“It’s definitely a nontraditional story,” Bridget Kaigler (BSA, 2005; MBA, 2007) says before explaining how she climbed from cashier and telemarketer to be named among the top 50 women in accounting.

“I was raised by my maternal grandparents,” she begins. They took her in when she was 3 weeks old. They were already in their 50s, but that didn’t matter to Kaigler. “They were not grandparents. To me, they were Mom and Dad.”

They’d hoped she’d attend college, Kaigler recalls. But everything changed in high school: Her grandfather passed away when she was 16, and her grandmother passed shortly after Kaigler graduated high school.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Kaigler says. So, she jumped right into the workforce. After a few months in a cashier role, she transitioned into a telemarketing position. She stayed there for several years because, as it turned out, she had a knack for it.

She also learned valuable skills like talking to strangers, which made speaking with new people less intimidating later in her career. “Those skills I learned from telemarketing, I still use those skills 20 years later,” she says. “So, nothing that we do is taken for granted. … Even though [one job] might not be the end goal, it’s all about the journey.”

Then came marriage. Kaigler was young and the marriage short-lived. Soon enough, she found herself a single parent with an 18-month-old son. She realized something needed to change. She had to do something to fully support herself and her child. 

Kaigler began working as a data analyst at a consulting firm. This was an 8-to-5 job and a step in the right direction. Still, Kaigler believed attending college would ultimately bring the stability she craved. The hiccup was that she had to work full time. “Not working wasn’t an option,” she says.

Fortunately, a colleague heard that Kaigler was looking at potential colleges and mentioned University of Phoenix.

Kaigler looked into it and found she could take night classes on campus through UOPX. This cleared the full-time work schedule obstacle. Next, Kaigler needed to figure out a child care solution while she attended class.

Thankfully, she had an innovative and supportive network. “I had friends, and we would barter services where we would keep each other’s children,” she says. Kaigler’s mother also reentered the picture. “She and I had a good relationship at that time,” she says. Her mother babysat while Kaigler attended class.

Even with solid support, Kaigler acknowledges, “it was difficult. When I think back, I don’t know how I’ve done it.”

The schedule was nonstop. “I didn’t really get a break,” she says. After class, she would get her son home and into bed while she studied until 1 a.m. She’d sleep a few hours, wake up at 5 or 6 and start all over.

It was exhausting. “But it just shows,” Kaigler says, “when you have resilience, grit and determination, we can make anything happen, regardless of what the obstacles are!”

Making it work may have been tough, but there was at least one easy part: deciding what to study. Kaigler wanted stability and saw that potential in the accounting profession. “Everyone needs an accountant. For me, it was job security.” 

Surprisingly, Kaigler discovered that one of her key strengths — math — wasn’t as necessary for accounting as she’d thought. “Today, I would say that accounting is not math,” she says and laughs. “I just did not know that at the time.”

As it turns out, collaboration and relationship-building are just as important in accounting as hard skills. Part of the reason for Kaigler’s ignorance about this broader professional knowledge was a lack of exposure. “No one in my family was an accountant. No one [who] looked like me was an accountant. So, it’s not like I had anyone to speak with,” she says. 

Things began to change as Kaigler pursued her Bachelor of Science in Accounting at University of Phoenix. During her program, an instructor pulled her aside and asked her about her goals. “‘You seem to grasp the concepts really well,’” she recalls him saying.

In the meantime, she was growing her career. In 2005 (the same year she completed her BSA), she successfully pursued a new role as an accounting manager at a small company. She was making more money, but she had even bigger goals.

She stayed in that position for two years while working toward her MBA. The structure of the MBA program offered a welcome change to Kaigler: She attended classes primarily online and just a half day in class on Saturdays. 

When Kaigler graduated with her MBA in 2007, she was ready for a change and was hired as a tax accountant at a global chemical manufacturer. She was also independently studying for the CPA exam (no programs at University of Phoenix prepare a graduate to be a CPA), which she would pass in December 2009.

“That was a Christmas present to myself,” she says. “It was by far one of the hardest things that I’ve ever accomplished.”  

Kaigler credits her passing the exam to utilizing a self-paced study program and applying what she learned while attending UOPX.

“I used the same study habits that I used in undergrad and grad school to study for the CPA exam,” she explains. 

Kaigler wasn’t content to stop with her CPA credential, though. She went on to obtain additional credentials and, along the way, was promoted and noticed as a top contributor in her field.

In 2015, Ann Lupo, the communications and public relations director of the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants, was working on an article for the association’s member magazine. She interviewed Kaigler and took note of her accomplishments.

Interestingly, Kaigler says her involvement in DEI evolved into place. “I think I just stumbled in it by accident,” she says. Being an ethnic minority who was also a successful CPA got people curious, she explains. They would ask how she got into the field and how she grew into a leader.

“Now I’m an influencer in the accounting profession!” Kaigler exclaims. “How did that happen?”

For one, Kaigler was doing her job and doing it well. She is also self-aware and insightful. So, while the “DEI component” (as she puts it) came to her, she sees value in what she can add to that narrative.

“Diversity is needed everywhere,” she says. “It may not be diversity in how we look, but it’s the diversity in the story.”

Kaigler’s own story reached a new pinnacle in 2021, when she was named one of the top 50 women in accounting by Ignition, a strategic partner in the accounting space that works with accountants, professionals and bookkeepers around the world.

This year, Kaigler got on the opposite side of that honor when she helped select 2024’s recipients. “That I got to judge it this year was just absolutely amazing.”

Where does Kaigler plan to go from here? For starters, she would like to expand her leadership on nonprofit boards and associations into public boards. Kaigler also operates a consulting firm that teaches personal branding and leadership development, which gives her an opportunity to connect with others and enhance her own leadership skills.

In the meantime, Kaigler continues to be a trailblazer for not just women in accounting but also her son, who is an accountant. Reflecting on the way she forged her path and changed her and her son’s destiny, she reiterates: “So that’s when I say a ‘change in family legacy.’ I did not have that person to look up to. He did.”

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