Boutique finance and tax advisory for rural schools and business owners.

Igrew up in Americus, Georgia, a small town where the school was the center of community life. I walked the halls with classmates whose families had lived in that county for generations, and teachers who poured everything they had into every student who walked through their doors. I didn't know then that someone had to balance the budget, keep the buses running and make sure the lights stayed on. I know now.

I carried that town with me to Morehouse, to Harvard, and then back into rural Georgia school districts, where I spent ten years in cabinet-level leadership, five as Chief Financial Officer and five as Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations. I saw what rural leaders are asked to do: carry the same responsibilities as far larger systems, with small teams, tight budgets and rarely a senior partner to think it through with. I saw systems that depended on one person who knew where everything was, and what happens when that person leaves.

I also saw what is possible. Repeat audit findings corrected. A new high school built. A community that voted yes. Teachers who could teach because the systems behind them worked.

I started The J.F. Austin Group for one reason: rural students deserve the same caliber of leadership as any child in Georgia, and the people leading their schools should not have to do it alone. We build the structures and systems that keep a school running, so leaders can focus on students.