Accounting Professor Savannah Brookshire Will Teach Students Valuable Interpersonal Skills
Successful accountants are able to relate to their clients, explain complex accounting concepts in everyday language, and work as members of a team.
It’s those people skills that Savannah Brookshire, one of Piedmont University’s newest faculty members, aims to develop in her students.
“More than anything, I want my students to succeed,” said Brookshire, assistant professor of accounting. “That is my top desire, to prepare them for their future college courses and their future careers.”
Brookshire, a Habersham County native, once thought she’d go into medicine, a career path she chose after watching a childhood friend battle cancer, but she changed her mind after her first chemistry class at the University of Georgia.
“That wasn’t for me,” she said. “I’d always loved math, and when I took my first accounting class, it just clicked. It’s what I really enjoy.”
Brookshire went on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from UGA. She is also a certified public accountant.
Prior to joining Piedmont, she worked in the pharmaceutical and software industries. It was during those experiences that Brookshire came to understand what it takes to be an effective accountant.
“It’s about more than dollars and cents. One of the most important skills is the ability to communicate. A lot of people struggle to understand accounting principles. As accountants, we have to be able to take these big, complex concepts and translate them for the layman,” she said.
“Accountancy is also very people-oriented; accountants are constantly working with clients or other accountants. You have to be able to be part of a team.”
This fall, Brookshire will teach Managerial Accounting, Cost Accounting, and Auditing. In each of her courses, Brookshire will incorporate projects and simulations that will help students build their interpersonal skills.
Outside of class, Brookshire looks forward to working one-on-one with students. The ability to build relationships with her students is one of the top reasons she wanted to work at Piedmont.
“At some universities, there are hundreds of students in a single class. In that environment, it’s hard to get even basic questions answered,” she said. “That’s the advantage of studying and working at Piedmont: We have very small class sizes, so we are able to get to know one another and to take the extra time to make sure students are getting everything they can out of the course material.”
Brookshire added:
“Accounting can open so many doors. I want to help my students see that with an accounting degree, the world is really your oyster,” she said.
Piedmont University’s Walker College of Business offers undergraduate programs in accounting, business analytics, digital marketing, finance, hospitality and tourism management, logistics and global operations, management and marketing, as well as a Master of Business Administration.