At 33, Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway is the image of composure. But when she was appointed to the position just a few months ago, she inherited an office that was still reeling from suicides of former Auditor Tom Schweich, and his aide Spence Jackson.
Now, Galloway is on track to issue 44 audits by the end of this week — right on schedule with previous years. She took a moment from her busy job to talk with Up To Date host Steve Kraske about the circumstances around her new job, her future aspirations and her lifelong love of math.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
On taking over an office in the wake of tragedy
Certainly I am sensitive to the unique circumstances that brought me into this office. I appreciate this is a terrible loss for Missouri, it's a terrible loss for the people that knew Tom and that were close to Tom. He was a true public servant and was dedicated to his work and I share his dedication to the office's mission of holding government accountable at all levels … I want to give credit to the professional staff and their dedication to the office.
On her lifelong love of math
It's exciting to me ... My dad is an engineer, and when I was in 5th grade, he would assign extra math problems for me to do outside of school and I liked the idea that you either got the problem right or wrong, there's a right or wrong answer. I did this "math climbers" game which was like the precursor to computer games, where you would try to do all these math problems mentally as fast as you could and you would win. Obviously now things are not as black and white.
On why she loves being an auditor
What I like about being an auditor is that you apply your skills to many different situations. No company that you're going to audit is the same, no organization you're going to audit is the same. You're constantly interacting with people in a professional way — you're finding out what works for them and applying those concepts broadly to other organizations. So, you might take away something that is good one place and apply it to the next and help them do their jobs better and be more efficient and effective and that's what I appreciate about being an auditor. Its not as black and white as those problems I did in 5th grade, but in some aspects it is.
On the cyber security initiatives she’s introduced since taking office
One of the initiatives that I have started is a focus on cyber security. We expect government to use technology ... We expect government to be nimble with us and to join us with that. But when there's personal information — private data — that data should stay private. What we're doing is in our audits, again at all levels — school districts, local governments — adding procedures to our audit to ensure that data is protected. I think it’s one of the biggest issues that were going to have to face.
On why she’s already announced her intentions to run for the office in 2018
I would not have accepted this appointment if this wasn't something that I was committed to and something that I believed in, and something I wanted to do for a long time.