Upper Cumberland Chapter November Meeting

Heather Batson, CPA, is a Partner in the Chattanooga office of Mauldin & Jenkins, where she has worked since 2003. She specializes in audits for financial institutions, not-for-profits, and employee benefit plans. A long-time member of TSCPA and AICPA, Heather has served in numerous leadership roles and is the 2025-2026 Chair of the TSCPA Board.

Jason D. McCarter, CPA, is originally from Sevierville, Tenn. He earned a B.S. in accounting from Carson-Newman University in 2007 and then joined the national public accounting firm Crowe-Horwath, LLP. During his tenure there, McCarter was selected as a fellow on Crowe's federal tax specialties service team where he worked on consulting and compliance for complex tax incentive and consulting projects for companies ranging to the Fortune 500 throughout the eastern U.S.

Since then, McCarter served as the finance director of a large Knoxville faith-based non-profit organization where he focused on integrating best practices in accounting and business operations. He then came to Burkhart and Company, an accounting and consulting firm in Knoxville, in 2013 to assist a large multinational non-profit organization in complete implementation of a new finance and accounting department.

McCarter currently works as the Financial Controller for Mastermelt America in Sweetwater, Tenn. Mastermelt America is part of the Mastermelt Group of Companies specializing in the recovery of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and other precious metals from a variety of sources from spent diesel catalysts to jet turbine blades with operations in Sweetwater, Tenn.; London, England; Buxton, England; and Singapore.