We’re excited to introduce two new staff members at Phi Kappa Phi: Suzanne Borders, our Director of Finance, and Chloë Beaver, Assistant Director of the chapter relations team. Each brings unique expertise to cultivate our mission of celebrating and advancing the love of learning

Suzanne Borders 

As Suzanne Borders was growing up, a future life as an accountant wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. “I wanted to be a veterinarian because I really loved animals,” Borders recalled.

Eventually, she decided that the emotionally stressful aspects of dealing with sick or dying pets weren’t for her. But the desire to help people remained a vocational calling for Borders, who eventually became a CPA. “I like that it’s people-focused,” Borders said of her career choice. “There are so many different kinds of accounting you can do.”

Borders recently joined Phi Kappa Phi’s national office as its director of finance and controller, a job that connects her with Society chapters across the country. “I didn’t realize how heavily into chapter support I would be,” Borders said. “It’s been really rewarding to work with them. I’m the main point person for anything chapter finance-related.”

For Borders, her new job at Phi Kappa Phi is a natural extension of her career, which has been heavily focused on nonprofit service. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Louisiana State University, the Baton Rouge native first worked in corporate roles, becoming a certified public accountant in 2008. At Albermarle Corporation, Borders oversaw finances for the chemical company’s private foundation, which donated more than $3.5 million each year to more than 400 nonprofit agencies throughout the United States.

In 2019, Borders joined the staff of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge. Habitat for Humanity works in more than 70 countries, partnering with low-income and underserved families to help them acquire and maintain safe and affordable homes.

Within Habitat for Humanity’s Baton Rouge operation, Borders eventually became the chief financial officer. In that role, she did everything from tracking the nonprofit’s finances to helping families navigate their mortgage payments to assisting local customers of ReStore, Habitat’s nonprofit retail centers that sell new and gently used home furnishings and building materials at discounted prices. “Everyone wore a jillion hats,” Borders said of her time at Habitat. “I’ve always liked service.”

In her new job at Phi Kappa Phi, Borders is excited about being able “to continue the cycle of giving back.” She’s also been impressed by the scope of the Society’s awards and grants programs for ambitious scholars. “It’s been really fun to connect with the awards and grants recipients,” Borders said.

Away from the office, Borders is a busy wife and mother, with a household that includes her husband, Sean, a college and career counselor at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, and her two sons, Henry and Jack.

Her love for animals remains strong. Just ask her three dogs, Millie, Daisy, and Lilah.   

Phi Kappa Phi members and supporters can reach Borders at sborders@phikappaphi.org.

Chloë Beaver

After Phi Kappa Phi member Chloë Beaver attended the Society’s 2022 convention in Orlando, Florida, she was fired up about what she and fellow members could do as a national organization. “When I went to the convention, it was a growing moment for me,” Beaver recalled. “I came away with a lot of passion for the Society.”

Initiated into Phi Kappa Phi in 2019 at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Beaver was talking with her mother about the convention when she shared a new career goal. “I told her I wanted to work at Phi Kappa Phi’s national office one day,” Beaver said.

Beaver’s dream came true recently when she joined Phi’s Kappa Phi’s chapter relations team as an assistant director. In her new role, she serves Society chapters across the country, assisting chapter officers with training, procedural guidance, and cultivating ideas to help chapters grow. She has firsthand experience after serving as an officer at ULM’s chapter, including several years as president.  

A native of Arkansas who also spent part of her childhood in Louisiana and North Carolina, Beaver earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history with a minor in English from ULM in 2017, her areas of study reflecting passions she’d developed as a youngster.

“I was raised by a mother who took my sister and me to museums on the weekends,” Beaver recalled. “When I was 13, my mother took my sister and me to London. I was struck, standing in places where Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I had stood. I came back with a love of Tudor history.”

Visiting England deepened Beaver’s love of the English language, too. As a teen, she learned in a deeper way how history and language shaped each other. “I had a very influential English teacher in high school who really pushed the historical aspects of literature,” Beaver said.

For her master’s thesis, Beaver studied how fears over witchcraft were used as a political device in Elizabethan England, particularly against women. “I found there was a history of women being targeted throughout history, and one of the ways was through witchcraft,” Beaver recalled.

After earning her graduate degree, Beaver taught history and library science at ULM, though most of career at the university was in administration. She was serving as assistant director of assessment and evaluation at ULM before starting her new job at Phi Kappa Phi. Beaver loves Phi Kappa Phi’s traditions, along with the substantive support it provides to scholars through its grants and awards programs. “As a former student,” she said, “I know that it’s very difficult to get resources. The other thing is, I really latched onto the service aspect of Phi Kappa Phi.”

After a few weeks on the job at Phi Kappa Phi’s national office, Beaver is glad she made the move. “I enjoy this because I was once a chapter officer,” she said. “I just enjoy connecting with officers from around the country.”

Phi Kappa Phi members and other stakeholders can reach Beaver at cbeaver@phikappaphi.org.