I grew up in Utah, graduated from Bingham High School, and started attending the U of U during my senior year of high school through the concurrent enrollment program. I had dreams since the age of five of becoming a veterinarian. I always knew that I wanted a business degree, so I could manage my veterinary practice. Chemistry and physics classes quickly taught me this dream would likely not become a reality. My mother graduated from the U with as an accounting major, which seemed to open up many doors in her career, so I followed in her footsteps at the David Eccles School of Business.

I really enjoyed my auditing class, but did not care much for tax.  This quickly changed once I entered the real world of public accounting from an audit position that I received through the Career Placement Center on campus. I visited Boston multiple times and was confident that’s where I wanted to start my career. I did my research and found a firm that took me there.

I became a CPA after meeting the Massachusetts requirements of three years public accounting, 1,000 audit hours, and successful completion of the CPA exam. Since I was traveling a great deal, I decided to leave public accounting and go into industry. I started an evening MBA program at Babson College while in Massachusetts and completed about half of the coursework when my husband was transferred to Atlanta with his company. After much contemplation, I decided tax was more in line with what I enjoyed doing. I went back to night school, this time at George State University, and obtained my Masters in Taxation. After graduation, I decided to go back into public accounting and joined PricewaterhouseCoopers.

My husband was given the opportunity to transfer to Portland, Oregon, so we jumped at the chance to move closer to family. I transferred to PwC’s Portland office as a manager in their middle market tax practice.

At this time we decided to start a family, and our son Parker was born on November 15, 2004. His arrival came as quite a shock because his due date was February 7, 2005. I entered the hospital in October and was confined to bed rest until he was born at 28 weeks gestation. He weighed 2 pounds 12 ounces and was 14 inches long. He was extremely ill when born and stayed in the hospital for 77 days. This experience changed my life forever.

In 2005, we were asked to be the Ambassador Family representing the NICU in the upcoming March for Babies. After being a part of such a positive experience, I decided that I would get involved to help stop prematurity and the host of problems it can cause throughout life. I joined the Board of the March of Dimes in Oregon. Shortly thereafter, we relocated back to Utah to be closer to family. I was able to join the Utah Board and have been a board member ever since. Currently I serve as the Board Chair for the March of Dimes and I am the Tax Director at Overstock.com, Inc.

Paying my blessings forward is something that is very important to me. I am thankful to be a part of a charitable organization that helped save my son’s life.

-LeAna L. Robison, CPA