State & Local Tax Conference - Webcast

Sonjia is a seasoned state and local tax (SALT) professional with over 22 years of experience in providing consulting services to
clients across various industries. As the SALT Director at Perkins & Co, Sonjia leads the SALT practice. Drawing on her Big 4, Top 5,
and Washington Department of Revenue experience, Sonjia oversees the delivery of high-quality tax solutions that help clients
minimize their tax liabilities and comply with complex tax regulations.

Toshio Kurose

(12-9-25)

A proud lifelong Oregonian, Codi Trudell has over 20 years of public civil service working for Polk and Benton Counties and the State of Oregon. 
In 2021, Trudell became Oregon's first Taxpayer Advocate in the Oregon Department of Revenue. As the Taxpayer Advocate, she works to be a voice and resource for Oregon's taxpayers. 
A graduate of Oregon State University with a bachelor's degree in political science, Trudell applies her policy background to provide fair and equitable access to Oregonian's economic opportunities, programs and services.
Before joining the Department of Revenue, Trudell served as the manager of the Disadvantaged and Small Business program for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
From 2003 - 2016, she worked in Oregon election administration, including several years at the county level and three years as the deputy director of Voting Services for the Oregon Secretary of State. In that capacity, she designed and implemented the nation's first automatic voter registration system and oversaw Oregon's voting rights.

edited 10-18-24

Rebecca Stidham

Becky Stidham is a Partner with over 17 years of corporate and pass-through tax compliance experience as a state and local tax practitioner in public accounting. She specializes in State and Local Tax (SALT), Professional Services, Law Firm Services and Digital Health Services.
Becky has her CPA license in the state of California. In 2022, she was a 2022 CalCPA Women to Watch - Experience Leader Nominee, and in 2019 was a 2019 CalCPA Women to Watch - Emerging Leader Nominee.
Becky enjoys traveling with her husband, watching the SF Giants beat the Dodgers and doing DIY crafts. Since 2016 her family has fostered 17 dogs for a local rescue organization and Becky is passionate about animal rescue and adoption as well as being an advocate for misunderstood dog breeds.

(12-9-25)

Clinton Bentz

5/8/14 Clint Bentz, CPA, CMA Member, Tax Partner Boldt Carlisle + Smith, Albany, OR Clint Bentz is a Member with Boldt Carlisle + Smith, a full-service CPA firm with offices located in Albany, Salem and Stayton, Oregon. He is both a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant. After working as a corporate controller for several years, he joined the firm in 1989 where he provides professional tax, estate and succession planning, and business consulting services to a wide range of clients. He is the former chair of the firm’s management team. A graduate of the Cannon Trust Tax School, he leads the firm’s Trust and Estate group. A large part of his practice is devoted to serving the special needs of agricultural and timber clients. Clint regularly writes articles on succession and estate planning issues and is a popular speaker on these topics for both lay audiences and tax professionals. His most recent work is the award-winning “Ties to the Land: Your Family Forest Heritage” succession planning curriculum published in partnership with the OSU Extension Service and the OSU Austin Family Business Program. He has served on several Oregon Board of Forestry working groups, and was instrumental in the rewrite of Oregon’s inheritance tax statute in 2011 and Oregon’s property tax program for small woodland owners in 2003.

Valerie is an attorney with the law firm of Samuels Yoelin Kantor in Portland, Oregon where she heads the firm's tax department. She speaks about topics (usually tax topics) that interest her. She is a fellow of the both the American College of Tax Counsel and the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel. She also co-wrote a very exciting book you should read called Oregon Estate Planning with Forms, which is going into its third edition this January.

(11-10-25)

Daron Prara

Daron Prara is an Oregon Department of Revenue tax policy analyst in the Personal Income Tax and Compliance Division. He has been with the department for over 17 years working out of the Medford and Salem field offices and now the Salem main building. He has been an auditor, senior auditor, and policy analyst in the personal income tax program and an analyst in the corporate activity tax program. Daron graduated from Oregon Institute of Technology with a Bachelor's degree in business management and accounting.

(12/27/21)

Robert Oakes is an Operations and Policy Analyst 3 in the Personal Income Tax and Compliance Division at the Oregon Department of Revenue. Robert spent 20 years in California state government, primarily as a Legislative Director and Communications Director in the State Senate at the California Capitol. He graduated from Lewis & Clark College and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Oregon.

(9/3/21)

Tim is an experienced public servant and a people leader with nearly 25 years of experience in Oregon local government. He has spent almost 12 years in supervisory and managerial roles. Most of his career has been focused on property tax, and he joined the Portland Revenue Division a year ago, where he is learning the intricacies of its various tax programs.

(12-9-25)

Harriet Strothers has nearly 40 years of experience in providing state and local tax advisory and compliance services to large multi-state and multinational companies. With extensive experience managing tax compliance and audits for all areas of state taxation as well as IRS LMSB "Large Case" audits, Harriet also performs state and local due diligence related to mergers and acquisitions.

Harriet spent almost half of her career in industry with The Ryland Group, a Fortune 500 home builder and mortgage lender that operates in 28 states. Upon her return to public accounting in 2007, Harriet observed that there was a need for business leaders to better understand how State and Local Taxes affected their financial decision making. Rather than developing an industry-specific concentration, Harriet focused on state tax minimization through planning and remediation strategies for taxpayers who operate in multiple states. These strategies include multi-state income/franchise tax refund engagements and reverse sales/use tax audits, as well as state voluntary disclosures to mitigate past tax liability. Harriet's experience in industry included extensive audit defense. She has leveraged that experience into numerous successful audit strategies that she regularly employs when defending clients under audit by taxing authorities.

A frequent presenter on multi-state tax issues, Harriet has managed many large multi-state income/franchise tax refund engagements and reverse sales/use tax audits. She has managed and delivered numerous voluntary disclosure services and audit defense services in almost every state. Harriet has substantial experience advising clients on product sales/use taxability for different types of transactions and on nexus-related issues in 50 states.

After a two-year stint at Schnitzer Steel, Harriet worked with Moss Adams for six years before joining the team at Delap in 2014.

(3/3/21)

Adam Abplanalp serves as Managing Partner & CEO at Cobalt, P.C., a real estate-focused CPA firm located in Portland, Oregon and Honolulu, Hawai'i, which he founded in 2015. Adam's practice focuses on providing tax, accounting, and advisory services, primarily to real estate owners, investors, managers, brokers, and developers. 

As part of his public accounting practice, Adam is a recognized expert in Oregon, Washington, and Hawai'i state and local tax laws, tax planning, and compliance, and he routinely testifies before and works with the Oregon Legislature, Oregon Department of Revenue, City of Portland Revenue Division, and various other state and local tax authorities. Adam is a frequent speaker on real estate and state and local taxation, both for CPAs and for real estate industry professionals. Since 2018, Adam has also served on the City of Portland's Revenue Division Appeals Board. 

In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Oregon, Hawai'i, New York, and Washington, he holds a Chartered Professional Accountant license in British Columbia, Canada, is a Certified Fraud Examiner, and is licensed as a Real Estate Principal Broker in Oregon and Managing Broker in Washington. 

Adam has been an OSCPA member since 2010, has served as a leader on various OSCPA committees, and is the 2024-25 OSCPA Board Vice Chair.

(3/19/24)