Leah L. Nikaidoh

Leah L. Nikaidoh grew up in the Chicagoland area and attended the University of Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting. While at the University of Iowa, she had the opportunity to work at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Inspector General as a co-op student in their Chicago office. This opportunity led to her being hired by the EPA-OIG, where she has worked ever since. Leah has had a varied auditing career at EPA-OIG, performing contractor, grantee and financial statement audits, as well as national performance audits spanning many EPA programs, including Water, Air, Superfund and Brownfields. In 1993, she was given the opportunity to open, staff and manage a new branch, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where EPA has large research, finance and contracting offices. 

Leah currently is the National Single Audit Coordinator for EPA which has allowed her to expand her knowledge and skills in the federal grant compliance arena. Over the past two years, she has served on national work groups convened by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to update and consolidate numerous OMB Circulars related to grants financial management into one cohesive set of regulations – the Uniformed Grants Guidelines. She also led one of three OMB workgroups to update the related Single Audit Compliance Supplement, a critical document used by practioners to perform mandatory annual grant audits. Leah has presented at various seminars and conferences related to single audit and grants compliance (including EPA, the Association of Government Accountants, AICPA and the Intergovernmental Audit Forums). She enjoys public speaking and sharing her experiences with her counterparts, with the intention and hope of improving audit quality across the federal government.