Conger says luncheon feeds women’s ambition

— All it took was one luncheon and Cynthia Conger was captivated.

“The first time I went to the Power of the Purse luncheon was six years ago,” says the Little Rock financial planner. “I was enthralled with the idea of the Girls of Promise program, the fact that these eighth-grade girls get to meet successful women ... in engineering, banking, finance, with NASA.

“It made so much sense to me, it lets girls know that they can be successful in a math or science-based career. When I was growing up in the 1960s, that was certainly never a message I got.”

A year after that first luncheon, she was invited to join the board of Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, which operates the Girls of Promise program.

Now, as the foundation’s president,Conger is spearheading this year’s Power of the Purse luncheon, the foundation’s big fundraiser. It will be held, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Oct. 15 in the Wally Allen Ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center. Tickets are $100 each; reservations are available by calling Amanda Potter Cole at (501) 244-9740 or online at womensfoundationar kansas.org.

At this year’s luncheon, the foundation will honor Cathy Cunningham of Helena-West Helena as Woman of the Year in Philanthropy. Snow Ledbetter Moen will be the keynote speaker and, with her brother, Grainger Ledbetter, will accept the inaugural Brownie Ledbetter Civic Engagement Award honoring their mother. Brownie Ledbetter, who died in March, was a founding member of the Women’s Foundation. The award is designed to recognize Ledbetter’s leadership and herefforts to strengthen the community.

“The award won’t be given annually,” Conger says. “It is to recognize women who also have Brownie’s qualities.”

Conger is the president of Cynthia L. Conger, CPA, PA. She is a certified public accountant, personal finance specialist and a certified financial planner. In addition to the Women’s Foundation, she also is a representative for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on the UA System Foundation Board and is a board member of Professional Counseling Associates.

Step into Conger’s office and, amid framed Worth magazine covers naming her one of the country’s best financial planners and other professional achievements, you’ll see a framed painting of cats by her daughter Cici when she was around 10 years old.

Conger says her career horizons were limited when she enrolled in college.

“Because of the smallamount of high school mathematics classes I had, the only majors I could take were elementary education and theater. I wish someone had told me I was bright and could do well in math.”

As a result, she enrolled as a theater major who dreamed of replacing Barbra Streisand in Broadway’s Funny Girl.

But reality changed her path.

“I knew I liked to eat better than I wanted to be in the theater,” Conger says, laughing. “The unemployment rate among actors is very high. I also wanted to have children and I knew that being in theater wouldn’t be conducive to that.”

She found her calling when working as a bookkeeper at car dealerships in Coloradowhile her then-husband was in veterinary school.

“I found I had an aptitude for numbers,” she says. At age 27, she had a 2-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter and returned to college as an accounting major. Conger and the family moved toLittle Rock in 1979 and she transferred to UALR. She didn’t stop until she earned her accounting degree and a master’s in business administration.

It was a UALR professor’s advice that led her into financial planning.

“I taught Lamaze classes in the 1970s; I love helping people, doing something that makes a difference in their lives. In 1983, when I finished my MBA, financial planning was a new career path and it was perfect for me. It allowed me to help people and earn enough money to feed my children, my dogs and my cats.”

Conger describes herself as a voracious reader. She’s recently finished the Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy (which includes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and is reading Half the Sky, a nonfiction book about the trafficking of women.

“I read lots of economic history,” she says. “I say yes, this is awful, but we’ve survived several recessions andworse.”

The Women’s Foundation, Conger says, “is dear to my heart.”

“One of our goals is to improve the economic viability of women in Arkansas. I love that phrase, economic viability. We want to encourage girls to stay in school, graduate from high school and go on to post-secondary education.

“It’s so empowering to me, thrilling, to watch these girls in the Girls of Promise program go to a college campus and see their eyes light up. Given Arkansas’ poverty level and our 60 percent graduation rate, the whole idea of improving the economic vitality of women in Arkansas is so worthwhile; we can help girls realize they have more potential than being a mommy.”

The foundation also assists with life skills, job readiness and financial literacy.

“We want to empower girls to be successful women,” Conger says.

High Profile, Pages 39 on 09/26/2010

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