Alumni Story

Build relationships with your friends, your classmates, and your professors. The people are what you remember most.”

Volleyball was instrumental in bringing Allison from Gainesville, Florida to Catawba College. North Carolina wasn’t unknown to her, however. Her grandparents lived in Asheville. She shares, “I wanted to go far enough from home that I couldn’t go home every weekend.” She visited Catawba, enjoyed everyone on the volleyball team, liked the smaller class sizes, and thought the campus was beautiful.

Allison’s original intention was to become a physical therapist but as she took classes, she realized that was not a good fit. Her dad was in business and encouraged her to take some business classes. She did, and when she took accounting with Dr. Darin Spencer, she knew that was what she wanted to do. “I really enjoyed it, it clicked.” Looking back, she adds, “It was just a really good program, and the smaller class size helped me. I had classes with a lot of the same people. We really bonded and studied together.  We would all go to the supplemental instruction offered in the evening. A handful of us still keep in touch.”

While a student, Allison played on the volleyball team all four years, served on the student-athlete advisory committee, and was involved in business associations such as Phi Beta Lambda. She also coached volleyball, helping out with a volleyball club in Lake Norman and in the summer with Catawba’s volleyball camps.

Allison graduated in May of 2018 but stayed for Fall of 2018 to take extra classes; she still had eligibility to play volleyball. With her degree from Catawba, Allison went on to NC State for her master’s degree in accounting. Upon earning her master’s degree, she joined the firm of James Moore & Co., a business consulting and advisory firm with offices in Daytona Beach, DeLand, Gainesville, Ocala, and Tallahassee, Florida. The firm provides tax, assurance, outsourced accounting, technology solutions, human resources, business advisory, data analytics, and wealth management services nationwide.

Recently promoted to A&A Manager (Audit and Assurance), at James Moore, Allison loves what she does. She works with city and county governments in the State of Florida, overseeing their audit process. As a manager she enjoys planning and completing the audit with a team, and she particularly enjoys getting to talk with clients more frequently and building client relationships.

Her experience as a student-athlete still plays a role in her approach to her work. “I think the biggest thing is the teamwork aspect that comes from that.”  In college, she notes, “So many of us got together and studied if we had group projects together, we capitalized on each other’s strengths. It’s similar to an audit team; we all have to work together to complete the end goal.”

Allison enjoys watching sports and attending sporting events and still plays volleyball. She also makes time to travel with family and friends, including a recent trip to Portugal with her sister and another trip abroad planned.

She has fond memories of her time at Catawba and encourages students to enjoy it. “It goes by so fast. The people that I met, how awesome and involved the professors are. Build relationships with your friends, your classmates, and your professors.” And yes, try to learn a lot, of course. She adds, “The people are what you remember most.”