Jeanette Contreras

My journey in the CPA profession began in 2014 when I joined the Regulation and Licensing Department through the state of New Mexico as a licensing administrator for CPAs. I progressed to licensing manager, and then spent the longest portion of my early career as the Executive Director of the Accountancy Board, where I regulated CPAs, made sure they followed requirements and met all the standards to maintain their licenses, and handled enforcement when they didn't. In 2021, I made what some jokingly call moving to 'the dark side' when I was offered the position of CEO for the New Mexico Society of CPAs. It was funny because people said it would be a great position since all the CPAs knew me and I knew them, but I reminded them they knew me from enforcement! Now, on this side, it's great to help the CPAs in a different way, to have ideas and help the profession as a whole. The New Mexico Society of CPAs is a nonprofit organization that's been established since 1930 or 1931. We're member-based, and while CPAs are required to be licensed by the state, membership with us is optional. Our biggest benefit for members is advocacy. We help them become better professionals, help them get known locally, and at some point in their careers if they want to be known at a national level, we help them get to that point too. We also provide scholarships for accounting students and do a lot for both students and the profession. Every day is different, which makes our job fun. Last year, our big focus was trying to open the pathway to make it more achievable for individuals to become CPAs. The old rules required 150 credit hours, which is a bachelor's plus 30 hours. Especially in New Mexico, for students with financial burdens who got scholarships for 4 years, they were trying to figure out how to pay for those other 30 hours. Instead of paying for them, they just weren't wanting to enter the profession at all. We had a big win in legislation where we were the fourth state nationally to get that law passed. We opened Pathways, so now it's just a bachelor's plus two years experience, or a master's plus a year experience. We're also very active in high schools, trying to introduce the profession to students at a younger age. New Mexico has one of the highest ages of new CPAs in the nation - we and Mississippi usually flip-flop, but it's 33 years old. We've learned that not until later in their careers are people even knowing what a CPA is, so we're trying to let them know early on.