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As the Assistant Inspector General for Special Review and Evaluation, Paul H. Bergstrand provides executive leadership over evaluations of the Environmental Protection Agency’s programs and administrative investigations of senior employee misconduct and whistleblower retaliation. He oversees over 60 staff in Washington, DC, and in the EPA’s regional offices, including a new directorate focused on oversight of the EPA’s use of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds.

Before joining the EPA in August 2021, he served as the director of the Program Evaluations Division at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General. There, he oversaw evaluations of HUD programs, including those focused on properties near contaminated sites, troubled public housing authorities, and conditions at residential care facilities.

Prior to working at HUD OIG, he was a lead inspector at the Department of Homeland Security OIG. There, he led auditors, investigators, and evaluators during several high-profile projects, including evaluations of security breaches at the McNamara Federal Building and the White House, and the U.S. Secret Service’s response to employee misconduct.

Mr. Bergstrand began his public service career in 2005 as an analyst at the Office of Government Ethics, where he led reviews of ethics programs, trained ethics officials, and briefed international delegations on the United States’ anti-corruption efforts. Ethics programs he reviewed included those from the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture.

Mr. Bergstrand has received recognition throughout his federal career. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, evaluations he oversaw received awards for excellence from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. In 2021, he was also recognized with an award for excellence from CIGIE as part of a cross-agency working group that revised the quality standards for inspection and evaluation. At the DHS OIG, his team received an award for excellence for their evaluation of the Secret Service’s efforts to identify, mitigate, and address instances of misconduct and inappropriate behavior. Finally, he received the Bayless Manning Award in recognition of innovation and independent creativity from the OGE.

Mr. Bergstrand is a native of Illinois and graduated cum laude from Western Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

Ken Dieffenbach has served as the Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations at the Department of Energy OIG since July 2021. Ken began his federal law enforcement career in 1996 when he was credentialed as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). During his over six years with AFOSI, he conducted numerous general crime, major procurement fraud, and counterintelligence investigations and protective services operations related to U.S. Air Force personnel and resources.

In 2003, Ken joined the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General’s Fraud Detection Office where he served as a special agent, senior special agent, assistant special agent in charge, and special agent in charge as well as the deputy director of the OIG’s Office of Data Analytics. While with the Department of Justice, Ken led and oversaw hundreds of complex and sensitive investigations including procurement and grant fraud, ethics violations by senior DOJ employees, classified programs, and public corruption related to the Department of Justice’s over 115,000 employees and worldwide operations. For approximately ten years he has served as an adjunct instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center's Grant Fraud Investigations Training Program and is a sought after public speaker. For almost ten years Ken coordinated DOJ's Grant Fraud Working Group where he grew participation from a dozen individuals to over 500 from dozens of federal agencies. In 2017, his work related to the racketeering conspiracy trial convictions of U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah and others was recognized with the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award.

Ken has been a Certified Fraud Examiner since 1999 and in 2019, he was elected as a Regent for the 85,000+ member Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. In 2020 he was elected as Regent Chair.

Ken is a graduate of the Citadel in Charleston South Carolina and holds a graduate degree in criminal justice from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Joseph J. Dinardo is a partner based in Smith, Currie & Hancock’s Atlanta office.  Joe’s practice focuses mainly on construction disputes, lien prosecution and defense, contracts, commercial litigation, labor law, and collections. 

Joe graduated from Emory University School of Law (LL.M. Degree in International Business Transactions, 2000); Central European University (Semester Abroad Program in Budapest, Hungary through Emory University School of Law, LL.M. Program, 1999); Cumberland School of Law (J.D., 1999), where he was Casenote Editor of the Cumberland Law Review; and Palm Beach Atlantic University (B.S. Biology and Chemistry, Summa Cum Laude, 1995).  Joe is a member of the Georgia State Bar (2000) and admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Georgia (2002).  In addition, he is licensed to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (Patent Bar 2001).

Joe currently serves on the Associated Builders and Contractors of Georgia’s (ABC) Management Education Committee and is involved with the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA).  He also takes part in missions work in Central America, North Africa, and Europe.

Keith Hundley is a CPA and partner with Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC (CRI), and has over twenty years of experience in private industry and public accounting.  Keith is a part of the firm’s governmental services and nonprofit practice recognized throughout the South for its knowledge of auditing standards and business practices.  Keith specializes in providing audit, tax and consulting services to nonprofits, as well as federal, state and local governments.  Keith regularly serves as a continuing education leader for CRI as well as a certified facilitator in the CRI Leadership Academy.  Keith is an active member in the American Institute of Certified Accountants (AICPA) and the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants (ASCPA), and is a 2011 inductee to the Troy University Accounting Hall of Honor.

Kelly Paxton has more than 20 years of investigative experience. Kelly is a Certified Fraud Examiner, Private Investigator, author, and podcast host-founder of Great Women in Fraud.

Ms. Paxton started her career in law enforcement as a Special Agent for US Customs Office of Investigations in 1993. Ms. Paxton was recruited by US Customs for her expertise in finance. She worked white collar fraud, money laundering and narcotics cases. She also was responsible for the district’s undercover operations and financial reporting of these operations. Kelly worked as a contract investigator doing over 1000 security background investigations for the Office of Personnel Management and Department of Homeland Security.

Kelly has worked in the public and private sector. Most recently she worked as an investigator for Nike. Her investigations include embezzlement, conflict of interest, intellectual property, Open Source Intelligence and fraud. Kelly is also the proud owner of pinkcollarcrime.com, a passion of hers about embezzlers in the workplace. She founded Great Women in Fraud in August 2020. Her book, Embezzlement: How to Prevent, Detect and Investigate Pink-Collar Crime, was published in December 2020.

Stephen M. Reams is a Partner in the Atlanta office of Smith, Currie & Hancock LLP.  Steve concentrates his practice on construction law and commercial litigation.  He represents owners, developers, general contractors, and subcontractors in state and federal court and in alternative dispute resolution processes throughout the United States.  His practice also includes drafting and negotiating construction and design contracts and advising parties during projects.  Steve has counseled clients on numerous projects involving retail malls, professional sports stadiums, public housing, hotels, condominiums, medical facilities, government contracts, schools and Native American tribal lands.  He also has extensive knowledge of alternative project delivery methods such as design-build, P-3, and multi-party agreements.

Steve received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he participated in the year-long Concannon Programme of International Law in London England.  He earned his undergraduate degree from Centre College in Kentucky.  Steve played four years of NCAA football while studying at Centre College.

R. Brian Tipton is a practicing attorney with more than two decades' worth of experience working with nonprofits, governmental units, and other grant-funded organizations across the United States.  Currently, Brian is Managing Director with Tipton KPCL Law, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he heads the firm's tax-exempt and grant-funded solutions practice.  He is a summa cum laude graduate of the Louisiana State University and the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.  Brian regularly represents grant-funded entities of all types in the areas of regulatory compliance, audits, funding source disputes, administrative appeals, and litigation.  Brian also consults with organizations on governance, human resources, programmatic, and corporate matters, and develops and presents training programs for nonprofits and grant-funded organizations.