Nicole Conley-Abram

Nicole Conley-Abram is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the Austin Independent School District and is responsible for its over $1 billion annual operating funds (inclusive of the food and debt service fund) and the nearly $900 million Bond program. She has over ten years of financial management experience, seven of which serving in an executive role. She has a breadth of experience from serving in large complex urban systems, like the New York City Department of Education, the District of Columbia Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools and Atlanta Public Schools. Hence, she’s developed a reputation for, and deep expertise in turning around troubled financial systems. As CFO, Ms. Conley-Abram manages the District’s financial operations, which include more than 96 staff members inclusive of the Procurement and Warehouse Operations. The Austin Independent School District has secured some of the highest financial ratings in the State by multiple ratings agencies, including a Superior rating by the State of Texas. Previously, Nicole served as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer for Atlanta Public Schools. In this capacity, she strengthened internal controls and implemented immediate financial management and accountability approaches that led to dramatically reduced audit findings. She was awarded a Stellar Performance Award by the 2009 Superintendent of the Year, Beverly L. Hall for doing so. Prior to joining Atlanta public Schools, Mrs. Conley-Abram served as Budget Director for just over a year in Fairfax County Public Schools. Even though her time was brief in the nation’s 12th largest school system, she made an immediate and longstanding impact by developing and initiating the district’s deficit management plan which is still on-going today. Mrs. Conley-Abram spent the previous five years at the District of Columbia Public Schools. As the Director of Resource Allocation and Management for the District of Columbia Public Schools she reported directly to the Superintendent and was a member of the core Leadership Team. She was responsible for the oversight and development of DCPS’ $3 billion operating and capital budget and allocation of school system resources. She was the architect of DC school system’s budget strategy since FY 2006. Ms. Conley-Abram was highly instrumental in securing additional resources from City Council and Congress which was unprecedented for the District. She managed the re-engineering of the Weighted Student Formula, the methodology used to allocate resources to local schools, by introducing more advanced, research-based approaches that better align available funding in support of educational needs. In prior appointments, Ms. Conley-Abram served three years as the Director for Budget, Planning and Analysis for DCPS under the independent Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, she held senior budget and fiscal management positions in New York City (NYC). At the NYC Department of Education, Conley-Abram served as the Director of Strategic Sourcing and was responsible for managing an enterprise-wide procurement initiative that impacted over $1.5 billion. As the lead negotiator on behalf of the department, the City was able to achieve over $65 million in annualized savings and realized significant operational efficiencies in a time of fiscal austerity. Prior to that, Ms. Conley-Abram held a senior position in the New York Council’s Finance Division playing an integral role in the financial management of the City’s S$42 billion budget. In this capacity, she developed operational and financial indicators and analyzed the fiscal and programmatic impacts of various budget proposals to prescribe well-designed policy recommendations and budget solutions for consideration by the New York City Council.Conley-Abram has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a master’s degree in urban policy analysis and management from the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy.