From CPA to Plié

"Sharing an art with the community gives me so much fulfillment. There's that moment on stage just as the curtain goes up — there's nothing like it."

Kimberlee S. Phelan, CPA, isn't one to stand still. She grew up in Corona del Mar, California, with seven sisters and one brother. Dad was an airline pilot for United Airlines and Mom was a high school accounting teacher. When it came time for college, Phelan changed coasts and went to Wellesley in Massachusetts, majoring in economics and international relations.

During the early 1990s, Phelan worked for Price Waterhouse doing international taxation and later Coopers & Lybrand. Her final stop in public accounting was 1997 when she joined WithumSmith+Brown in New Jersey as a tax manager. Phelan always knew she would become a CPA. "I love working in public accounting with clients. There are always questions and issues to resolve, so there's constant learning."

In 2001, she became Withum's first female partner; in 2005, she became its first female director; and in 2011, she was named the practice director for international services. She's been dubbed one of the "50 Best Women in Business" by New Jersey Business magazine and received a Woman of the Year Award by Garden State Woman magazine. "I have a passion to help other women succeed," notes Phelan.

Phelan serves on the national board of the Learning Ally, a group that works with dyslexic and visually impaired people. She was also on the board of the Princeton YWCA, which bestowed her its Tribute to Women Award in 2002.

For fun, Phelan fancies knitting. "I learning knitting years ago as an exchange student in Norway," she recalls. But it's one activity that really takes her breath away: ballet. While Phelan danced as a youngster, her passion was reignited when her husband John won a charity bid for a walk-on role in The Nutcracker with the American Reparatory Ballet in Princeton. Now in their fifth year as members of the cast, the Phelans get so much enjoyment from their participation. "It's amazing to be able to share the stage with these dedicated artists whose movements are so beautiful and fluid. It's really a wonderful way to express oneself without speech," says Phelan. Each year, the theater company performs The Nutcracker from approximately Thanksgiving to Christmas for about 10,000 people all across New Jersey.

"Ballet is so different from accounting. I guess it's a right brain/left-brain thing," comments Phelan. "I've had partners from WS+B see the show with their kids, come backstage and say, 'I had no idea you did this!'"