Residence: South Orange, N.J.
Occupation: Partner at KPMG, Global Head of Sustainability Tax and co-leader in the U.S. credits practice.
Education: I decided to attend DePaul University because I wanted to get a business degree in downtown Chicago. My maternal grandparents are alumni, so I was very familiar with the Blue Demons. I pursued an accounting degree and was a part of the Strobel Honors program. I had a fantastic internship at a local accounting firm, which led to a full-time job with KPMG that I have enjoyed since 1993. I also earned my Master of Science inTaxation degree and became a CPA.
Vital Stats: Health and fitness were always an important focus for me. I was extremely fortunate to help coach the DePaul men’s volleyball team for a couple of years and played on the women’s volleyball team my junior year. I picked up beach volleyball after graduation and played in the Midwest Volleyball Professional (MVP) league for a number of years, until I stumbled across the Mrs. T’s Chicago Triathlon. Despite not knowing how to swim and feeling as if I was going to drown in Lake Michigan, I fell in love with my new sport and have been a competitive triathlete for over 15 years, consistently ranked among the top female amateur triathletes in the world in my age category. My husband, John, and 10-year-old son, Zachary, also compete in the sport, and we enjoy traveling around the world to race Ironman and Half-Ironman events. Our family has found that this lifestyle offers an amazing ability to keep raising the bar on our performance, both professionally as well as in our sport.
What I Like Best About My Job: Being in a global professional services firm provides continuous learning from incredibly smart people, and every day represents a new rewarding challenge. The two most important things for me as a tax practice leader are our clients and our teams. My job is to help our talented professionals reach their career goals while providing the highest quality tax services to our clients. I am honored to serve some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated companies that are doing some amazing things—from life sciences companies developing therapies to cure cancer to technology companies pushing the boundaries on what is possible in big data and cloud computing.
My DePaul Experience Helped Me To: experience possibilities that I didn’t even know existed and quite literally shape my life’s trajectory.
Words of Advice: Set personal and professional short and long-term goals and share them with someone. Hold yourself accountable, and aim higher than what you think is possible.
