Grants Management Seminar 2024-2025

Brian currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Brian has a quarter century of senior leadership experience in Ohio’s state education agency guiding its fiscal and grant responsibilities.

Leading Ohio’s education agency team on grant and fiscal mandates for nearly two decades, Brian guides a large team with a multi-billion dollar portfolio of fiscal oversight mandates. Those mandates encompass federal financial compliance, internal control structure, risk assessment and subrecipient monitoring for the agency.

Prior to joining the state education agency, Brian served as an Audit Supervisor with both the Auditor of State (AoS) and the Ohio Department of Development.  During his tenure with the AoS, he led the agency’s auditing responsibilities of the Department Human Services at both the state and county levels.  While with the Department of Development, he was responsible for financial/programmatic compliance audits and technical assistance to numerous cities, counties and not-for-profits.

Brian is seen as a national leader in education fiscal policy, and he has presented at both state and national level conferences on both fiscal management and auditing in the education environment. 

Sarah James is an Assistant Administrator with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, leading the IDEA Resource Management Team in the Office of Fiscal – Administration. The IDEA Resource Management Team supports school districts and community schools in their use of federal IDEA Part B funds. The team also manages the fiscal requirements of the 30+ state-level projects funded with federal and state monies that are focused on the improvement of outcomes for students with disabilities.

Sarah joined the Department in 2018 as an Education Program Specialist in the Office of Federal Programs before joining the IDEA Resource Management Team in 2020. She came to Ohio after serving on the state team for the Part C program in West Virginia, providing a system of services and supports for children with disabilities ages birth to three. 

Rachel Hand is the management analyst for the Ohio Department of Education, Office of Federal Programs. She works closely on several key projects within the office including ED STEPS, COVID relief funding requirements and annual reporting for Education Stabilization Funds. Rachel has worked for the state of Ohio for the past three years with most of her experience focused on low-income programs such as Medicaid, SNAP and TANF. Rachel holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University.