AN INTERVIEW WITH Ember Strange: President of GFOA's Women's Public Finance Network.

• Author: Fu, Elizabeth
• Position: IN PRACTICE

GFOA's Women's Public Finance Network (WPFN) held its annual business meeting on June 5, 2022, and Ember Strange, chief financial officer of North Little Rock, Arkansas, was introduced as WPFN's next president. GFOA's Elizabeth Fu sat down with Ember to discuss her career path and her hopes for WPFN.

Ember offered four pieces of advice from her career journey.

[1] Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone--you don't grow when you're comfortable.

While Ember was studying accounting at Arkansas State University, she came across BKD (nowFORVIS), an accounting and advisory firm that was hosting interviews on campus. Intrigued by BKD's large presence in Arkansas, Ember interviewed during her junior year and was offered a position. After she graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting, Ember moved to Little Rock to work with BKD. Her first few assignments were with banks, but then she was assigned to an audit for the City of Little Rock, an assignment that became instrumental to her career. Ember and her BKD manager worked well together and continued to staff the engagement for the next two years. During the third year, the city's comptroller position opened, and the city's finance director walked into the audit room where Ember was working and asked her to apply for the comptroller position.

Ember applied, interviewed, and was offered the position--but despite knowing the finance staff well through her auditing experience with Little Rock, she turned it down. "All I had ever done was auditing, I can't run payroll, accounting, and accounts payable for the capital city of Arkansas," she explained. But soon afterward, when another candidate couldn't be moved forward, the finance director came back to the audit room, this time with the assistant city manager, to again offer Ember the position. Ember spoke with her BKD partner, who assured her that she was indeed qualified, and after some thought, Ember accepted the position and became the city's comptroller at 25 years old.

Having a senior position at such a young age led to some uncomfortable situations. For example, during a job interview, the candidate asked, "You're the comptroller for Little Rock?" Ember responded, "Yes--not what you were expecting?" "No, not really," the candidate responded. "You're kind of young." The candidate didn't get the job.

When something like this happens, Ember quickly establishes the tone of the meeting by showing her knowledge and her...