How One CPA Empowers Women, One Girl Scout at a Time
Sarah Snell, CPA, PSA, PAFM, has been uplifting girls/women since she first joined the Girl Scouts while living overseas on her father’s Army base in Germany. Today, as only the second-ever female partner at Holman Frenia Allison, P.C. (HFA) in Lakewood, she is still living those ideals.
“I remember having such fun experiences as a Girl Scout, a highlight being that we took a field trip to Paris. Granted, we lived a lot closer to Paris than New Jersey, but how cool of a memory is that?” she remarks. Today, Sarah is more than just a leader, she’s a role model to girls in
the community and mom to daughters, Madison, age 15, and Avery, age 13, along with being a wife to her husband, Doug.
“Girl Scouts is a community. With the shared experiences, opportunities to learn skills that you may not have had the opportunity to learn, and the camaraderie of those of us in scouting, Girl Scouts feels like home,” she explains. “I’ve had the ability to work with fantastic girls and
help guide them as they grow into girls of courage, confidence and character. They truly do make the world a better place, and this experience is core to their empowerment as future leaders.”
After starting two Girl Scouts troops — one for each daughter — Sarah continued her involvement at the broader level of the organization. She volunteered as a regional delegate to its board of directors, served on committees and as a treasurer of the Girl Scouts’ Shore Pines Community, where she sets up bank accounts for new troops and reviews their financial reports. In 2018, Sarah was recognized by Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore as a “Phenomenal Woman Under 40.”
Sarah also gives back at the adult level. She is a member of the Junior League of Monmouth County (JLMC), has been on its board twice in treasury positions and currently serves on its Finance Committee. “We train women to be effective volunteers within their own community. I love that it’s a training organization. The whole idea is to train other women to go out there and make a difference,” she explains. As a highlight of her JLMC experience, Sarah was recently named “Outstanding Leaguer of the Year,” which honors extraordinary and sustained service to both the League and the broader community.
In 2023, Sarah was an NJCPA Ovation Award winner in the Woman to Watch category and has participated in the Society's Emerging Leaders Council, Student Programs and Scholarships Committee and other interest groups. She is also the national Director of Growth & Membership
for the CPA Firm Management Association (CPAFMA) and is a past president of its New Jersey chapter. “It’s a way to elevate the profession within this profession,” she adds.
Leading the Charge at Work
After initially working in audit at HFA, which has a specialty in government services and advisory for townships, school boards and counties, Sarah moved up to chief operating officer and later partner. “They offered me a position of controller and office supervisor, and it grew from there. I was taken out of doing public accounting to do private accounting for the firm itself, and it gave me exposure to operations management,” says Sarah, who has worked at HFA for 17 years. Making the switch to firm management in 2012, Sarah helps drive the firm’s growth and efficiency by developing niche areas.
Sarah makes sure HFA is working as one big team, not in silos, which is likely something she learned growing up with two older sisters and a younger brother. “I’ve always had that kind of mentality, such as sharing knowledge, sharing resources and communal conversation,” she says, noting she gained initial interest in accounting from the bookkeeping her mother did and never looked back.