MEET YOUR COACH

Why I Do This Work

I believe it’s only fitting to share about my parents if you are to get a clear picture of me and my financial background. My mom and dad grew up on the south side of Chicago. Gloria, my sweet mom, was a nurse for three decades of her life, graduating from Loyola Chicago nursing program. Before giving herself to nursing, she and my dad raised seven boys, and yes, there are some great stories to tell. My parents sacrificed much to send their kids to private schools. I helped with school tuition by working two jobs in the summer of my junior and senior years to offset the cost at Benet Academy, a college prep high school located in Lisle, Illinois. Some of the best learning of fiscal practices came during my high school years with the study of Econ I & II.

Richard J. O’Reilly, my dad, served in WWII as a sergeant in the U.S. Army, and upon returning home from the war, he was able to take advantage of the G.I. Bill that paid for his education at St. Joseph’s College in Collegeville, Indiana. My dad earned three different business degrees attending St. Joseph’s College: an accounting degree, finance, and economics degree. Dad spent some years working for the Formica Corporation, but most of his employed years of service involved helping businesses navigate financial distress, as well as restructuring companies to avoid bankruptcy. He proved quite successful using turnaround strategies, eventually putting those businesses back on the path of prosperity. A great deal of my financial aptitude I learned from my father, and the financial principles that guide me today were ingrained in me early by his wise counsel.

I have spent most of my adult years in education, starting in 1990 as a volunteer basketball coach while earning a secondary teacher cert and teaching, of course, Math for sixteen years. I earned an MA in Educational Leadership with Chapman University and worked in school administration for twenty-five years, with thirteen of those years as a Superintendent with two different school systems in Tucson. Even as an administrator, I was still in the classroom educating students on the intricate ways to understand and use numbers, enhancing their problem-solving skills and use of critical thinking in mathematics.

I was able to create and establish start-up budgets for a newly developed private school in 2000 and for a charter school system that started in the Fall of 2015 and later expanded to Colorado in 2018. I also had the privilege of serving on fundraising, development, educational and advisory committees over the years. Most significantly, I served on finance committees of three different school systems in Tucson, serving with business leaders, accountants, engineers and others who have an understanding of financial principles related to budgeting, financial aid, scholarship monies, grants, tax credits, assets, liabilities, capital improvements, insurance cost, contingency funds, tuition percentage hikes, salaries and benefits, etc...