Darlene, a Director in the National Assurance Department, has more than 25 years of experience with national public accounting firms and private accounting. She has extensive knowledge in the audits of employee benefit plans (EBP). As a lead technical resource in BDO's National Employee Benefit Plan Audit Practice, her responsibilities include ERISA audit quality and risk management. The majority of her time is dedicated to technical consultations, development of audit and accounting guidance, resources and training programs for employee benefit plan auditors, industry development communications and quality reviews for BDO's National Employee Benefit Plan Audit Practice. She instructs national training courses and regularly contributes to BDO's industry insights and thought leadership related to EBPs.

A frequent speaker on technical EBP issues for industry and professional organizations, Darlene is a member of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants and has participated in its annual EBP conference both as a speaker and as part of the conference planning committee, most recently as chair. Darlene currently serves on the AICPA Employee Benefit Plans Expert Panel. Prior to being named to the Expert Panel, she was an active member on the AICPA Technical Standards Subcommittee of the Professional Ethics Executive Committee.