CPA Alicia Norris joins Saint Michael’s business faculty

Alicia Norris will be teaching in the Saint Michael’s College Department of Business Administration beginning for Spring Semester 2018. Her courses will be two sections of Managerial Accounting and one section of Cost Management, which is an accounting course for the accounting majors and minors.

Professor Norris is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with a master’s degree in accounting from University of Vermont.  Her undergraduate degree was in economics from Metropolitan State University in Denver, CO.  She has over 20 years of professional experience and countless hours of educating people in many different roles, including corporate training and college classes.

She said that she strives “to apply real life examples to bring variety and application to the learning process,” adding, “I have a passion for education and the field of accounting and am looking forward to helping students achieve their highest potential at Saint Michael’s and beyond.”

Out of college she started working for Charles Schwab as a customer service representative and achieved several promotions to broker, team lead and ultimately manager of a team of brokers. In addition to managing personnel and risk to the firm, she delivered training to new hires and brokers on technical subjects, including margins and options trading. She also coordinated and delivered company-wide training on various subject matter.

She worked for Charles Schwab in Denver, Co and Austin, TX in the 1990’s. She returned home to Vermont in the early 2000’s and worked as a financial advisor for retirement plan benefits to Vermont State Employees. She appreciated the detail-oriented nature of financial planning and accounting and went on to earn her master’s degree from the University of Vermont. To gain experience, Norris interned at Dealer.com and worked as a cost accountant at Autumn Harp in Essex Junction. For the last 5 years she worked at a local CPA firm preparing personal, small- business and non-profit income tax returns.

She also started teaching courses at Champlain College and the University of Vermont. Norris said she applied to Saint Michael’s because she “values our inclusive nature, caring ministry, tradition of hospitality and passion for social justice, and am excited for the opportunity to help students along their chosen path.”

In her free time she enjoys hiking, running and mountain biking with her family. She works with children in Williston, VT schools for reading and math. She has coached basketball, soccer and Girls on the Run, and has volunteered for many organizations including Habitat for Humanity and Relay for Life.

According to colleagues in her new department, she is equipped to take on a wide portfolio of classes that may include managerial and financial accounting, non-profit accounting, tax, cost, retirement planning, and investing. Her management and training experience also open the door to potential teaching in one of the College’s senior capstone choices, Organizational Problem Solving. Her office will be in 150 Jeanmarie Hall.