Got a minute? Felicia O'Carroll will know how to fill it

Felicia O'Carroll is such a wiz with numbers that she can pack more hours into every day than most of us manage in a week.

At least the busy CPA's schedule would lead you to believe that she has power over time.

O'Carroll is a partner at Kafoury, Armstrong & Co., and an extremely active community volunteer. She's been with the company for 33 years, beginning as an intern while attending the University of Nevada, Reno.

She started school with the idea of becoming a dietitian. Along the way, she took an accounting class, got an A, and loved it.

But it was something of a stretch for Kafoury to hire a female three decades ago. Many companies were afraid women would leave to take care of families. O'Carroll convinced the company to take a chance on her. In 1989 she became the first female partner chosen by any CPA firm in Reno.

O'Carroll describes her profession as an exciting, emotional, people-oriented job.

"It's continually changing; there are new tax laws, new accounting regulations. I'm always learning. I love it," she says.

O'Carroll's passion for her job is evident. Her son, T.J., used to tell her he would never be a CPA because his mother worked too much. But after spending a couple summers helping around the office, he had a change of heart. "He saw how happy I was at my job, how much I loved what I do," she remembers.

Today, T.J. is a senior at UNR, getting his degree in accounting. O'Carroll says she'll advise him to "not to look so much at the hours you put in, but the impact you're having on people."

O'Carroll's list of volunteerism is impressive. She's the treasurer for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, just finished 15 years on the board of the Health Access Washoe County clinic (including two years as president), spent six years on the Nevada Women's Fund and six years with University of Nevada, Reno, foundation. She was appointed to the Nevada State Board of Accounting.

"I grew up in this community and it's been very good to me," she says. "It's exciting to help, and it makes you appreciate what you have."

O'Carroll has always appreciated what she has, even when it wasn't her first pick. While she was trying to choose a college, her father asked a sentimental favor: Attend his alma mater, UNR, for just one semester. She agreed, and never left.

She never regretted her decision to stay in Reno. Nor does she regret her decision to study nutrition. But accounting was the best fit, and lucky for her, she found the right company first out of the gate.

"Kafoury is an amazing company. They are the reason I was able to be a single mom and a partner. They have always supported me whenever I needed time to do what I needed to do," she says.

Kafoury also encouraged her to take a Dale Carnegie business development course.

"They were some of the most interesting, fantastic people I've ever met," she says.

The course had a profound impact on O'Carroll.

"It taught me not to judge people without knowing them. It woke me up to the fact that everyone comes across your path for a reason, and it's your job to figure out what that reason is," she explains.

During an early course, a peer listened to her required weekly talk, which she'd written just an hour before. He told her it was fine, but she was a classic underachiever, doing just enough to get an A and nothing more. O'Carroll took the feedback to heart, applying herself more at work.

Her partners noticed the change, and agreed to let O'Carroll become a Carnegie instructor. She taught the courses one night a week for five years. "It was a huge growth time for me. It gave me the confidence to be a better parent, and a better employee," she says.

Confidence is something O'Carroll isn't lacking. She tells a story, one that she shrugs off, but would likely have crushed a person with less strength: In 1985, she was working on the Lemons & Associates bankruptcy case in which 900 investors lost $13 million. O'Carroll testified in court about the fraud that was occurring, and after a long battle, justice prevailed.

Celebrating the court victory at one of the attorney's homes, she was out on the deck, when she felt like she was hit in the face by a baseball bat. The next thing she knew she was flat on her back. Someone at the party had medical training, and aside from a small cut-like hole near her right eye, could find nothing wrong. But six weeks later, bad headaches sent O'Carroll to a doctor, only to discover there was a .22 caliber bullet lodged near her temple.

She'd been shot, and the bullet had been in her head since the party. The police were unable to determine if the shooting was due to the very high-profile case she'd been working on, or if it was a simple accident. The house the party was at backed up to a ravine in southwest Reno, and kids had been known to play back there, shooting cans. But whatever the reason she was shot, O'Carroll dismisses it.

"It just wasn't my time," she says. And the power of time is something she certainly knows a lot about.