PDI 2024 Retrospective: Women Leading in DoD

The Society of Defense Financial Management (SDFM) Armed Forces Comptroller (AFC) Journal has just published an article authored by Williams Adley’s very own Director Erika Correll, CPA, CISA, CFE, CGFM, PMP, CDPSE. Appearing in the Summer 2024 PDI Retrospective issue, the article covers the moderated session on Women Leading in DoD that Erika led at PDI 2024 in Phoenix, AZ.  

With a focus on the importance of effective succession planning for ensuring mission delivery, this session was the latest installment in our massively popular Women Leading in DoD series and featured a panel of experts that included USAFMCOM Commanding General BG Paige Jennings, DFAS Cleveland Deputy Site Director Elaine Ortiz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Operations) Mobola Kadiri, DoD Deputy Comptroller for Program/Budget Anne McAndrew, and USSOCOM CFO/Comptroller Tesa Lanoy.

Informed by the unique perspective that each of these leaders has cultivated throughout their highly successful careers, the session surveyed the key components of succession planning and offered guidance for developing an effective succession planning strategy tailored to the specific needs of an agency. Our panelists discussed the best approaches for recruiting and preparing talent to take on vital leadership positions, retaining institutional knowledge in the face of an evolving workforce, and strategically mentoring individuals with the potential and desire to succeed.

It was our honor to collaborate with our panel of exceptional women leaders in developing and presenting the content for this session, and we thank everyone who attended and made it one of the largest sessions at PDI 2024, and one of our most successful sessions to date. We are proud to be featured in this issue of the AFC Journal and look forward to participating at next year’s PDI.