CHOC Children’s Executive Credits CSUF Experience With Her Success

Kerri Ruppert Schiller ’82 (B.A. business administration-accounting) is known as hardworking, diligent, creative and successful. As senior vice president and chief financial officer of CHOC Children’s, Schiller was recently named by Orange County Business Journal and CalCPA as 2010 Outstanding CFO of a Nonprofit Organization.

The honor recognizes Schiller’s ingenuity and resourcefulness. When she joined CHOC Children’s in 1998, the organization had suffered the largest operating loss in its history. By tightening financial controls, renegotiating better contracts with insurance payers and medical groups, and implementing strategic initiatives, Schiller helped turn the hospital’s $19-million loss into an operating gain of $4.9 million in two years.

CHOC Children’s revenues increased 215 percent during the first 10 years of her financial leadership, with market share increasing from 56 to 68 percent in the five-year period ending in 2008. Now she is overseeing work on a $550-million new tower built to meet the community’s health care needs beyond 2030.

Schiller believes her stellar work ethic – and the key to her success – was formed when she was a student at Cal State Fullerton, where she worked full-time at a Villa Park high-tech engineering firm to put herself through college.

“I worked hard and I played hard,” Schiller recalled. It’s a lifestyle that she has continued in her career, philanthropic involvement and private life. “I was the typical college student, although there were many professionals in my classes who were returning to school to complete their degrees. They, and most people in my classes, were very serious about their studies.”

First enrolled as a chemical engineering major, Schiller switched to accounting after enduring several semesters of physics. She found camaraderie and support among her fellow business administration students, and support and encouragement from several of her accounting professors. She also was a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity little sister.

“I appreciate the opportunities I had at Cal State Fullerton,” Schiller said. “I know it made a difference for me.”

That belief fuels not only her dedication to her alma mater, but her long involvement in philanthropic support for the university. A member and past chair of the Cal State Fullerton Philanthropic Foundation Board of Governors, as well as chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, Schiller chairs the foundation’s Nursing Task Force, serves on the Front & Center Blue Ribbon Committee and is among the university’s 50 Women of Distinction. She also is a participant in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics’ Professor for a Day event.

“It’s been extremely fulfilling for me as I’ve been involved with the university to see how staff looks at the needs of the community, anticipates them, and steps up to the plate to meet those needs,” she said.

“Everyone should have access to higher education – that’s a passion of mine,” she added. “I believe in supporting investments and endowments that mean we can create better access for students to ensure they can attend and graduate from college.”

Involvement with the university means she rubs elbows with students and faculty, an experience that Schiller finds invigorating. She also gets inspiration from her work with CHOC Children’s.

“You have to love what you do,” she said. “I work with a dedicated, talented team. And it’s motivating to work for children and their families. You know you make a difference.”

That difference does come at a price. As a successful, driven businesswoman with a husband, two stepchildren, and commitments to several boards and service organizations, she often finds herself faced with the issue of balance between family, work and self.

“I’m passionate about my work, the university and my family,” she said. “But there still are only 24 hours in a day.”

In addition to her career and philanthropic endeavors, Schiller is a member of the Public Policy Committee of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals, a past board member of NACH, past chair of the audit committee of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, and a board member of the Orange County Foundation for Medical Care. She is a member of the Hospital Association of Southern California CalOptima Managed Care Subcommittee, the Healthcare Financial Management Association and past secretary/treasurer of the California Children’s Hospital Association. She also is an active member of her church, serving monthly in their food bank efforts.

She believes her husband Andrew’s support is key to her success at work, with her family, and in her philanthropic efforts.

“My husband makes it all worthwhile,” she said. “I’m grateful that he’s so supportive and able to share all this with me.”