Chrissy Walters

About

Chrissy Walters ’02 is from Northeast Ohio and currently lives in Chagrin Falls. While in high school, she visited a friend in Miami and knew right away it was a good fit. She applied early-decision the fall of her senior year and was thrilled to get accepted. She excelled in math classes and knew Accountancy was the right path for her. Her father and aunt were CPAs, and she especially liked the fact that her aunt was able to have a great career and a flexible schedule with kids, which wasn’t the norm back then.

Chrissy’s most memorable accounting class was cost accounting, where Dr. Brewer assigned Harvard Case Studies, which was a unique way to learn and apply accounting principles to real-life situations. She took a winter internship with EY in Cleveland to get a feel for busy season and was offered a full-time job to begin after graduation. It was a great feeling to have a job lined up before completing junior year that summer.

After a few years in external audit at EY, Chrissy went into industry for eight years to work for a real estate development company and then a software company with a focus on internal audit and external reporting. She found that public accounting firms were more flexible at that time for parents, so she went to PwC for an internal audit senior role and was promoted to manager. She then went to a smaller local public accounting firm where she started their internal audit department. Chrissy worked part-time (30 hours a week) for 12 of those years. Chrissy wanted to focus on one company and not a variety of clients, so she then landed her dream job as the Internal Audit Director at American Greetings.

"It is such a positive experience to work for a company that specializes in “Creating Happiness, Love and Laughter” through celebration products such as greeting cards, gift packaging, and party goods. It is not shocking that everyone who works there is friendly and supportive."

Why I Serve on the AAG

"I serve on the AAG because I really enjoy hearing the perspective of the student guest speakers and learning about the professors’ new initiatives to continue to evolve the student experience and adapt to changes in the accounting world. The meetings are so fulfilling because everyone there has so much passion for our school, the success of the students and excitement for their opportunities. I am eager to help them achieve their goals."