Antonia Berbrick

I had a 30-year career as a CPA in public and private accounting before finding my passion in higher education. I started in public accounting in the 1980s at Price WaterhouseCoopers (which at the time was Coopers and Lybrand) when women were treated differently in the workplace. I learned through a lot of different mentors as I worked my way up, and I went through tremendous management training that taught me how to mentor people on my team, as well as diplomacy and negotiation and all those key skills that are so important for succeeding in business. My key skill set when I was in public and private accounting was mentoring individuals and communicating with clients and with management, board of trustees, and so forth. I took that and continued in higher ed. After working in the Office of General Counsel, I had a mentor who was the Vice President, General Counsel. He was very good in terms of identifying my key strengths and really pushed me to challenge myself, and promoted me to Assistant Vice President at a university. After 5 years, I was asked to teach a course while somebody was on maternity leave, and after teaching that course, the light bulb went off, and I realized this is what I really want to do with teaching. I've been in a teaching capacity since 2015, but in higher ed administration since 2008. Now I'm the chair of an accounting department, where I handle everything from curriculum management to enrollment and program development, but most importantly, I'm advising and guiding my students both inside and outside the classroom academically, career-wise, and personally. I find myself to be almost like a life coach.