Jackie Travisano ‘90 still remembers her days balancing work and college as an accounting major at the old Downtown campus. While she did not have much time for campus involvement, she has fond memories of her friendships and faculty, like hanging out before and after class in the basement café with her best friend, Lynn Ann Nikolas, a fellow accounting major who also started in the fall of 1987. Her CPA review course was taught by David Hess, one of her favorite professors, while another, Chris Stenberg, nominated Jackie for “CPA for a Day” at Coopers & Lybrand, and a third, Larry Paper, helped to prepare her to sit for the CPA exam.

Since her time as a student, a lot has changed, especially the fact that the Downtown campus no longer exists. “The main campus has blossomed with state-of-the-art facilities and athletics, and the academic offerings are so broad and so rich now,” says Jackie. She is excited to see RMU developing further corporate partnerships in the Pittsburgh region and around the world.

Despite now living and working more than 1,000 miles away as an executive at the University of Miami, Jackie still finds ways to be involved with her alma mater. Besides being featured speaker this month for Women of RMU, she recently agreed to serve on the Board of Visitors for the RMU School of Business, and she keeps in touch with President Chris Howard and business school dean Michelle Patrick. “I've also been a donor to the annual fund for many, many years now. I think it's so important to give back to RMU,” says Jackie.