Deborah Loveless CGFM, CPA

Deborah Loveless, CPA, CGFM, CGMA, is the Director of the Division of State Audit, which is part of the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office. The Division of State Audit is responsible for conducting the financial and performance audits of all state departments, agencies, and institutions. Deborah has been with State Audit since 1979. For the first twelve years, she worked in the Financial and Compliance section auditing state agencies and served as the audit manager for the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and Single Audit. In 1991, she assumed the duties of assistant director for the division’s Performance Audit section, which performs audits under the state’s Government Entity Review (Sunset) Law. She was appointed director of the division in January 2013. 

Deborah received her bachelor’s degree in Public Administration in 1975 and her MBA in 1979 from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She is also a graduate of the Tennessee Government Executive Institute. 

She serves as vice-chair of the National State Auditors Association’s Peer Review Committee and is a member of the Performance Audit Committee. 

She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and the Association of Government Accountants (AGA). She previously served as a director and as treasurer for the Tennessee Chapter of ASPA. In her more than thirty years as a member of AGA, she has held numerous appointed or elected offices at the chapter, regional, and national level, including four years on the National Executive Committee as senior vice president. Deborah currently serves on the AICPA’s Government Performance and Accountability Committee and on the AICPA’s Performance Audit Standards Task Force. 

Deborah and her husband, Mike, have one son, Matt (daughter-in-law, Kristi and grandson, Drew).