Hi, I’m Hillary!

I’m a mom of three teens, a Christian, and a finance educator with degrees in Finance from Virginia Tech and the University of Alabama. I teach finance with the whole student in mind, because I’ve seen how easily financial information gets lost when pressure, expectations, and real life take over.

Teaching Across Real Life

From the fall of 2019 to spring of 2025, I taught “finance with Hillary” in a local homeless shelter working with individuals from every background imaginable. Former professional athletes, CEOs, MBAs, college professors, blue-collar and white-collar professionals, and individuals in recovery all have come through my classroom.

Men with business degrees sat next to men who couldn’t read or write; some were just out of high school and others were grandparents. Some were actively searching for work, others were navigating disability or age-related barriers and knew traditional employment wasn’t likely.

My role was never to teach to one level. It was to make sure every person in the room felt accepted, seen and spoken to at their level, without talking down to anyone and without oversimplifying things to the point of boredom. I had to do this all at the same exact time.

This meant I constantly adapted, adjusted language and reshaped lessons week after week; I did my best to not repeat content over six to eight weeks. It was an adventure, to say the least, and it fundamentally shaped how I teach finance today.

In Spring of 2025, I became an adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati, teaching financial literacy to students in the IDD TAP program. Teaching across these environments has reinforced a consistent pattern for me, the issue is rarely financial knowledge. It’s timing, pressure, and whether information is delivered in a way students can actually absorb and use.

Lived Experience Matters

Finance became my second language early on, but managing money as a couple and as a family brought an entirely different set of challenges. Like many households, my husband and I grew up in completely different financial worlds. We both had to rethink how we approached money, decisions and priorities. Teaching my own kids how to manage their money has only reinforced what I see in the classroom every day, financial clarity isn’t about knowing more. It’s about learning how to make decisions when emotions, expectations, and real life are involved.

Why I Teach Finance the Way I Do

I once spoke with an entrepreneur who felt completely overwhelmed by her finances. She was capable, intelligent, and successful, yet felt talked down to by financial professionals, as if she were missing something obvious.

That conversation highlighted something I’ve seen repeatedly. People in all different “worlds” don’t struggle with finance because they’re incapable. They struggle because the way finance is taught often doesn’t meet them where they are.

As a finance educator, my goal is to create space for people to ask questions, understand trade-offs and build confidence without shame or judgment. Whether I’m teaching in a college classroom, a community setting or a consulting environment the focus is the same, clarity that actually sticks.

Shame-free. Clear-eyed. Built for real life.

Ten fun facts about me:

1. I hate nicknames, yet I call myself “Hill” all the time.
2. I’ve dreamed of teaching finance since my first “Intro to Finance” class at Virginia Tech in 1994. (Yep, I just dated myself.)
3. I refuse to go to bed unless my bed is made—it’s got to be organized right before I sleep. (weird, right?)
4. I absolutely love speaking to large groups—even crowds in the thousands!
5. I taught myself to crochet during the covid quarantine.
6. Without dye, I’d be 100% grey. I tried to embrace it during quarantine, but my kids “encouraged” me to stick with color.
7. Middle school was not my favorite phase (to put it lightly!), and I’m thrilled my youngest is now in high school!
8. Sharing my writing with others terrifies me, every time.
9. I’m so obsessed with college football that it factored into BOTH my choice of Master’s program and my choice of husband. (Don’t worry, he knows. LOL!)
10. I LOVE EVERYTHING VIRGINIA TECH! GO HOKIES!