Former CFO Finds Her Joy, Peace as a Professor

There’s a phrase used in Costa Rica that is translated literally to pure life: “Pura Vida.” In general, it can mean hello and good-bye, much like “Aloha” in Hawai’i, but also means being centered in mind, body and spirit.

The phrase meant so much to new Rockhurst University professor and frequent Costa Rica visitor Missy Ling that she had it tattooed on her inner wrist years ago.

Every year Ling traveled to Costa Rica to seek “Pura Vida,” but inevitably and understandably returned to her corporate job and reality in Kansas City. She was a Chief Financial Officer in her later days in the business world, so she’d cover up her Pura Vida tattoo with a Band-Aid so it wouldn’t be seen in the boardroom.

Ling enjoyed her positions in the business world, but not as much as the time she worked briefly as one of the Chipmunks at Disneyland, but that’s a different story. Regardless, she lacked consistent joy and was looking for something more.

She wasn’t living Pura Vida.

Ling was excellent with numbers but the fulfillment she found was in developing her team and mentoring others. So, in a quest for that joy she longed for, she quit her job and decided to change careers.

“I thought, I'll be a college professor,” she said.

Ling went through the accelerated MBA program at Rockhurst and graduated in May 2012. Equipped with a CPA and MBA, she was closer, but not fully qualified to teach full-time at the college level. She needed another degree, but it wasn’t going to work for her financially at that time.

“So, I went back to work in corporate America for about 10 years,” she said. “And three years ago, about [early fall] 2018, I was not happy being a CFO. It wasn't the organization; it just didn't bring me joy.

“I thought about what did, and it was Rockhurst,” she said. “I had stayed connected to the school by doing guest speaking and I knew it was time. So, I resigned my job and applied to Creighton University's Doctor of Business Administration program because I knew I liked the Jesuit feel. Also, I'd gotten some great advice from some of the faculty [at Rockhurst] and the business school, including the dean at the time, Cheryl McConnell. Then I got accepted.”

To make it work financially, Ling sold her house, downsizing from a 4-bedroom home to a 1-bedroom apartment.

“I changed my lifestyle dramatically,” she said.

She felt she was getting some signs along the way, too, such as a chance meeting with McConnell while looking at apartments.

Ling moved into those apartments – eight minutes from Rockhurst – and began teaching as an adjunct professor while working on her doctorate.

That brought back memories of why she chose Rockhurst for her MBA early in her journey.

“When I was looking at my MBA program choices, I knew there was UMKC and I knew there was Rockhurst,” she said. “This was around in March and when I walked onto the Rockhurst campus, and I saw the tulips… I didn't even go to UMKC. I knew this is where I wanted to teach. And throughout my whole doctoral degree program I’ve had my eyes set on Rockhurst. And it happened.”

Ling was offered a full-time position as a professor at Rockhurst in Spring 2021 to teach Accounting and Finance. She’s now in a Conway Hall office next to her best friend, Anna “Acey” Lampe, who also worked in corporate America for more than 20 years before becoming a professor.

“The dream that I had from 2008 to now,” Ling says, “I'm sitting in the office where I want to be, next door to my best friend, Acey. In a million years I never would have thought that this is where I would land.”

Lampe knows what her friend went through to land at Rockhurst.

“I'm so proud of Missy and all that she has sacrificed to make a real difference in our students,” Lampe said. “And as any mentor discovers, the mentor always learns as much from the mentee. Missy might think she's the lucky one but I'm the one who's lucky!”

Lampe taught Ling in the MBA program and remembers how well she interacted with other students.

“She was a very busy CFO in Kansas City, but always found time to mentor the younger students in the class,” Lampe said. “I learned from these students what a fabulous teacher she was.

“When Missy told me her dream was to not just become a professor but a professor at Rockhurst University, I truly thought it was just a passing thought,” Lampe continued. “Giving up her salary and lifestyle to pursue that dream was hard for anyone to fathom. But as our friendship grew, and we had those talks more frequently, I saw that Missy was both serious and sincere in her journey to pursue her doctorate. Few know just how much her journey has been plagued with adversity because she refuses to let anything get in the way of her end goal. She personifies the Jesuit values and reflects on them to keep her balanced.” 

A full semester into her long-awaited career as a full-time professor, Ling says what stands out to her the most are still the students.

“I just love the students here,” she says. “I watched graduate and undergraduate students present when I would come and help Acey with classes, and there's just something about the Rockhurst students – they're just exemplary. I've seen chief executive officers and board members who can't present as well as our students here.”

Ling is bringing her many years of corporate understanding to the Rockhurst classroom, but the transition from CFO to teacher doesn’t happen overnight.

“I feel like I bring that corporate experience to the classroom to complement the academics who have been on campus or have taught for their entire careers,” she said. “There is an art to teaching. Rockhurst does a great job of onboarding new faculty. There's a process for training us how to teach.”

Ling calls her administrators and fellow instructors in Conway “incredibly, incredibly supportive” of her as she begins this career while finishing up her doctorate. She highlights the Jesuit core value of Cura Personalis – care of the whole person – as something that drives her. She has a picture framed on her office shelf of the Rockhurst Cura Personalis flag that lines the main campus. She also has a picture of Creighton’s crest.

“I like looking at them as reminders of why I chose Jesuit institutions. It just continues that feeling of being blessed,” she said, noting that she tries to pay that forward to her students to help them feel joy and at peace. 

Ling started her journey looking for that joy, that Pura Vida, years ago. She didn’t find it on a Costa Rica beach or in corporate America. She found it on the third floor of Conway Hall at Rockhurst, as odd as that may sound, but it’s not really a place anyway – it’s a state of mind.

Perhaps symbolically, there is no longer a Band-Aid that covers her Pura Vida tattoo. She didn’t feel it was necessary any longer. After all, she’s in a new place, both literally and figuratively.

“There’s ultimate fulfillment in that there’s a sense of peace,” she said. “But now there's joy, as well as peace. It's joyful. It's like your dream has come true. I know that sounds corny and cliché, but it did. I'm here.”

Ling is reminded daily of how blessed she feels.

“I park in the north garage,” she says. “And I know this just sounds completely cheesy, but every time I come down the stairs, the sign says, ‘Welcome Home!’  And I'm like, yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be. I’m incredibly grateful.”

Welcome home, Professor Ling.