Non-finance professionals add finance knowledge to their toolbox

Published Nov 18, 2025 by
Filed under: Regional Transformation, Uncategorized
Women in the center and in front of several seated people discussing financial aspects of business. Behind her is a television screen with her PowerPoint on in the background. There are shelves of cups to the left of the TV screen and a whiteboard to the right.
Dr. Mandi Peterson center teaches the “Finance for Non-Financial Roles Workshop” hosted by the College of Business’s Office of Expert Services.

Sometimes the job you have isn’t what you were trained for. In those instances, learning on the job doesn’t always help you thrive. So, for those without a financial background, the ECU College of Business’s Office of Expert Services (OES) helped them add some new financial/accounting knowledge to their skillset.

“It was definitely impactful,” said workshop participant Gary Connor. “I think it helped me in my leadership role to cascade down to my team what I’ve learned here today, and it’s going to make us all better overall.”

The “Finance for Non-Financial Roles Workshop” was designed to help working professionals with the knowledge and essential tools to understand and use key financial reports, including financial statements and budgets. 

“There are people in the community that want this knowledge, and this is a pretty straightforward way to get it,” said Dr. Mandi Peterson, chair of ECU’s Department of Accounting and instructor for the workshop. “You have an expert on hand to answer your questions specific to your job, your company that you work for, and kind of hold your hand through that process that you can’t get online by Googling it or by watching an online course.”

Participants during the Nov. 14 program learned how to read financial reports as well as become fluent in the language of business. This type of education can benefit the participants beyond the office.

“I enjoyed the heck out of it. I wish we’d had more time,” said workshop participant Tara Aliff. “I have never been a huge fan of numbers, but now I find myself having to deal with them on a pretty regular basis at work, and I’m learning as I go, which is fine, but I wanted a better foundation… There were definitely a lot of things that I think are applicable to work, and then also just things that are applicable on a personal basis too.”

Woman sitting at table looking right with her right hand sort of waving in the direction she is looking.
Finance workshop participant Tara Aliff said this program helped her both professionally and personally.

Aliff has had a variety of jobs – from teaching English as a second language to working as a virtual assistant. She now works in ECU’s Brody School of Medicine as an administrative support associate. She said her job has a lot of budgeting duties and making sure different funding sources are better utilized.

“I feel like it won’t be quite so overwhelming, and I’ll have the basic concept of what it is, and then I will be able to extrapolate it from there if I need to,” Aliff said. “And of course, I have more resources now that I can reach out to if need be.”

This is the first workshop of its kind from the COB’s OES. Since its design lines up with the ECU’s mission of public service and regional transformation, it shouldn’t be the last, which motivates Peterson.

“It definitely aligns with our goals to help with the local community, help grow the knowledge and the engagement – and I get to do my part with that,” she said.