Hosted by Valrie Grant, Amy Horner, and Kelly Burich, DBA Chronicles provides insights, thoughts, and exciting guest interviews designed to give you a well-rounded conversation for this exciting pursuit of education.

Amy is an accomplished executive with a track record of successfully leading collaborative strategic planning initiatives throughout her career. She is well known for her unwavering dedication to celebrating change and embracing the opportunities that result from a dynamic environment.

A recipient of Ignition’s Top 50 Women in Accounting award in 2023, she is committed to the professional development and career advancement of those around her. Amy launched Horner’s Corner to share her experience and thought leadership to foster a positive, lasting impact through teaching, leading, and motivating. She is a founding member of CHIEF, a private network of women executives, where she actively engages with other members to continue her professional development, guide strategy, and mentor others.

Amy has achieved unprecedented results by leading strategic initiatives resulting in increased market share, improved financial performance, transparent organizational goals, and the development of KPIs. She created a corporate university, including courses on technical competencies and communication skills. Additionally, Amy has designed mentorship programs that guide goal setting, career advancement, and continued professional growth and development for all levels.

Her diverse career has spanned strategic operations, business-to-consumer sales, accounting and finance, and recruiting. A dynamic public speaker, she presents at conferences, symposiums, and local universities on mentoring, strategic planning and change leadership, communication strategies, and effective goal setting. Each presentation provides attendees with the motivation and skills to make an impact.

Continuing as an active committee member of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs, Amy served on the Board of Directors and was the GWSCPA Women’s Leadership Committee Chair from 2021 – 2023. She is an active member of the North Carolina Association of CPAs Women’s Leadership Committee and Charlotte’s Women’s Impact Fund. She is a contributing member of the AICPA and maintains licensure in good standing in Pennsylvania with reciprocity in North Carolina.

Amy earned her BS in Accounting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she was a student-athlete on the university’s first PSAC Championship Women’s Soccer Team. She remains disciplined and dedicated to her fitness, working on completing a road race in each of the 50 states. She is a proud Keystone State native with an MBA from Penn State University. Amy is working on her doctorate at UNC Charlotte, with anticipated graduation in May 2025.

Recent Speaking Engagements

Change is Constant. How Do We Navigate It? | RSM Nonprofit and Education Symposium
Vision & Mission, Core Values, and Goals | GWSCPA Women’s Leadership Conference
Winning the War for Talent | AICPA Nonprofit Section
Hug the Porcupine. How You Can Embrace Change Without Injury | Portfolio Rocket Live
The Amplified Impact of Leading Authentically | NCACPA Professional Women’s Conference
Navigating Change – Nonprofit CEO Panel | GWSCPA Nonprofit Symposium

Valrie Grant is a serial entrepreneur and geospatial strategy and business development consultant. She is best known for her work in the geospatial community and for her company GeoTechVision, a knowledge services company she built into an internationally reliable and quality provider of a range of customized services and data-driven solutions for governments, NGOs and corporate entities. Valrie is a lifelong learner that is passionate about technology and entrepreneurship. She relishes every opportunity to mentor women entrepreneurs and young people.

Her latest initiative is EduTechAid which seeks to respond to the inequality of access to digital tools in education and empower youths. She has served on several national, regional and international boards and committees such as the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM): Americas Private Sector Network and the VM Foundation. Valrie is a 2020 WE Empower UN Sustainability Development Goals Challenge Award recipient. Most recently she authored the book "Every Day is Day One: Maintaining the Startup Culture and Mindset."

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of West Indies, a Master of Science in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Environment from the Manchester Metropolitan University and an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology.

Valrie’s interest in entrepreneurship, leadership, organizational effectiveness, and diversity on boards is what sparked her interest in pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration. Valrie’s research will focus on how to gain a competitive edge with organizational culture and how culture is central to and supports an organization’s strategy. Valrie's research will focus on Geospatial Information Systems as it pertains to Climate Change and the Blue Economy in Small Island Developing States.

Kelly began her career in sports marketing and business consultation services, which included marketing management, strategic planning and public relations planning. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations from the University of Central Oklahoma and her Master of Organizational Leadership from Saint Ambrose University.

Spending the last 20 years in the veterinary industry, Kelly has become an invested learner in marketing, management, leadership, and personal wellness associated with this industry. With her experiences, Kelly's love of education and learning have driven her research interest in emotional labor roles, resilience, burnout, and compassion fatigue. Comparable to other professions where care and empathy go hand-in-hand, stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue are prevalent in the veterinary industry and affect all members of the veterinary healthcare team. Kelly’s area of interest for her dissertation will review the benefits of teaching professional skill sets earlier in academia and throughout a graduate’s career to minimize burnout and compassion fatigue in the veterinary professions.

She has obtained professional designation as a Certified Veterinary Business Leader (CVBL) through NAVC, and earned her Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional (CCFP) designation in 2020. She is also the founder of "Sitch Consulting", her newest endeavor as a veterinary industry consultant.

In her personal life, Kelly believes "a good list is my best friend" and she lives by a moving set of goals. Goal one is to be the best mom to her kids Jack and Jayne, best dog mom to the four-legged kids, Kiki and Butch, and best supporter to her husband, Dan.