Kathleen Baldwin, CCIFP, is the Executive Director of CICPAC and CFMA member, and she took time to chat with us and answer a few of our questions! Check it out: 

Q: What’s your guilty pleasure?
A: Pasta. If possible, I would love to eat a pasta dish every day.

Q: Do you have any regrets?
A: No regrets. I believe the decisions I’ve made, both personally and professionally, have developed me to be the person I am today. Would certain parts of my life have been easier if I chose differently? Yes. But then it begs to question, “would I still be the person I am today if I had made different choices?”

Q: Do you have children?
A: I am the proud Mama to a beautiful, intelligent daughter, Jordan. Recently we’ve added my first grandchild, Jace Michael.

Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: Pretty Woman, I’ve watched it, start to finish, over 25 times. Favorite quote from the movie, “We think you got a lot of potential Kit De Luca.”

Q: What are you reading right now?
A: Target Acquired by Don Bentley. The book is part of the Jack Ryan Jr series by the late Tom Clancy. As an avid reader, I have a library of over 1,000 books. My favorite genres include international politics and espionage, spy fiction, and crime thrillers.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
A: “Never burn a bridge.” I believe more than ever; that this advice holds true for me today. I recently became the ED for CICPAC and am interacting with professionals who I crossed paths with many years ago. Even though it is in the same industry, it’s a different career path, but many of the players are the same.

Q: What do you want to be remembered for?
A: Being a whole-hearted, good person. My legacy is to showcase that I was always willing to share my time, talent, and treasure to help anyone in need.

Q: How did you get into accounting?
A: Funny enough, accounting was my second choice for my undergraduate degree. My first choice was Mathematics. After obtaining my Associate’s degree in Math, I changed to Accounting. I decided being a CPA was more appealing than being an actuary.

Q: What do you do to unwind from work?
A: I enjoy reading for 1-2 hours each night and working on jigsaw puzzles on the weekends.

Q: What was your first job?
A: At age 15, I worked for an independent insurance agency making $3.35 per hour. Using a phone book (yes, the paper version, no Googling for this gal) for a mailing list, my job was to address and stuff envelopes to send out marketing material. I later became a fully licensed insurance agent.