Leadership

Leading With Expertise And Empathy.
Meet The Partners Creating The New Standard In Tax and Accounting Firms.

We merged together with a vision to create a Tax and Accounting firm that clients and team members are honored to be a part of. 

We are all different, but alike in purposeful ways that have created this strong and progressive business. Our education, reputation of expertise, proficiency and skill lead the way for our firm.

  • Lisa Johnson, CPA

    Principal

    Lisa Johnson has over 29 years of experience in a wide range of tax services.  She specializes in Individual Taxes and Planning, Estate and Gift Taxes, Partnerships, LLC’s and S Corporations.  Lisa is experienced in working with families with complex structures, small businesses, trusts, and family foundations.  Lisa maintains awareness of the current laws and proposes ideas to her clients that will be flexible enough to withstand frequent changes, and finds that her clients highly value her meticulous attention to these changes.
    Lisa has been featured as a 5 Star Wealth Manager, an honorable national designation that is awarded in response to high client satisfaction. 

  • Jennifer Messal, CPA

    Principal

    Jennifer Messal provides full service tax consulting and compliance, specializing in federal taxation. She possesses more than 20 years of experience in public accounting. Prior to her career in public accounting, Jennifer worked for two years at a Fortune 500 company, gaining valuable experience in corporate tax structures. Jennifer’s areas of specialization in Federal income taxation includes individuals, partnerships, corporations, estates and trusts. She values the opportunity to deliver personalized service and create lasting relationships as a trusted advisor. Her industry expertise includes retail, construction, real estate and healthcare. In the ever changing world of tax, the ability to keep up with current laws is a top priority. 

  • Lisa Bristow, CPA

    Principal

    Lisa Bristow has more than 35 years of accounting experience in individual and business taxation in diversified industries. She has been a seminar leader on various tax topics including retirement plan design and administration issues. 
    Lisa provides full service tax planning, consulting and preparation in all areas of taxation. Her extensive experience proves to be a valuable asset to her clients in the highly complex and ever-changing multi-state individual and corporate tax environments.

Meet the johnson messal bristow Team.

  • Jacqueline Taxdal, CPA

    Senior Tax Manager

    Jacqueline Taxdal has fourteen years of public accounting experience. She started preparing and reviewing tax returns as a volunteer with AARP Tax-Aide while a student at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee and developed a passion for working with senior citizens. In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant, Jackie is a Certified Senior Advisor and a member of the AICPA and FICPA. Her areas of expertise include individuals, trusts, estate and gift taxes, non-profit organizations, partnerships, corporations, and IRS audits and representation. She breaks down the unique tax and financial situation of her clients into easy-to-understand pieces, providing them the knowledge to make their best decisions. She believes her most important responsibility is being the client’s trusted advisor and counts their success as her greatest achievement.

  • Amariah Dawes

    Operations Manager

    With over 8 year of experience in office administration and customer service management, Amariah uses her organizational skills to ensure smooth operations of our office, assists in facilitating effective communication between our clients and staff, and overall coordination of a broad range of services that allows the firm to operate efficiently.

    When she isn’t at work, Amariah loves hosting dinner parties and game nights with her husband and reading biographies of interesting people.

Gain A Voice.
Have A Purpose.
Excel In Your Career.

We believe we are cultivating one of the most unique teams in our industry. We work with individuals that are reliable, interested in complex tax structures, have a desire to obtain accounting certifications, strong interpersonal skills, problem solvers, team oriented, and take pride in their work. Our team is extremely dynamic and each individual has added to the success of our firm.

At our firm you will feel…

At Home

Feel a sense of belonging. This is your firm too.

Respected

Enjoy a respectful work environment. All team members are respected at each level.

empowered

We help you feel empowered to make decisions at the appropriate level. As you excel in your career we’ll help you grow confident in your decision making.

Trusted

When there is trust, there is less need for micromanagement. Our team trusts each other. The Partners and Managers have an open-door policy. We are ready and eager to help where asked, but also trust you to navigate projects on your own.

Work For A Firm That Redefines.

Take the first step to make a meaningful footprint in your career. Working with us means hands-on experience, diving into intricate and unique accounting cases - with guidance that simply can’t be found elsewhere. Click to read some of the common misconceptions of working for a mid-sized accounting firm versus a large accounting corporation.

