Throughout the course of her career, Kathy Eddy has long believed that a strong profession depends on those willing to invest their time and expertise.
As a CPA and partner of McDonough, Eddy, Poling & Baylous in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Eddy has dedicated her career to serving her community at home and abroad.
“You can’t make change or see changes made if you don’t participate,” Eddy said.
From 2000-01, she chaired the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). She was president of the West Virginia Society of CPAs from 1987-88 and president of the Board of Accountancy twice, from 1989-90 and 1992-93.
Today, Eddy is a member of the Marshall University Board of Governors. She is chair of the Finance, Audit and Facilities Planning Committee, as well as the liaison to the Marshall University Foundation Board of Directors. Of her roles, Eddy said she is honored to give back to her alma mater.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do the things I have done as a volunteer in my profession if I didn’t have the foundation that was laid for me at Marshall University,” she said.
Eddy, a native of Harrisville, West Virginia, chose to attend Marshall in the fall of 1968 due to its personable charm and the comfort that many of her peers were also attending Marshall.
“From the perspective of having people that you were familiar with, as well as a campus that was very inviting, it just seemed to be the right fit,” Eddy said.
When the time came to choose a major, the professions most popular for female students, such as teaching or nursing, didn’t resonate with Eddy. With an interest in mathematics, Eddy instead gravitated to accounting — a traditionally male-dominated field.
“There were only two females in my accounting classes,” Eddy said.
Though the landscape of accounting was very different then, Eddy said she always felt supported by her professors at Marshall.
“There was never a professor I had that made me feel like it wasn’t a good choice, that I was in the wrong profession, because I was a female,” she said.
Eddy graduated from Marshall in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Of her time at Marshall, Eddy reflected on the changes she witnessed. From the Vietnam War to the Marshall plane crash to strict campus policies, Eddy noted the world around her, locally and globally, evolved during her time as a student.
“There were just a lot of things that changed significantly from a worldly standpoint that really helped me grow up, and focus on how I looked at the world,” she said.
Eddy joined her firm in 1974, earned her CPA in 1978 and became a shareholder in 1981. She said the support of her firm and her husband, Ed McDonough, a longtime partner, made it possible for her to take on volunteer leadership roles.
“It was important to me to give back to this profession because I thought the firm, and the profession itself, had been very good to me,” Eddy said. “When opportunities arose for me to volunteer in the profession, I said ‘yes.’”
During her time with the AICPA, her firm was the smallest to ever contribute a chairperson. When she was elected as chair, she was the second woman to serve in its 113-year history and was only one of two West Virginians to hold the position.
“There were 68 people in my high school’s graduating class, and here I was chairing an organization that had 450,000 members at the time. So, it was quite an honor.
“I was all over the country, and sometimes out of the country, representing a profession that I loved and a profession that had been very good to me and my firm,” Eddy said.
For her work, Eddy has been recognized by many institutions, including Marshall. In 2002, she received the Marshall University Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumna Award, and in 2024 she received the Current Alumni “3 C’s” Award. In 2005, she was inducted into the Lewis College of Business Hall of Fame. She has also received the AICPA’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Service Award, the organization’s highest honor.
Eddy’s philanthropic involvement with Marshall deepened in 2015 when she and her husband established the Kathy Eddy New Horizons Fund to support experiential learning for accounting students. The fund enables students to attend the West Virginia Society of CPAs Annual Meeting, providing hands-on opportunities that have benefited more than 50 students.
“It’s been an unbelievable, positive experience for me, and it’s been an incredible experience for them, as well as the participants in the society,” she said.
Eddy was appointed to Marshall’s Board of Governors in 2023 by then-Gov. Jim Justice. Her board service comes at a transformative time for Marshall, with the university advancing its strategic initiatives such as Marshall For All, Marshall Forever, which is focused on student success, access and affordability, and the IDEA District that will expand the Fourth Avenue corridor west of campus.
Eddy said her time on the Board of Governors has been incredible and noted President Brad D. Smith’s direction has been crucial to Marshall’s advancement.
“There’s definitely an incredible amount of energy that I think President Smith brings with everything that’s happening,” Eddy said. “President Smith has the ability to communicate what the vision is, and what the strategy is, to accomplish that vision, and then to get buy-in from all constituents, which makes the movement much quicker than is typical in higher education.”
Inspired by that vision and momentum, Eddy sees her role on the Board of Governors as an opportunity to help turn strategy into lasting impact.
“I hope that my love of Marshall and what it has done for me, in terms of my career and my life, can contribute to accomplishing the strategic vision that has been laid out for Marshall University,” she said.