Karen Helderman

Specialty Team Director
Information Systems Development

Karen is the Systems Development Director with the Auditor of Public Accounts and has been with the Office since 1986. Currently, she is managing audits of the Virginia College Savings Plan, Virginia Circuit Courts, and a number of information technology-related projects.  Karen has closely followed Virginia’s IT operations since its centralization into the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) and outsourcing to Northrop Grumman and has written several audit reports including one on IT governance.

Karen has worked on several long-term special projects. One project involves identifying key internal controls present in commercially available software products and designing audit procedures to allow auditors test the agency’s use of the control features.  Another project involves following the state’s work to replace its antiquated accounting and budgeting applications and to ensure the new applications are implemented on time, within budget, and with expected functionality.

Karen earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Christopher Newport University in 1986. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and a Project Management Professional (PMP). Karen is actively involved in the National State Auditors Association's E-Government Committee and is currently serving as Committee Chairman.

Karen and her husband are originally from the Williamsburg/ Newport News area and currently live in Midlothian.