Technology

Mesa Public Schools Ends Six-Year Streak of Procurement Audit Findings with OpenGov

Published

28 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

Centralized procurement records and workflows helped Arizona’s largest school district complete its 2026 audit review in just 48 hours

MESA, Ariz., Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Mesa Public Schools, Arizona’s largest school district, recorded zero procurement-related audit findings in 2026 after a multi-year effort to modernize and centralize its procurement operations, including consolidating records and workflows with OpenGov.

The result marks a significant change for the district, which serves 58,000 students across 86 schools. For the previous six consecutive years, Mesa had received between one and three audit findings annually while procurement records were spread across network drives, email threads, and disconnected tools.

Mesa consolidated those records and workflows in OpenGov Procurement & Contract Management, giving its procurement team and auditors one place to access vendor responses, evaluations, approvals, contracts, and other documentation.

During the district’s 2026 audit review, auditors completed their review of the district’s selected procurement records in 48 hours. They selected 15 solicitations for review and were able to access the supporting documentation for each directly in OpenGov, including vendor responses, evaluation scores, award decisions, and contract approvals.

“I was completely flabbergasted when the auditor said we are done,” said Michelle Hamilton, Procurement Director for Mesa Public Schools. “We did not have one flag. For a district this size to not have an audit finding of some sort is unheard of.”

The change also reduced the administrative work surrounding the audit. Mesa’s 18-person procurement team no longer spends a full day uploading documents to external portals, while auditors no longer have to spend weeks tracking down signatures and approvals.

The modernization has extended beyond the annual audit. Mesa has created 36 determination templates to automate electronic approvals for purchases of up to $300,000, moved contract renewals out of email and into a tracked workflow, and resolved a 14-year-old document naming convention problem. The district estimates it has reclaimed approximately 24 days of collective staff time during each audit cycle.

Mesa also configured OpenGov to support its “Heisman Method,” a structured scoring approach that standardizes vendor evaluations and documents award decisions. By May 2025, the district had centralized its procurement records in one searchable system.

“Mesa’s story shows what happens when accountability is built into the workflow instead of recreated after the fact,” said Casey Hill, Director of Product Management at OpenGov. “When the record of a decision is captured as the work happens, public agencies spend less time assembling documentation and more time serving their communities. That’s what more effective and accountable government looks like.”

About OpenGov

OpenGov powers the AI platform for local and state governments across the United States. More than 2,000 cities, counties, school districts, special districts, and state agencies use OpenGov to connect finance, operations, infrastructure, and community services in one unified ecosystem, purpose-built for government. One in three people in the U.S. has better access to their government through OpenGov.

The OpenGov Public Service Platform brings together ERP and community operations including accounting, asset management, billing and revenue, budgeting, grants management, HCM, permitting, and purchasing. Powered by OG Assist, AI is embedded through the platform to help teams surface insights, complete workflows, and make better decisions faster.

Learn about OpenGov’s mission to power more effective and accountable government at OpenGov.com.

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SOURCE OpenGov, Inc.

Technology

Dr. Wael Sakr Scholarship Opens Applications for Aspiring Medical Students Nationwide

Published

28 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

Scholarship supports undergraduate students pursuing a future career in medicine and encourages a commitment to healthcare, research, and meaningful patient impact

DETROIT, Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Dr. Wael Sakr Scholarship for Medical Students announces the opening of applications for its upcoming scholarship cycle, providing undergraduate students with an opportunity to receive financial support as they pursue an education and future career in medicine.

The scholarship is open to eligible undergraduate students across the United States and is not restricted to applicants from any particular city or state. The program is designed for students who are on a pre-medical track or otherwise pursuing an academic path toward becoming a medical doctor, including an MD or DO.

The Dr. Wael Sakr Scholarship for Medical Students provides a one-time $1,000 award to one selected undergraduate student.

As part of the application, students submit a 500–750-word essay addressing the prompt: “Dr. Wael Sakr has spent his career advancing medicine through research, mentorship, and a commitment to addressing healthcare disparities. What draws you to a career in medicine, and how do you hope to make a meaningful impact as a future physician?”

The selection process is structured to provide an independent review of applications. Applications are reviewed by an independent scholarship committee appointed by Dr. Wael Sakr.

“Dr. Wael Sakr” brings more than four decades of experience in pathology, medical education, and cancer research to the initiative. After completing medical training at the University of Damascus, he pursues postgraduate education in the United States, including an Anatomic Pathology residency and a Surgical Pathology fellowship.

Applications for the Dr. Wael Sakr Scholarship for Medical Students are due April 15, 2027, with the scholarship winner scheduled to be announced on May 15, 2027. Interested undergraduate students can review eligibility requirements and application information through the official scholarship website.

About the Dr. Wael Sakr Scholarship for Medical Students

The Dr. Wael Sakr Scholarship for Medical Students is an independently reviewed scholarship funded by Dr. Wael Sakr for undergraduate students pursuing a pathway toward a career as a medical doctor.

Website: drwaelsakrscholarship.com
Application Deadline: April 15, 2027
Winner Announcement: May 15, 2027

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dr-wael-sakr-scholarship-opens-applications-for-aspiring-medical-students-nationwide-302856699.html

SOURCE Dr. Wael Sakr Scholarship

Technology

Strength From Within: A TORRAS Conversation with Tommy Caldwell

Published

28 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Climbing icon Tommy Caldwell recently joined TORRAS for a father-son climb with his son Fitz on the Scimitar route near Lake Tahoe. Featuring TORRAS Q3 AIR PRO, the project opened into a candid conversation about resilience, fatherhood and the experiences that have shaped him over a lifetime of climbing.

