Alanna McKee, a senior consultant with McKinley Advisors, joined us at our annual Leaders' Summit conference in May, and she was gracious enough to sit down with Maureen to discuss how our character traits impact our organizations and how leaders can leverage character to lead more effectively.

It's a Leading Forward field trip! We ventured out into the wilds of Goochland to visit JJ White, host of the Great People Show and chief engagement officer at Dale Carnegie of Virginia. Listen to a great conversation about corporate culture, the employer-employee relationship and the value of the mindset of constant growth.

Sherrill Hebert, national sales director at VSCPA technology partner Cetrom (@Cetrom), is our guest on this month's VSCPA Leading Forward. He and Maureen go through how CPA firms should include a technology debrief in their post-tax season review. Give it a listen and be sure to subscribe!

Saundra McGuire, Ph.D., director emerita of the Center for Academic Success at Louisiana State University, and VSCPA member Vivian Paige, CPA, senior lecturer of accounting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, joined us to talk about McGuire's research into how students learn and how that's applicable to accounting education, the CPA pipeline and lifelong learning. If you like what you heard, visit vscpa.com/EducatorsExchange to sign up for our free Accounting Educators' Exchange, where Saundra is the opening speaker!

This month, Maureen talks to an old friend: Floricane founder John Sarvay, whose company "helps organizations figure out what's next and how to get there." They discuss John's leadership journey and how it has helped him prepare other professionals along their own.

The impossibly patient Tamera Loerzel of ConvergenceCoaching joins Maureen to discuss the results of Convergence's Anytime, Anywhere Work Survey. She's got great insights on leadership, remote working and her own professional journey.

Fresh from this morning's call to your ears, we've got Merikay Hunt, founder and CEO of COACH MKay Companies. Merikay spoke at our Leadership Academy last November and offered her great insights on communication, leadership and work-life balance. Find her at coachmkay.com.

It's a new year, so we've got...an old podcast! We recorded this episode last year with VSCPA Vice President, Innovation Tina Bates, CAE, as a proof of concept, back when we were still discussing the form VSCPA Leading Forward would take. (Sharp-eared listeners will notice the podcast didn't even have a name yet.) But the content was so good (and dovetailed so nicely with December's episode with Byron Patrick) that we wanted to make it available to you. Enjoy as Tina and Maureen discuss Tina's experiences working remotely from South Carolina!

This month, our guest is VSCPA member Byron Patrick, CPA, managing director of the CPA practice area for Network Alliance. Byron is a member of the VSCPA's Center for Innovation Advisory Council, and he and Maureen had a great conversation about innovation, technology and leading and managing through change.

Fresh off her presentation at the VSCPA's Tech-Know Summit, VSCPA member Louise Reed, CPA, discusses her own "A-ha!" moments that led to the creation of her new business, Afloat, which uses blockchain technology to facilitate the sale and transfer of transferable tax credits.