Director, Defense Finance and Accounting Service

Teresa (Terri) McKay is Director, Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).

In this capacity, she oversees the day-to-day accounting and finance activities of the Department of Defense (DoD). DFAS employs about 12,000 DoD civilian and military personnel at 11 locations throughout the United States, Europe and the Pacific. Each year, the agency disburses over $553 billion by processing 181 million pay transactions to 6 million military personnel, federal civilian employees, military retirees and annuitants; 12.8 million commercial invoices and 7.8 million travel vouchers and settlements. Responsible for 956 active DoD appropriations, DFAS is the trust fund manager for $37.7 billion in foreign military sales and $426.7 billion in military retirement and health benefit funds. Each year, it maintains more than 178.8 million general ledger accounts containing billions of transactions and handles accounts for worldwide operations and multi-disciplined appropriations of DoD.

Ms. McKay had served as the DFAS Principal Deputy Director from August 2006 until she assumed her new position on September 15, 2008. Prior to August 2006 she served as the Defense Department's Deputy Chief Financial Officer, the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer for accounting and finance matters. She was responsible for developing and implementing DoD-wide accounting, finance and general financial management policies. Ms. McKay oversaw the compliance with financial management policies and promoted strong internal controls and facilitated improvements in financial management throughout the Department. One of her primary duties in this regard was the oversight of the planning and implementation of the department's Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness plan. She directed the preparation and submission of audited financial statements, the publication of the department's Performance and Accountability Report, and numerous other accounting and finance documents. Ms. McKay served as a member of the United States Chief Financial Officers' Council and represented the Department on various other inter-agency groups and councils.

Ms. McKay is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Government Financial Manager and earned her bachelor's degree from Ferris State University in 1982. She earned her master's degree in business administration from Auburn University at Montgomery in 1992.

Ms. McKay is a leader committed to improving financial management through improved business processes and incorporating the accounting, finance and internal control requirements for strong DoD end-to-end business processes.

Updated: 12 May 2010 (CC)