Strength in Focus

For Tommy, who once saw climbing as the center of his life, losing a finger might have seemed like a nightmare. Yet even in that moment, he found a sense of possibility.

“I felt uncertainty and fear, but I also felt strangely liberated. There were no expectations anymore—neither from me nor from anyone else. I was starting from the bottom, and every time I proved I could still do something, it was uplifting and invigorating.”

Despite the extraordinary climbs he went on to achieve after that, Tommy has never seen himself as a naturally gifted climber.

“Over time, I realized that hard work could still take me to those places. I grew to love getting into the trench and digging a little every day. That process itself became fulfilling. I learned that I was good at focusing on something, being relentless, and moving steadily toward it—so I embraced that strength.”

Recording on His Own Terms

Tommy and Kevin Jorgeson’s historic Dawn Wall ascent brought their story to a global audience and changed the way Caldwell thought about sharing his experiences.

“I began to understand that sharing could be meaningful. But I also learned when to put the phone down. At one point I dropped my phone off the wall, and it reminded me that if you become too absorbed in what people are saying, you can stop experiencing the thing itself. The balance matters.”

Today, Caldwell also captures moments on his own terms. During the climb with Fitz, the TORRAS Q3 Air Pro made it easier to record along the way.

“I found myself belaying with one hand and recording with the other in a way I would not have felt comfortable doing before. I also clipped the ring to a carabiner on my rack, almost the same way I rack climbing gear. That was a pleasant surprise because it made the phone much faster to access than repeatedly sliding it in and out of a pocket.”

Passing on Confidence

Scimitar marked one of Fitz’s most challenging multi-pitch climbs yet. As he stays close to protect Fitz on the wall, Tommy takes an equally careful approach to fatherhood.

“I did not want to force him to climb, even though in the back of my mind I hoped he might eventually see what I see in it. The challenge for me is to contain my enthusiasm and let his interest grow naturally, without tying it to ego or to other people’s expectations of a professional climber’s child.”

Asked what he ultimately hopes for Fitz, Caldwell does not prescribe a destination.

“First of all, I want him to be his own person and find his own path. I know how to teach him to follow the path I took, but that is not necessarily the path he should take.

“I want him to be confident and joyful—to see the world as a wonderful place, to meet people from many places, to notice beauty, and to move through life with openness.”

For Caldwell, what gets passed on is not a path to follow, but the confidence to find one.

Shared Ground: Tommy Caldwell & TORRAS

The sense of focus Caldwell values is what he appreciates about TORRAS as a brand.

“I think the biggest difference between TORRAS and other brands I’ve worked with is that they put so much energy into making just a few products very well. It’s cool to see all that energy going into a few things and those things being really perfected.”

The connection feels even closer through a shared relationship with climbing.

“It was exciting to see TORRAS’s connection to climbing. There are people within the company who are climbers, and TORRAS supports climbing gyms. Anything close to the climbing world means a lot to me.”

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SOURCE TORRAS

Technology

LERETA Names New Chief Technology Officer to Lead Platform Modernization

Published

28 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

Khurram Malik, a 20-year technology leader with experience at CoStar Group, Capital Group, and Apple, joins LERETA as CTO.

POMONA, Calif., Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — LERETA, a leading national provider of real estate tax and flood services for mortgage servicers, today announced that Khurram Malik has joined the company as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this role, Khurram will lead LERETA’s technology organization, with responsibility for platform modernization, cloud strategy and driving the company’s AI-enabled engineering initiatives.

Veteran technology leader to drive cloud, AI, and platform modernization at LERETA.

Khurram brings more than 20 years of technology leadership experience across global financial services and technology organizations. Throughout his career, he has led large-scale cloud transformations, modernized enterprise platforms, and built AI-driven engineering frameworks that measurably increased development speed and productivity, while managing global technology organizations of 300 or more professionals.

Most recently, Khurram served in a senior technology leadership role at CoStar Group, where he led a multidisciplinary engineering organization supporting LoopNet.com, the company’s flagship marketplace. There, he directed the migration of legacy platforms to the cloud and led the organization to adopt a multi-agent AI framework that increased engineering velocity and modernized the company’s data analytics pipeline.

Prior to CoStar, Khurram spent nearly nine years at Capital Group, a global asset manager, where he served as Vice President of Software Engineering and managed a technology organization of more than 300 professionals. In that role, he led enterprise-wide modernization and risk-remediation programs, directed the firm’s transition to cloud-native development on AWS, and provided technology leadership for several of the company’s most critical business units. Khurram also held technology leadership roles at Apple, Pacific Life and Openwave Systems earlier in his career. He is a CISSP-certified security professional and holds an MBA in Finance from Loyola Marymount University.

“Khurram will be a transformational addition to LERETA,” said Katie Brewer, CEO of LERETA. “He has led large technology organizations, delivered cloud transformations from legacy platforms, modernized enterprise platforms and developed AI frameworks that measurably increased engineering productivity. He has consistently been praised for his leadership style, his commitment to developing his teams and his ability to lead organizations through meaningful change.”

About LERETA

Since 1986, LERETA has provided the mortgage and insurance industries the fastest, most accurate and complete access to property tax data and flood hazard status information across the U.S. LERETA is committed to giving customers extraordinary service and cost-effective property tax and flood solutions. LERETA’s services are designed to increase efficiency, reduce penalties and liabilities, and improve processes for mortgage originators and servicers. LERETA’s dedicated teams of real estate tax and flood professionals along with LERETA’s experienced management team allow the company to lead the industry in service and technology.

Visit www.LERETA.com for more information.

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SOURCE LERETA, LLC