MAC graduate recovers from tragedy
After the deaths of her mother and sisters, Faith Lyons found friends and her confidence while earning a Master of Accounting.
Faith Lyons ’24 (MAC) was used to crying alone.
When she arrived at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School for her Master of Accounting Program orientation, she was mourning the death of her mother, Wilma Williams, and her sisters, 9-year-old Kaleigh and 11-year-old Mozella, in a car crash.
Her mom was her compass, the one who kept her on track and helped her find her true north.
Suddenly, everything in Lyons’ life felt uncertain. The COVID-19 pandemic struck. Dealing with her grief and the loss of her family, she couldn’t fully focus on her work as a consultant with Triage Consulting Group in Atlanta and resigned.
“From the moment my mom died, I thought my life was over,” says Lyons. “But I knew I had to get over the fear of what comes next. My mom never accepted anything less than 100%. ‘If it’s something you want, you’ve got to give your all,’ she said. She always believed I could do that.”
Lyons had listened to her mom when she talked about the importance of higher education. She graduated with a degree in mathematics from Spelman College in 2018 and started working at Triage the following month. After she resigned from Triage in 2020, it took her just two months to find a job as an operations consultant for Guidehouse in Atlanta. But she wanted more.
“I realized that I needed to go to grow,” she says. “I needed to prove to myself that I’m still strong enough to do it on my own.”
Faith Lyons represented the MAC program at an event when the final structural beam was placed on Steven D. Bell Hall in 2024. (UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School)
Rediscovering herself
Her co-worker, Nick Pianovich ’22 (MBA), recommended UNC Kenan-Flagler for the rigor of its graduate programs, and her former boss at Triage, Sean Alavi ’99 (MBA) wrote her a letter of recommendation for the MAC Program.
At Carolina on the first day of MAC orientation, she met fellow student Madias Loper ’23, ’24 (MAC). They went to UNC Student Stores, and she bought a Carolina coffee mug. Back at her apartment, Lyons opened up to Loper about her mom and sisters.
He cried with her.
“I didn’t expect to have that when I came here, to meet someone that first day who got it, who understood my experience,” she says. “Right away at Carolina, I had friends. I had family.”
After a few months at the business school, her light began to return. She quickly was on a first-name basis with the Café McColl staff, professors, staff and Dean Mary Margaret Frank. She dove into her studies, concentrating on audit and financial analysis and reporting.
“I wanted to really hone my skills, beef them up and rebuild my confidence as the businesswoman that I knew I was,” says Lyons. “UNC Kenan-Flagler helped remind me to quiet all the noise. I felt my confidence restored.”
She started mentoring fellow students, was named the president of the Master of Accounting Student Association and represented the MAC program at an event when the final structural beam was placed on Steven D. Bell Hall.
In October 2024, she moved back to Atlanta as an audit associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“I learned that I’m stronger than I thought I was,” she says. “But I’ve also learned that fighting to get back to how I was when my mom was here didn’t make sense. I was trying to go back somewhere that you can’t go back to. You have to keep going forward.
“There have been many moments where I didn’t know how things were going to happen or what was going to come next. Carolina changed that. Carolina will always be on my mind. Carolina has my heart.”
