FitzgeraldICMA® (Institute of Certified Management Accountants) is pleased to welcome an accomplished professional to its exam development team: Krystal Fitzgerald.

Krystal joined ICMA in April 2021 and has been working remotely, and will continue to do so, from her home office in Amherst, Mass. Krystal serves as exam content development manager, with responsibility for developing new training and editing materials, processes, and procedures for writing test questions for both the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) and CSCA® (Certified in Strategy and Competitive Analysis) exams. 

Among Krystal’s primary duties are reviewing and editing newly written test questions and providing individualized training and feedback to writers to improve the quality of their test questions. She’s also looking at ways to innovate the exams, including pursuing new formats to test questions, conducting research to write business-related scenarios, and recommending changes to scoring rubrics to facilitate the exam scoring process. She reports to Bill Cordes, ICMA senior director, exam development and performance analysis.

Krystal enjoys extensive experience in the exam development field. Most recently, she was content development manager at Prometric, where she led the development of new product offerings, created new training materials and audit procedures, and oversaw development of a framework for evaluating continuing education programs in the investment industry. At Prometric, Krystal was involved in exams across a range of industries, and that’s actually where she learned about ICMA and the CMA.

“I’m delighted to join the ICMA staff to be able to contribute to this globally respected exam,” she said. “I hope that my experience in the educational testing field will prove valuable as I work with item writers, suggest innovations, and help to ensure the validity and integrity of the CMA exam.” 

In addition to her experience at Prometric, Krystal worked as a content development specialist for Measured Progress, an educational assessment organization. Prior to that, she spent approximately 13 years at Evaluation Systems Group of Pearson (formerly National Evaluation Systems), where she was lead trainer/test development specialist. In this role, she managed a development team of approximately 12 staff members working on testing products for various teacher certification programs and developed a new training program for item writers. 

Krystal began her undergraduate education at Yale University and eventually graduated summa cum laude, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, from Smith College. She holds a Master’s degree in Music Theory from the University of Texas, Austin, where she also pursued doctoral studies; and an M.Ed. in Elementary Education from Westfield (Mass.) State College. 

In her spare time, Krystal enjoys gardening, baking, knitting, and playing the piano. During the pandemic, she also started pursuing ballet remotely. She is a member of her church choir and on the board of directors of the Skating Club of Amherst.  

You can reach Krystal at krystal.fitzgerald@imanet.org