Keith Cummins
Director, State and Local Advisory and Assistance Team
Keith joined Education OIG’s Operations Internal Audit Team in May 2005. He was promoted to Assistant Director of the team in May 2011, where he co-managed a staff of 10 auditors and inspectors based in Washington, DC. In August 2014, Keith joined OIG’s State and Local Advisory and Assistance Team, where he is now responsible for coordinating and providing guidance to all OIG staff involved in audits of Education’s elementary and secondary education, vocational rehabilitation, and higher education programs. He also serves in an advisory role for OIG investigations related to these programs, and frequently reviews proposed regulations and other documents developed by Education’s many program offices.
During his time with OIG, Keith has worked on several significant audits of Education processes and programs, with a particular focus on grant monitoring. These include Education’s oversight of both charter schools’ relationships with charter and education management organizations and State charter school closure processes; States’ controls over high school graduation rate data reliability, district single audit resolution activities, and the protection of students’ personally identifiable information in State longitudinal data systems; and charter management organizations’ performance and use of charter school program grant funding. Recently, Keith has played a key role in OIG’s CARES Act and Disaster Recovery work, with Education receiving tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for States and districts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and natural disasters of 2017, 2018, and 2019. He was also heavily involved in OIG’s Recovery Act efforts, responsible for both coordinating with GAO and leading OIG audits of several Education programs. Keith’s work has resulted in findings and recommendations aimed at improving the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of programs and operations administered or financed by Education, as well as preventing and detecting waste, fraud, and abuse. Auditees have implemented a number of corrective actions in response to these recommendations.
Keith is a May 2004 graduate of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he majored in both finance and government and politics. In May 2012, he received his Masters in Policy Management from Georgetown University. His capstone paper addressed the IG community’s role in both compliance accountability and performance accountability. Keith is also a Certified Fraud Examiner.
Keith lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Brigid, and daughter, Gemma. He is an enthusiastic Washington Nationals baseball fan whose other interests include history, music, and traveling.