Milwaukee Business Journal names MIAD’s Brenda Jones CFO of the Year

MILWAUKEE (September 24, 2018) … The Milwaukee Business Journal recently named Brenda Jones CFO of the Year in the Education category. Brenda is Vice President for Financial Affairs at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD).

Brenda Jones

The improvements and efficiencies Brenda has implemented in her nine years at MIAD, along with the college’s growing enrollment, have contributed to unprecedented financial stability for the college. Brenda’s leadership and oversight of the college’s finance, student accounts/financial aid, human resources and building maintenance departments, has played a critical role in the college’s success.

Most notably, Brenda integrated five separate administrative computer systems into one – reducing the student billing process from three days to 10 minutes. She also refinanced the college’s debt, established a capital reserve fund for maintenance and capital improvements, developed a systematized budgeting process, and strengthened reporting processes and transparency.

In addition to her work at MIAD, Brenda has served three one-year terms each as chair on the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges & Universities (WAICU) Benefits Consortium, which provides self-funded health insurance benefits to nine Wisconsin colleges, and the WAICU Education Technology Consortium, which provides integrated technology solutions to 10 Wisconsin colleges. She has served for nine years total.

Previously, Brenda served for two years as chair of the SWITCH Library Consortium, a collaboration of academic libraries at eight Milwaukee-area colleges that operates an integrated library automation system with a unified database and shared online catalog.

Brenda was honored for her achievements at the Milwaukee Business Journal’s C-Suites Stars 2018 event