Happy National Women’s History Month! Windham Brannon marks the occasion by spotlighting some of our female leadership. Windham Brannon proudly affirms that 57% of our employee base and more than half of our leadership team is female. We support several different women-based and women-owned organizations including: Commercial Real Estate Women, Women’s Global Leadership Summit, Women in Pensions Network, Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance, Kate’s Club, American Women’s Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Assurance Principal Donna Caruso shares her perspective.
Q: Everyone has a story about how they decided to enter their career field. What made you want to pursue accounting? Did you always know or did you discover it in school?
Donna Caruso: My father, who was a CPA, said it was a great field for women and could see there would be an opportunity in the future.
Question: How has public accounting evolved since you entered the workforce?
Donna: It is very similar to when I started, as I was fortunate to work at firms on the cutting edge of technology. The workforce, as far as women, is quite similar except that it is now common to see women rising in the leadership roles as principals or partners.
Q: What has helped you get to where you are, and what advice would you share with people who are interested in following a similar path?
Donna: Never think you know it all and you have done it all. Continue to learn and try and improve every day.
Q: What are common misconceptions people have about accountants that you’d like to address?
Donna: That all we do is math. Where in audit, tax, or accounting, there are many rules and principles and learning how those should be applied to best serve our clients is what we really do.
