Influential Woman · Accounting

Hillarie Woods

CPA

Senior Controller, Redwood Behavioral Services

Springfield, OR

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from University of Oregon Degree Attended Santa Clara University for almost 3 years Cert CPA

Her Story

About Hillarie

I'm an accountant with around 15 years of experience in the field. For the past 4 years, I've been working specifically for the behavioral therapy industry, where I handle a wide range of responsibilities. My day-to-day work includes payroll, billing, helping keep the company running through doing authorizations for ABA work, checking people's timesheets to make sure things are going to be billed properly or that we're not missing out on billing opportunities, and following up on those kinds of things. I also look at claims that have been denied and try to figure out what the reason is and how to fix it, because generally it's something that we can fix. I work from home, which allows me to have more flexibility and interact with my family throughout the day. One of my most significant professional achievements was transitioning away from working in a CPA firm with intense hours and high demands on my personal life, and moving into the private sector where I'm able to live my life a lot more. I'm a licensed CPA, and passing the CPA exam was really hard - I worked really hard on that one, and getting my license was definitely an achievement. I'm also autistic, though I didn't know that when I was going through school, so I didn't have any accommodations. Since I am technically disabled, I had to work a lot harder to achieve my degree, get my CPA exam, and even get a job, because my social skills are not the same as a neurotypical human. I pushed through it, I did it myself - I wanted something, and I put in a lot of work to get it.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Hillarie

01What do you attribute your success to?

I worked really hard for what I got. I put a lot of effort into it. I didn't know that I was autistic back when I was going through school, and I didn't have any accommodations, and since I am technically disabled, I had to work a lot harder to achieve my degree and to get my CPA exam and to even get a job, because my social skills are not the same as a neurotypical human. So, it was me - I pushed through it, I did it myself. I just wanted something, and I put in a lot of work to get it.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

The best career advice I've ever received is to have the ability to ask for more, because in the business world, they usually give you as little as possible. A lot of men get paid more because they actually take the time to ask, and they put the time into that, so don't be afraid to ask for what you actually want, or to ask for even more than what you think you should get.

03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I would say think about what you want for your life in the long run, what kind of time you want to spend working, and what kind of time you want to spend at home, and understand that it is achievable. You can - there are ways to get there and what you need for the perfect life balance. If you want to be the career person who spends a lot of time in the career, there's a lot of that available in the CPA industry, and there's a lot more women who are becoming partners around, and it's definitely a lot more achievable than it used to be, so go live your dream.

04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I think the challenges are there's going to be a wave of ruling for the ABA sector where we're required to start tracking people, and so we need to figure out the proper software and ways to do that in a way that's not going to - my main concern is the employee pushback on what that's going to look like, because they're going to be used to having a lot of flexibility that they're not going to have anymore, so that's going to be a challenge in the industry. The benefit in the industry is, really, we work in the Medicare sector, mostly. We take partnership in NBRC, and there is a lot of availability to jump in and start your own business and do that yourself. It does take a lot of work, and you're going to need to learn a lot of administrative stuff as well as BCBA work, but it's definitely doable and enterable.

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