized as Nashville Technology Council's Data Scientist of the Year (2020) and IT Community Leader of the Year (2018, 2023).His work extends beyond business consulting to address community challenges including health inequities, human trafficking prevention, and youth mental health.

Kara Fitzgerald is President and CEO of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA), the premier professional association for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in Tennessee. She is responsible for carrying out the mission of TSCPA and the Educational and Memorial Foundation of TSCPA. Kara works in partnership with the TSCPA Board of Directors and Council to develop and execute the Society's strategic vision, always working to promote, protect and support the CPA profession in Tennessee. Additionally, she works with various committees and represents the membership with various governmental entities, including the Tennessee State Board of Accountancy, the Tennessee Department of Revenue and the Tennessee General Assembly.

An association executive with nearly 25 years of experience, Kara's career in association management began at the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, where she learned the value of a professional membership association. Kara then spent 10 years in various roles at the Tennessee Society of CPAs, most recently as Vice President – Operations, until she was named President and CEO in April 2021. Having spent her early career in public and private accounting, she understands the importance of protecting the CPA profession and maintaining its role as a trusted advisor.

Kara is a licensed CPA in the state of Tennessee and earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential, which is the marker of a committed association professional who has demonstrated the wide range of knowledge essential to manage an association in today's challenging environment. She also holds the credential of Chartered Global Management Accountant® (CGMA). Kara is a member of TSCPA, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Tennessee Society of Association Executives and the American Society of Association Executives.

Kara earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Tennessee Technological University. She lives in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee with her husband and two children. She enjoys travel and spending time with family.

Dr. Perry Moore is the Charles E. Frasier Chair of Accountancy and Director of the MAcc Program, at Lipscomb University's Pfeffer Graduate School of Business. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Internal Auditor, and is Certified in Risk Management Assurance. A Nashville native, Perry graduated from Lipscomb with a degree in accounting and then completed his graduate studies at the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia.

For the Tennessee Society of CPA's, Perry is a member of their Scholarship Committee. Perry has also directed their "Accounting Academy", a program designed to attract high school students to accounting careers.

Perry is active in the Institute of Internal Auditors. He has served as a Past-President of their Nashville Chapter. Perry is also a Past-President of Delta Mu Delta, an international honor society for business majors, where he currently serves as Treasurer.

Perry provides training for CPAs across the state of Tennessee on Professional Ethics. In 2023, the Tennessee Society of CPAs named Perry as a TSCPApex Award recipient in honor of his exemplary efforts and achievements in advancing the accounting profession through his leadership on the Tennessee State Specific Ethics CPE Program.

Perry serves as a member of the CPE Standards Working Group for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). In 2015, the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs honored Perry with their International Teaching Excellence Award. In 2022, the AICPA honored Perry with the Mark Chain/FSA Innovation in Graduate Teaching Award. He has also received teaching awards from the Tennessee Society of CPAs, Lipscomb University and the University of Georgia.

Mr. Dan Privott, CPA began his career at Coopers & Lybrand as an audit associate. He and his family moved to Nashville in 1996, where he worked for a short time at Deloitte, before learning Oracle Financials and becoming a systems architect and implementation consultant. He “retired” from consulting in 2022 to teach full-time at Belmont University. He also continues to teach at Cumberland University as an adjunct where he started the teaching phase of his career in 2015.

He has a broad range of teaching experience, across disciplines of accounting and business systems, including audit, tax, information systems, and project management. He has presented his classroom experience with NetSuite at national conferences and has written instructor materials for Oracle Academy.

Mr. Privott holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business from Wake Forest University and an MBA in Accounting and Finance from Vanderbilt University. He is an active CPA. Along the way, he also earned a PMP as a certified project manager. He most recently passed the Excel Expert certification.

When he is not teaching, he loves coaching girls softball, spending time with his kids and grandkids, and reading history.

Vernon J. Richardson is Distinguished Professor of Accounting and the Glezen Chair in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. He received his BA, MAcc, and MBA from Brigham Young University and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He was formerly an editor at Accounting Horizons and at the Accounting Review. He has published articles in the Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Operations Management, and Journal of Marketing.

Dr. Richardson enjoys teaching at all levels, and is passionate about revolutionizing accounting curricula with data analytics, as evidenced by his eight coauthored McGraw-Hill textbooks all emphasizing analytics. Python for Business Analytics textbook is forthcoming.

He shares freely analytics and AI instruction and assessment sites at Richlyanalytic.com and Richlyassess.com.

But he is proudest of all of his wife and 12 children.