2019 VIRGINIA CFO AWARDS
a year. Recently a couple — both of whom had been served by the hospice — donated their home and two cars. Today, Blue Ridge Hospice, which
has a staff of 250, brings in about $18 million in revenue annually — six times the amount when Ringer started — and provides end-of-life services to about 1,500 people every year, up from a few hundred 16 years ago. Ringer says the hospice combines her
advocacy for service to the community with a solid professional career. “I think the future of hospice, and any
nonprofit, is driven and will grow based on the desire of the community,” she says.
Finding a balance Richmond Ballet CFO Tracy Coogle
initially thought about pursuing a career in medicine, but after taking a university- level biology course, she realized it wasn’t a good match for her. Trying to figure out what she wanted
to do with her life, she enrolled at Reyn- olds Community College in Richmond. Her boyfriend, who later became her
Congratulations!
Tracy Coogle has found accounting to be “a really fl exible career.”
husband, suggested taking a few business courses. One of those classes was entry- level accounting. “My friends said, ‘Tracy, something
is wrong with you if you like accounting,’” she remembers. “But I found something that I really enjoyed. It really clicked with me. I kind of discovered it by accident, and I’m grateful I did.”
Coogle was a full-time employee at
Crestar Bank when she attended com- munity college. She continued working at the bank part time after transferring to the University of Richmond to major in accounting and marketing. Another fortunate “accident” occurred
when she took a course at Virginia Com- monwealth University to earn a college credit in government and nonprofit accounting. “It was another focus area of account-
ing that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise,” Coogle says. When Crestar merged with SunTrust
Banks in 1998, Coogle was asked to transfer to Atlanta. But she had a young daughter — the first of two — and she didn’t want to move. “I love Richmond,” she says. So, she
became a consultant and worked from home. “I found that accounting is really a
flexible career,” she explains. While her daughters were little,
Coogle took part-time contract account- ing jobs for a range of nonprofits. Before joining the Richmond Ballet,
she worked in top financial positions with the Virginia Repertory Theatre and the Richmond SPCA. Additionally, she has been a volun-
teer, leader and board member of the Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia for 17 years. Over the years, Coogle has learned a
lot about life and a lot about herself. “I thought I was going to be super
mom,” she says. “That is [a] myth. You can do one thing well or several things not as well. For me being in a nonprofit, I can take advantage of the flexibility. You have to find the balance that works for you — keep looking till you find that balance.”
Following a role model Teresa Kraus, CFO of the Virginia
Symphony Orchestra in Norfolk, grew up thinking that accounting was a natural career for women. Her mother was chief accountant of
a chain of home improvement stores in Pennsylvania. “She was very innovative at the time.
74 | AUGUST 2019
… She actually brought in an IBM main- frame, which was the size of an entire room. She computerized the company,”
Photo by Shandell Taylor
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