Vice President for Finance
- Office: Fayerweather Hall
- Department: Business Office, Cabinet & Executive Offices
- Phone: 865-981-8246
- Email: kelly.leonard@maryvillecollege.edu
A graduate of Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Connecticut, Kelly Leonard earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1997, working shortly thereafter as an audit supervisor for McGladrey and Pullen LLP (now McGladrey LLP). During her service to the nation’s fifth-largest provider of assurance, tax and consulting services, she obtained her Certified Public Accountant Licensure in 2000.
That same year, she joined the multinational accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as a senior auditor in Knoxville, Tennessee, coordinating, planning, preparing and executing financial statement and compliance audits for manufacturers and distributors. She was licensed as a CPA in Tennessee in 2002, having joined the team at the Knoxville-based CPA firm HG&A Associates P.C. as an audit manager. She worked there until 2008, at which time she was named the financial grants administrator for the Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley, where she managed approximately $3.9 million in federal and state grant funds, as well as coordinated and prepared all budgets for grant applications, among other duties.
Her first stint at Maryville College was from 2012 to 2016, where — as director of financial reporting — she was responsible for preparing the financial statements and related footnote disclosures, preparing and monitoring the College’s required debt covenant ratios, and managing and performing all required calculations for the College’s endowment and its 292 individual funds.
After spending three years as the business manager at Knoxville’s Sacred Heart Cathedral School, where she directed and oversaw the operation of the school’s business office, Leonard returned to MC in late 2019 as the College’s controller. In that role, she directed and oversaw the operation of the business office and reported directly to the vice president for finance and administration.
In May 2022, that role was reconfigured, and Leonard was named the vice president for finance, with a comprehensive focus on strategic management of MC’s financial resources within a competitive and evolving landscape for higher education. As the VP for finance, she serves as the College’s chief financial officer and treasurer of the Board of Directors, as well as a member of the Cabinet, recommending financial objectives, policies and strategies for the College to President Bryan Coker.