About Emily

Emily joined Raftelis in 2023 with 14 years of finance experience and more than seven years of direct service to the City of Norfolk, Virginia. As Director and Assistant Director with the City’s Department of Budget and Strategic Planning, Emily was responsible for overseeing the Budget and Policy; CivicLab; and Grants teams. The Budget and Policy team, along with CivicLab, provided synergy for data-driven decision-making intended to maximize finite resources, leading to better performance outcomes and the ability to solve challenging issues facing local governments. Emily led several Citywide initiatives, including public workforce recruiting and retention strategies, development of a program budget that evaluates the relationship between resource allocation and service-level demand, as well as effective and transparent public engagement efforts. She was part of the team that earned Norfolk a “What Works Cities” certification in 2021. Emily’s direct service experience and breadth of exposure to relevant local government challenges makes her skillful at asking thought-provoking questions, inspiring innovation and creativity in the problem-solving process, and yielding results that are as pragmatic as they are valuable. During her time in local government, she presented to a variety of stakeholders, including City Council, the City Manager and his executive leadership team, and many department heads and their team members.

Emily was responsible for preparing the annual operating and capital improvement budgets for the City of Norfolk. In addition, she coordinated and directed completion of the budget proposal presentation to City Council, City Manager’s message, and the comprehensive budget document, which serve as the City’s annual policy roadmap. During her time in Norfolk, the team achieved the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award each year, awarded by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

Previously, Emily worked in private sector finance and accounting. She began her career as an auditor for mid-size financial institutions before transitioning to a commercial healthcare real estate company, where she built a team of accountants responsible for overseeing multiple mergers and acquisitions between the company and seniors housing operators across the U.S. and abroad.

Emily earned a master’s degree in Public Policy from the College of William and Mary, and a Bachelor of Science with concentrations in Accounting and Finance from Xavier University – Cincinnati. Since 2009 she has held a certified public accountant, CPA certification (inactive).