February 15, 2006
Stacey McDowell
Stacey McDowell, Acting Controller
Meet Stacey McDowell, YKHC's Acting Controller of our Accounting department.
The born-and-raised Coloradoan began working for YKHC last March, earning her Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. After becoming interested in accounting, she decided to pursue a new line of work. She returned to school for two years to earn an additional 30 credits in accounting courses to meet specific educational requirements needed to sit for the Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) exam.
"I was working as a payroll clerk for a small company in Steamboat Springs, Co. I found that I was a lot more interested in accounting than I ever would have imagined! I especially liked the problem-solving aspect of it."
Stacey recently passed the national certification exam to become a Professional Accountant and practice public accounting, such as tax preparation and auditing.
Though she has successfully passed the national exam, Stacey is required to meet Alaska's work requirement (varying state to state), which involves working under the direct supervision of a CPA and/or a public accounting or audit firm. However, Stacey indeed deserves recognition for passing the national exam and accomplishing the first step toward gaining her certification. YKHC congratulates you on your achievement, Stacey!
What does Stacey do as our Acting Controller?
"My primary responsibility is monitoring the General Ledger. This includes making sure that all of the appropriate entries are made for each period and that accounts are reconciled. Another big part of my job is audit preparation. This involves a great deal, and is really a joint effort with the Assistant Controller, Holly Hernandez. So I basically oversee the General Ledger, but our Accounting and Finance Departments as a whole contribute to the monthly entries and all of that boils down to a collective effort to achieve the most accurate financial reporting we can."
"I cannot stress enough the value of education. ANY learning available to you is valuable. Also, if there is something career-wise you are interested in, go for it, no matter how far-fetched or unobtainable it may seem. All it takes is a desire to achieve your goal. You can become anything you want to be as long as you are disciplined and work towards it."