If you walked past her on a street, you would hardly expect Allison Albert to be an Ethics Professor at Tulane University. Tall and young with beautiful blonde hair, she certainly isn’t your typical college professor. However, don’t let the any blonde hair stereotypes fool you. Professor Albert’s forensic accounting background and experience with entrepreneurship make her an ideal asset to Tulane’s Freeman School of Business.
Born in Houston Texas, Professor Albert’s family moved to Pennsylvania when she was young. With a father as a lawyer, who eventually became a judge, Professor Albert always thought she wanted to go to law school. However, this dream changed when she decided to go back to her home state of Texas and attend Southern Methodist University for college. At SMU, Professor Albert discovered her love for accounting and was able to graduate from undergraduate early. In an effort to get her masters degree, Professor Albert took night classes at SMU through their Masters of Accounting program while working at Mack O Forrester and Co.
Upon completion of the program, Professor Albert decided to start her career out with Ernst & Young in Dallas but soon transferred to the great city of New Orleans. After working at E&Y for a few more years as a forensic accountant, Professor Albert switched over to another big four firm, PWC. At PWC, she worked for the BP claims administrator doing claim valuations and claim review work for the Deepwater Horizon Economic Settlement. Realizing that she could do claims work on her own, Professor Albert decided to make a big career change. Since March 2013, Professor Albert has been working for herself, offering services in forensic accounting, with the majority of her work helping attorneys prepare claims that will be submitted for the Deepwater Horizon Settlement.
Currently taking Ethics with Professor Albert, I was very excited to interview and learn a little bit more about my Professor and was even more surprised at some of her answers…
- Why did you decide to work at Tulane? On January 1, 2013, I woke up and thought, 2012 was a great year so how can I make 2013 an even better year. So I decided I wanted to make a goal for myself to become a college professor. I contacted Paul Spindt and talked to him for about 30 minutes about my background and how I would go about entering into the world of academia and he ended up offering me a job.
- What has been your favorite thing about being a teacher? I have really enjoyed teaching so far but it has definitely been challenging. My favorite thing has been class dialogues and when students reach out to me after class to discuss ethical topics. This makes me excited because it shows me that I am making an impact on my students.
- Why would you recommend students go into the field of accounting? There is always a job and always a need for accountants. The field of accounting is unique and ideal because there are a variety of jobs in the accounting field that will suit all different types of people. Also, you can do almost anything you want with an accounting degree.
- What is your favorite thing about New Orleans? The music. I am in a dance troop called the Roux La La and I love getting the opportunity to dance and march in parades. Just a few weeks ago I was able to participate in the mid-summer Mardi Gras and had a great time!
- What is the best advice you have ever been given? To follow my intuition and as cheesy as this sounds, listen to my elders because they have experienced most of the situations that I am going through.
- Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Well, I am moving to Denver, CO next year because I have a lot of family there… like 30 first cousins… and I will be working for an accounting firm doing forensic accounting but will continue to be running my own business on the side. So in 10 years, I hope to have expanded my business and perhaps be a ski instructor? Haha. I can dream, right?