Staff

Diane Burnett Thomas
Team Leader

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of Texas at Austin.

Areas of Expertise: Customer service, human services, energy, fraud, public gaming and conference management

Key Projects: Texas Performance Reviews

Diane Thomas has 20 years of experience in state government and has studied a broad spectrum of issues. She directed a past Texas Performance Review team on Customer Service and has participated in Comptroller reviews of human services and welfare fraud. She was a member of the Electronic Benefits Transfer Task Force. She was a senior member of the Texas Lottery Task Force, responsible for marketing, advertising, ticket design and orientation seminars for retailers and the public. She also has served as a senior analyst for pari-mutuel wagering. While in the Revenue Estimating Division, Thomas developed the Texas Stock Index. She was project manager for several Comptroller conferences on topics including government technology and welfare fraud. In November 1991, Thomas became the first agency employee to receive a Comptroller Employees Incentive Program award.

Before joining the Comptroller's office, Thomas was employed by the Texas Energy and Natural Resources Advisory Council and the Texas Railroad Commission, researching energy-related policy issues as well as industry trends.

Peggy Fulmer

Academic Background: Undergraduate study in Business Administration, Stephen F. Austin State University. Fulmer also has completed numerous training courses at the Dispute Resolution Center, the University of Texas School of Law's Center for Public Policy Disputes Resolution, the University of Texas Quality Center, and the University of North Texas' Center for the Study of Work Teams.

Areas of Expertise: Mediation and conflict management; team management and process re-engineering

Key Projects : Business process re-engineering

Fulmer has 18 years of experience with the Comptroller's Office, and supervised three agency departments over a nine-year period. In the last six years, she has managed the agency's Renaissance project, an agencywide business process reengineering program and directed the efforts of 16 review teams. Throughout her career, she has led or participated in numerous process reengineering and management improvement projects, acted as an organizational development consultant, facilitated various meetings and provided numerous team-training classes.

Carol Lauder

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, University of Texas at Austin.

Areas of Expertise: Accounting and process reengineering

Key Projects : Renaissance project and business process re-engineering

Lauder has 21 years of state experience. At present, she coordinates the Renaissance project, the agency's business process reengineering program. Prior to this assignment, she led the Tax Correspondence Review Team. She served as director of the 1998 Women's Professional Development Conference hosted by the Governor's Women's Commission and the State Agency Council. In 1998, she was nominated by the agency as an Outstanding Woman in Texas Government. She has spent 12 years supervising various sections in the revenue divisions including the franchise, fuels, crude oil and natural gas taxes. She specializes in team processes, meeting planning, facilitation and conflict resolution.

Andrew M. (Andy) Liebler

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; Bachelor of Arts in Education, University of Wyoming; Masters in Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Areas of Expertise: fiscal estimates, state budget issues

Key Projects: Texas Performance Reviews

Liebler has 13 years of experience in state government, the last seven with the Comptroller's office. As a member of TPR, Liebler participated in the development and production of four statewide performance reviews and numerous interim studies and reports, including reviews of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. For the most recent statewide TPR review, Liebler served as the "Quick Hits" team leader, focusing on budget-related issue proposals. He also served as TPR's advisor for fiscal estimates. During legislative sessions, he has tracked TPR legislation and compiled wrap-up reports documenting the success of Comptroller proposals.

Before joining the Comptroller's office, Liebler worked for the Legislative Budget Office, where he coordinated the statewide fiscal note system during three legislative sessions and participated in a variety of budget research projects.

Ginger Salone

See E-Government Team.

Lee Sprengel

Academic Background: Bachelor of Social Work, Brigham Young University; Masters in Middle Eastern Studies, the University of Texas at Austin; Masters in Public Affairs, the University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School of Public Affairs; Public Relations Certification, the University of Texas at Austin.

Areas of Expertise: Public education and criminal justice

Key Projects: Texas Performance Reviews and Texas Correctional Industries study

Sprengel came to the Comptroller's office in 1998 after a wide-ranging and international career. As a member of TPR, she developed criminal justice recommendations for two major TPR reports and a legislatively mandated study of Texas Correctional Industries and contributed to the Texas School Performance Review's report on the Comal Independent School District. Before joining the Comptroller's office, Sprengel worked as an independent consultant, contributing research and analysis to both TPR and the Texas Education Agency, among other clients. Sprengel worked as a policy analyst for the Legislative Study Group during the 1997 legislative session, researching environmental, energy and other legislative issues.

While living in Egypt during the 1980s, Sprengel was project director and assistant manager for the U.S. Embassy's American Employees Welfare and Cooperative Association. In this position, she developed and conducted an employee wage and benefits study and assisted in a cost study that succeeded in eliminating a projected $363,000 budget deficit. Sprengel also has served as director of Public Relations and Marketing for Milwaukee Regional Medical Center; a legislative aide to a Wisconsin state senator; a caseworker for the Child Advocacy Center of the Milwaukee Children's Hospital; and program director for "New Routes," an experimental program designed to reduce juvenile delinquency in three Wisconsin counties.

Pat Valls-Trelles

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in History, Cornell University.

Areas of Expertise: Workforce issues, criminal justice, health and human services, natural resources

Key Projects: Texas Performance Reviews, review of Public Utilities Commission

Pat Valls-Trelles has been a budget and policy analyst for the State of Texas for more than 13 years. Since joining the Comptroller's office in 1995, she has participated in two major TPR reviews, specializing in criminal justice issues and also contributed to TPR's review of the Public Utilities Commission.

Before joining the Comptroller's Office, Valls-Trelles worked at the Legislative Budget Board for nearly a decade, analyzing the budgets of state natural resource agencies and making recommendations on their funding to the Texas Legislature. In 1992, Valls-Trelles was project manager for an interim study of special education funding for legislatively mandated school finance studies.

Nancy H. Williams

Academic Background: Undergraduate study in Business Administration at the University of Houston and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Areas of Expertise: Strategic planning and performance measurement

Key Projects : Pilot project on benchmark performance measures

Nancy Williams has more than 30 years of experience in state government, 15 with the Comptroller's office, where she has been responsible for directing the activities of the agency's strategic planning, including the development and enhancement of the agency's strategic and business plans. Williams also developed the agency's performance measurement system and later was instrumental in restructuring it to meet both managerial and legislative requirements. Presently, she is responsible for all agency-level performance reporting. Nancy represents the agency on a Federation of Tax Administrators pilot project to benchmark performance measures for revenue agencies and served on the conference planning committee for the third and fourth "Managing for Results" conferences co-hosted by the LBJ School of Public Affairs/UT Austin, the George Bush School of Government and Public Service/Texas A&M University, the Texas Lieutenant Governor's Office, the Texas Speaker of the House's Office, the Texas State Comptroller's office, the Texas State Auditor's Office and the Texas Legislative Budget Office.

Before joining the Comptroller's Office, Nancy was employed for 16 years by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where she was responsible for the coordination of fiscal and administrative policies and services for the Department of Pharmacology.