USA Funds Staff Profile: Helping Students by Meeting Financial Responsibilities

From sending grant funds to individuals and organizations supported by USA Funds'^® philanthropic efforts, to monitoring corporate budget records, Phil Dean’s work as an accountant for USA Funds includes a broad range of responsibilities.

“The best part of the job is that I’m always busy,” says Dean, who has held his current position for two years.

Dean was a collections manager at an Anderson, Ind., bank 15 years ago when one of his former employees from Dean’s days as a fast-food-restaurant manager as a teenager contacted Dean about a job opening at USA Funds.

Dean applied for that job in collections working for his former employee. He received a job offer, which he accepted and began what would become a long career with the education-loan guarantor. Dean has since held positions at USA Funds in post-claim review and investigations in addition to his current role in accounting.

“I’d always wanted to get into accounting and had studied accounting in college,” says the Anderson native. Dean likes the immediacy of accounting tasks. “I like to be able to look back at the end of the week and see what I’ve started and accomplished in that week.”

Dean’s work helps ensure that USA Funds’ grantees and scholarship recipients receive funds to assist them with their work, that USA Funds’ financial commitments are met in a timely manner, and that USA Funds employees have the resources they need to better serve customers.

“I like the idea that what I’m doing ultimately is helping students,” Dean says.

When not working, Dean enjoys bowling in a church league with his 27-year-old son. He and his wife also have a 24-year-old son.