Bob Jones University accounting alumna Ashliegh Sutter shares about her work-life balance and her experiences on the board of Jonathan’s House, a nonprofit ministry that was the recipient of BJU’s Bible Conference offerings this year.
Student experience
Moving to Greenville with her family at a young age, Sutter attended Bob Jones Academy. Various scholarships convinced her to attend Bob Jones University in 2004 for her undergraduate degree in accounting.
“Not an overly spiritual response,” when asked about why she attended BJU. “But between the Life Scholarship and the promise that my college tuition would be paid by my parents if I attended BJU, I did.”
While at BJU she participated in the mock trial team. She planned on becoming a lawyer, so to stiffen her resume she decided to study accounting. After completing an accelerated degree, she began studying for the LSAT.
“I wasn’t getting the scores I wanted so I resigned to finish what accounting students were supposed to do, which was the CPA exam,” Sutter said. “I started passing them and felt like God was redirecting what I was supposed to be doing.”
She had wanted to become a lawyer for over a decade, but with this redirection she found a job at Rödl & Partner International performing audits and tax work. After a few years she moved to Elliott Davis, another accounting firm based in Greenville, where her career took off.
Importance of family
The mock trial team was where Sutter and her husband Jon met. After winning the national championship the year before, her team felt pressured to do well, so she felt opposed to “the new guy” joining as a witness, she said.
“We had nowhere to go but down,” she said. “He assured me that he was great. Well, long story short, I was glad that Dr. Dehnart (his witness name) joined the team that 21 years ago!”
When asked about how she balances work and family, she responded by saying that although working and having a family is a lot at one time, family is a priority. She said, however, that it can be difficult to keep family and work in order.
“At times, it’s a struggle,” she said. “We just finished a 21-day streak of the flu in our house; we have four kids ages 12 to 3.”
Her husband is an audit director at BDO, an international accountant and advisory firm in Greenville. She is a client accounting advisory services director at CliftonLarsonAllen in Greenville.
“I also serve on two boards and strive to participate regularly at my kids’ school,” she said.
Sutter and her husband meet up every Monday to plan for the week ahead.
“If we are really on our game, we work through reading books during the year on a wide array of topics. We just finished a book called “Honest Evangelism” by Rico Tice, and we’re getting ready to start a book about the history of the Lego Corporation.
One thing is clear; family is important. When it comes down to choosing between spending time in the office or with her children, Sutter reminds herself of eternity.
“I regularly remind myself that no one will write on my tombstone what an amazing director I was. God has blessed me with a family, and I don’t want to squander that.”
Career and impact
Since graduating in 2011 with a master’s degree in accountancy, Sutter has been a practice director for Elliott Davis Accelerate and a director of accountant sales at Inuit. Currently she is the director of CAAS Transformation for CliftonLarsonAllen. The driving force behind all her positions has been creating relationships with people.
“To have a positive impact on people. I want to authentically empower others to accomplish their goals. It’s not my goals for them, but their goals, and I want to help them realize their goals are possible.”
As well as working as a director, Sutter currently resides on the board for the Ronald McDonald House and Jonathan’s House. One job position required her to serve on a board, and finding the right one was a process. She found the Ronald McDonald House a family friendly place that her whole family could serve alongside. Through a friend she became acquainted with Jonathan’s House in Central African Republic.
“Seeing the kids in Central African Republic experiencing daily challenges enticed me to get involved,” she said.
People are eternal, and Sutter has invested in relationships. One former employee who lived a rough life reached out to Sutter after they had parted ways. This employee was saved and thanked Sutter for being a part of their spiritual journey.
“While I was honored, I never once witnessed to her – which I honestly felt ashamed about,” she said. “But God! He can use me even when I don’t know I’m being used. It’s also encouraged me to be bold and tell people about my faith, leaving openings to have deeper conversations with employees.”
A faithful life investing in relationships is success.
Advice for students
Sutter shared some words of encouragement for business students. Her advice, however, applies to all students in some ways.
God will guide and direct and sometimes we can never predict where he will lead. She mentioned that business students are often warned of dangers that come from drinking, drugs and immoral living, but one of the biggest vices comes from the paycheck.
“Typically, your compensation will be healthy and continue to grow. You rarely, if ever, live paycheck to paycheck. You start thinking, ‘Man, I got this.’ It’s subtle, but you start relying on yourself. You also start climbing the corporate ladder at all costs.”
She said an idea she learned from a book, “God and Money: How We Discovered True Riches at Harvard Business School” by Gregory Baumer and John Cortines, flips the conventional giving mindset on its head to something more radical.
“We often ask the question, ‘how much should we give away?’ How amazing would it be if we flipped the question and asked, ‘how much should we keep?’ No more parsing hairs of tithing 10%, but really letting God use me and my paycheck however he sees fit.”
She said this mindset could upset our materialist culture, which always cries out “Gimme!” As Christian professionals living for an eternal kingdom, what would happen if we lived radically?
