My Role at BCS
My name is Laura Akens, and I am a part-time Administrative Assistant in our Kingsport office.
My main role is to process tax returns, which is also my favorite administrative task to perform. I enjoy making sure our clients understand what they need to do to complete the annual filing of their tax return(s).
Education and Experience
I graduated in August, 1983 from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a B.S. in Business Administration, majoring in Accounting. I worked full-time for nine years in healthcare and public accounting, followed by sixteen years of part-time bookkeeping at various businesses while raising three busy children. I joined BCS-Kingsport in January 2017, and working part time provides the perfect balance at this time in my life. I feel my experience in tax and auditing (although many years back) helps me see the bigger picture while performing my admin tasks.
Community Involvement and Personal Notes
My most time-consuming extracurricular activity is being a member of the BBBs (Biker Babe Believers), a Christian ladies bicycling group based in Kingsport. We ride every Wednesday on local or not-so-local trails as far away as Maryville TN, Galax VA, or Greenville SC. We also take a week-long spring and fall trip to destinations such as Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois.
I am a member of First Baptist Church in Kingsport and enjoy volunteering with the middle school backpack program, where I get to shop for bulk food items and others assemble and distribute to food insecure kids. I get to participate in driving and delivering Meals on Wheels once a month.
I also enjoy travel, cooking, birdwatching, line dancing and spending time with my family (three adult children and spouses, three grandsons, husband, two step-daughters and spouses, and a granddaughter on the way.)