1. What is your career history?

I attended Virginia Tech and graduated in 1990. Soon after that, I started a career in healthcare, initially in accounting and finance. I just celebrated my 23rd year of employment with Carilion and have been chief financial officer for Carilion Clinic since 2013.

2. What made you interested in a career in finance?

I began my journey at Virginia Tech expecting I might be an engineer in the Corps of Cadets and, at some point, fly jets in the Navy. That educational path took a turn for me early on as I began to gravitate toward the business courses. As I took more business courses, accounting was something that came naturally to me. I've been fortunate in my career to take that base of accounting and develop and evolve it into a much broader skillset.

3. What was the best advice you ever received?

You never know it all, and there are always new things to learn. My mother was an elementary school teacher for 35 years. And so part of that probably comes from my experience with her and her work. Secondly, it's important to appreciate those around you and treat others as equals, regardless of titles. Lastly, there's no substitute for hard work. The passion you have for your work shows in the time and energy you commit to it. Those are the guiding principles that really drive me in my professional career.

4. How has your role as chief financial officer changed due to COVID-19?

We are finding new and better ways to take care of our providers and patients in response to COVID-19. As our region’s safety-net health system, we also have a deep, meaningful devotion to helping our communities outside our hospitals, physician offices, and other health and wellness locations. For example, we help our school systems protect students and staff and assist employers in evaluating and understanding what they can do to keep their employees and customers safe. Our responsibilities in the short term may make our financial situation a little less favorable. However, as our region’s community-owned safetynet health system, we are obligated to make these investments to help our community be better off in the long run. As the CFO, it's my role to ensure and reassure our employees, patients, and communities that we have the resources we need today and tomorrow; that it's okay if we have short-term challenges to ensure long-term health and wellness. Our care heroes are doing great, extraordinary, incredible things every day to keep our communities safe, including my family, and I’m so thankful to be part of the Carilion Clinic to support their work!

5. What made you want to become involved in the GO Virginia Council?

The GO Virginia program focuses on the longer term and what the region is going to look like years from now. A lot of folks have great ideas and there is a lot of opportunity in the region, but at the end of the day, it takes resources to bring those ideas to fruition. And that's the role that GO Virginia is playing. I want to have good opportunities for my three sons who also grew up here. I want there to be a safe environment, good infrastructure, and good healthcare. The work to ensure those things must start today, and it's the kind of work that GO Virginia is leading.

6. What have you learned from being on the GO Virginia Council?

Participating in the GO Virginia council has reemphasized for me the importance of collaboration and coordination across geographies and across industries. GO Virginia provides tools and a platform for bringing together the talent, experience, and knowledge we have across the region.

7. Are there any similarities between your job at the Carilion Clinic and your role as a GO Virginia council member?

Carilion Clinic’s mission is to improve the health of the communities we serve, and the communities we serve are all across the GO Virginia region. Part of ensuring a healthy community involves not just physical and emotional health, but also financial health. We have partnerships with Radford University and Virginia Tech that meet the community's needs from a health and wellness perspective while also contributing to positive economic outcomes. My role as CFO for Carilion involves being mindful of the economic health of our region. With GO Virginia, I'm working with others to do just that.

8. Is there anything GO Virginia has planned for the future that you are looking forward to?

What is exciting is we're a couple of years into GO Virginia and only just beginning to see some of the significant impacts of the program. A lot of the investments we’ve made in GO Virginia take some time to produce results that can be seen broadly. We’re in the timeframe to finally start to see some of those results, and it will be incredibly rewarding to see the work come to fruition.

9. What’s a trip that you went on that changed you?

I pursued and received my MBA from Wake Forest through an executive MBA program. Part of the curriculum was a trip to visit different businesses around the world, learning about the differences that exist economically outside of the U.S. One of the places that we traveled was Latin America. I got to visit some communities where the simple things that we take for granted - like electricity and running water - are not a guarantee. Seeing children growing up in that environment had an impact on me. It helped me value the importance of economic development and the role that it plays in addressing those differences that exist.

10. What is your favorite movie?

One of my favorite movies of all time is Saving Private Ryan. As someone who did not grow up during the World War eras, seeing a glimpse, even a movie version, into the sacrifices that were made and some of the real-world realities experienced by individuals and their families, really makes you appreciative and makes you want to work hard to see that the freedoms we have continue.