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FAR 2nd Annual Awards Program
This Year's Theme:
Celebrating Impact, Inspiring Tomorrow
Meet the 2026 Awardees:
Nonprofit C Suite of the Year Celebrates the best of the best business leaders in the nonprofit community. This includes Financial, HR, Operations and Technology executives. | Danielle McLean, MBA, CAE, CFE, CNAP VP and Chief Financial Officer American Financial Services Association Danielle McLean, MBA, CAE, CFE, CNAP, NACD, is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the American Financial Services Association (AFSA), where she provides executive leadership for finance, accounting, human resources, and information technology. While at AFSA, Danielle has strengthened AFSA's organizational performance through strategic financial leadership, sound governance, and operational excellence. She has helped position the association for long-term financial sustainability while fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and collaboration. Beyond AFSA, Danielle is deeply engaged in the nonprofit, association, and financial services communities. She serves as Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors for the United States Senate Federal Credit Union and as a member of the Board of Directors of SOME (So Others Might Eat). She is the former Chair of the Finance and Administration Roundtable (FAR) Board of Directors and previously served on the Board of Directors of Project GiveBack. She is also a proud and active member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and is actively involved in her church, reflecting her lifelong commitment to service, leadership, community, and faith. Danielle earned her Master of Business Administration from Trinity Washington University and holds the Certified Association Executive (CAE), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional (CNAP), and NACD Directorship Certified credentials. |
Resource Member of the Year
Celebrates a resource member organization or individual whose partnership has significantly enhanced FAR’s value, services, or support to members and staff. | Kathy O’Connor, CPA, CGMA Kathy is a trusted business advisor to nonprofit organizations, with a career dedicated to supporting those who serve others. She works closely with nonprofit leaders of organizations with revenues ranging from $1 million to $1.2 billion to deliver strategic guidance and practical solutions that strengthen their impact.
With over 30 years of experience working solely with nonprofit organizations, Kathy has built a career focused on supporting and solving the higher-level issues facing nonprofits, as well as forming long-term trusted advisor relationships with clients to foster collaboration. She is known for her ability to connect organizations with the right resources and solutions, leveraging her extensive network in the nonprofit space. Kathy was the President and Founder of O’Connor Consulting Services, LLC (OCS), a firm she launched in 1999 that specialized in providing high-level business advisory and interim outsourcing services to the nonprofit community. This passion to serve nonprofits emerged while starting her career, and ultimately, serving as a Senior Manager in KPMG’s not-for-profit practice. In June 2025, the entire OCS team joined Aprio to create the firm’s nonprofit consulting practice.
Kathy earned her Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from Villanova University and holds an active CPA license in the State of Maryland. Kathy has also been on the Board and Audit committees of several not-for-profits. She currently serves on the Board of Governors and Executive Committee of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs (GWSCPA). In 2014, Kathy received the AICPA & CIMA Global Women to Watch, Experienced Leader Award from the GWSCPA. |
Rising Star Nonprofit Professional Recognizes a senior financial professional under age 40 working at a nonprofit organization. | LaShena Honore, CPA LaShena Honore is the Controller at the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), where she leads accounting, payroll, and financial reporting for the association and its charitable foundation. Since joining in 2017, she has helped WIA navigate growth that doubled the organization's revenue and expanded it into federal grants and contracts, building the tracking and reporting processes those awards require. Working closely with WIA's CFO, she has led the transformation of the finance function: converting the association from its legacy ERP to Sage Intacct, replacing manual accounts payable and expense processing with a cloud platform, integrating Sage Intacct with WIA's CRM to centralize invoicing and create a uniform revenue process, and taking the department paperless before the pandemic made it necessary. She is now extending that work with AI-driven automation.
A Certified Public Accountant with more than 15 years of experience, LaShena is a member of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs and holds a Master of Accounting and a BBA from the College of William & Mary. She shares her experience with system implementations through the Controllers' Roundtable and the broader nonprofit finance community, and partners across departments in service of WIA's mission of enabling connectivity everywhere. |