  • "As a senior accounting student, it was important to gain as much “real world” experience as possible.

    My Tax internship experience really solidified my classroom knowledge. and lead to greater opportunities of learning and developing analytical skills. I gained a new sense of professionalism and teamwork throughout my internship. The collaborative efforts of all the staff were both a highlight and a driving force in my success as an intern. I’m very excited to continue growing with Johnson Messal Bristow as a Tax Staff member!
    -Josselyn W.

  • "This internship has been the ultimate deciding factor for my educational career path!

    This internship provided me with real-life examples so that I could take what I learned from my accounting classes and apply it to real situations. I have excelled in my accounting classes, not only due to the application of learned principles, but also because of the extremely welcoming and patient team that I have had the pleasure to work with.. The best part of any day is getting to interact with our clients, hearing their stories, and helping them to achieve their goals; it makes the “Thank You for your help,” so much sweeter!
    -Tess Z.

  • "I felt like a valuable member of the team."

    My internship experience was very insightful. It showed me what it is like to work in a firm and I felt like a contributing member of the team. I gained new skill, not just in tax preparation, but also in tax planning. I would recommend this internship to others because of the positive work environment and the bountiful opportunities to learn from the skilled and resourceful staff.

    Cameron L.

  • "This internship is a thoughtfully guided experience that introduces you to the world of tax accounting."

    I would, without a doubt, recommend this internship to others. Everyone has such a positive outlook and are so close that it makes you feel really appreciated and like your work actually means something. I always felt supported and like I could ask any questions that I needed to. There were always people that I could ask for guidance from and everyone was happy and eager to help.

    Willow L.

Discover Why The Future Is In Mid-Sized Businesses.

We have a passion for the next generation of Tax and Accounting graduates. We want to lead them in the right direction and we believe we offer a very unique experience here at Johnson Messal Bristow PLLC. 

When we are at recruiting events or out in the community, we often listen to some of the concerns of graduates looking to start their career. We would like to share with you some of the common misconceptions we have discovered in our industry:

  • At JMB, you’ll be utilized, not placed in the back room working on mundane tasks. We believe in quality over quantity. Meaning that we try to stay away from “charge hours” and focus more on the quality of the work that you produce. You’ll be involved in relevant cases and be an influential part of the team to help us maximize our efficiency.

  • We have a high level of expertise partnered with long experience. Each Partner is a graduate of The Fisher School of Accounting at Warrington College of Business at The University of Florida, which is continuously ranked by U.S News & World Report as one of the Best Accounting Programs in the country. We look forward to providing career advice and searching for ways to best help you excel. That goes for career and schooling. We can advise on which classes are best to take in pair with your tax and accounting career.

  • The size of our firm allows you to have your hands in many different and interesting structures. We see a lot of unique cases such as generational wealth transfer plans, IRS controversy and resolution, and new business startups. We entrust you to dive into these types of cases as we believe that is a great way for you to learn where your passion may lay and which areas you can succeed in.

  • We have found that it is much easier to make decisions and accomplish change with our mid-sized firm. This allows you to work efficiently without having to jump through multiple hoops to be heard.

  • IWe have chosen to offer traditional benefits like health insurance and a 401k plan that is very competitive to what you would see at a larger firm. We always encourage and hold employee reviews. We offer support and bonuses for obtaining your CPA.

    We are also able to be adaptable and support different working situations. If suitable, we offer remote work while still maintaining our sense of togetherness. We look for ways to support life transitions, such as maternity leave, medical or personal leave, flexible schedules to accommodate education pursuits or family needs, and work from home options. We want our team to feel like they can share their lives with us and avoid the fear of losing their job or being misunderstood.

  • Although a big name might catch attention, what is most important is the experience you gain in each role and at each level.

  • The size of our firm allows us to focus more on getting to know you and your families. We promote activities that include everyone; such as charity events, community events, and get togethers. We enjoy learning about your passions and hobbies. We embrace and champion causes that are important to each team member, not just the causes that top levels of management may care about. For example, one of our team members is passionate about recycling and taking care of our environment. We happily incorporated several initiatives to support this in office.

    At the end of the day, we are your biggest advocates in maintaining a proper and happy work/life balance.

Interested in joining the Team?

Email your resume and cover letter to hr@jmbcpafirm.com or click here to review our open positions. We look forward to connecting with you.