FSEA SUNCOAST CHAPTER EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

GOVERNANCE YEARS 2023-2025

Shonna Bedford, EA

PRESIDENT

Shonna has come from an extensive background of Accounting. She earned an Accounting Degree early on spending many years in finance, bookkeeping and the tax world. 

Although she has been self-employed for many years specializing in Customer Retention, Customer Service and tax issues, she began her own tax company Hardwen Capital, concentrating on corporations and agriculture.  She believes in keeping the family farm and generational ranches alive. She has traveled the country and world, accumulating clients from various states and countries.  She is grateful for the opportunities that God has given her to help people.

She earned her Enrolled Agent status and quickly excelled in the realm of representation and resolution. She is a singer/songwriter, screenwriter, producer, director and author.  She enjoys quiet time along with her husband on the ranch training horses. Her son is a musician and collaborates often on her projects. 

Crystal Daus, EA, NTPI Fellow

TREASURER

Crystal Daus, EA received her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, magna cum laude, from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg in 2013. She received her Masters in Business Administration degree from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg in 2016. A member of Phi Theta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma, Crystal enjoys challenging herself academically.

While in business school, she started working in the accounting industry part time. Crystal has been working at Fredrick James since 2006. In 2015 she started full time as Chief Operating Officer. Crystal’s passion for accounting is rooted in her joy of serving others; using her financial knowledge to positively impact the world through her God given talents and abilities.

In October 2017 she was admitted to practice before the Internal Revenue Service as an Enrolled Agent. She recently completed her NTPI Fellow designation.

E. Lucia Berrick, EA, MBA, PA 

SECRETARY

A champion sailor in the PHRF and One-Design fleets of Massachusetts and Maine, Mrs. Berrick knows how to work as a teammate and a leader under pressure and win!  Mrs. Berrick took that same fighting attitude to her battle against breast cancer, and won.  She has been a champion for her clients as well, earning top-notch recommendations from CEOs, CFOs and COOs of leading corporations since the start of her career in 1986.

Lucia’s work ethic is unmatched.  With a ‘roll-up your sleeves’ attitude she has been tasked as the “go-to” leader on several projects for companies of all sizes, in all industries.

A practicing Corporate & Public Accountant for over 30 years, Lucia earned Bachelor honors in Accounting and Finance from Rowan University and obtained her honors MBA from Babson College, specializing in Entrepreneurship and Marketing, as well as Accounting to improve her prior accounting acumen.  This ensured she was able to properly navigate start-ups she championed into venture capital darlings.

With both an EA and MBA, Lucia’s consulting firm concentrates more exclusively on the impact of economics and how they affect business decisions.  Concentrating on taxes, COGS and other economies of scale, ELM Consulting is assisting clients in determining how to best improve business without impacting the essence of why customers prefer their brand.  Lucia has been concentrating in such core industries as Construction, Real Estate, Retail and Manufacturing with an acute understanding of 1031 exchanges and maximizing Gross Profit.

Mrs. Berrick utilizes the S-Corp. model frequently to maximize growth and prosperity for small startup companies with a forward, future outlook. She has battled for the little guy her entire career; supported start-ups, small to mid-sized businesses and led improvements in corporate boardrooms and financial operations of many fortune 500 companies along the way.  Armed with her Enrolled Agent license and a proven track record facing the IRS, state agencies and Treasury, she has proven successful compared to CPAs less versed in taxation, or without  the tenacity to continue the fight.

Tamara Tarrant Smith, EA (“Tammy”)

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Tamara Tarrant Smith, EA specializes in all aspects of small business accounting (including payroll), and individual, corporate and partnership tax preparation. A graduate of Hickey School for Business in St. Louis, Missouri, Tammy spent three years in public accounting (in Missouri and Illinois) before moving to Florida. She then spent another four years concentrating on tax preparation before becoming an Enrolled Agent in 1991. At that time, she went back to school while working full-time in public and private accounting (medical and construction industries). She graduated from St. Petersburg Junior College before transferring to University of South Florida, where she received her BS in Accounting in 2001. After graduating, she continued in the public accounting area until she started her own business, Accounting For Success, in 2016. In October of that year, she joined the National Association of Enrolled Agents, Florida Society of Enrolled Agents, and the Suncoast Chapter of the Florida Society of Enrolled Agents, and within eight months, she was serving as the Secretary for Suncoast Chapter for a two-year term. In 2019, she went on to become Vice President, and in 2020 she also served as the Chairman of the Awards Committee for FSEA. In June 2021 she was installed as the President of the Suncoast Chapter for the 2021-2023 term.

Tammy lives in Tarpon Springs with her dog, Reno, and enjoys raising butterflies, gardening and volunteering in her spare time.