From managing director to math teacher

The afternoon snack and mini-finance lesson was part of an elective Tippins launched in 2024 at the K-12 school for students with language-based learning disabilities like dyslexia. In a given day in her “Introduction to Financial Markets” course, Tippins finds relatable ways to teach high schoolers about how financial markets function, the benefits of long-term investing, and even about derivatives and what shorting means.

“I’m trying to help the students become more financially literate,” she says. “Financial literacy is critical for everyone, but talking to students about it in their teenage years really sets them up. It’s been fun teaching finance in a way teens can relate to.”

Having joined Churchill in November 2023, Tippins teaches 10th grade math in what’s become a successful, major career pivot at age 52. Before that, she spent what she calls an unexpected twenty-eight years working on Wall Street. Fourteen of those were at J.P. Morgan, where she was last a managing director in structured derivatives.

The power of individualized learning

A growing urge to teach, and two middle school children rapidly growing up, was the push that the lifelong math enthusiast needed to take the plunge into education. The Churchill School was a great fit since Tippins has seen with her own kids how individualized learning can be transformative for students with learning differences.

At J.P. Morgan and later Morgan Stanley, Tippins participated in groups that celebrated diversity, including neurodiversity. She felt ready to take on teaching partly due to the confidence she gained at J.P. Morgan from taking on stretch assignments throughout her career.

“Teaching is hard work,” she says. But near-daily light-bulb moments with her students make it all worth it. “They do something magical or inspirational, or someone learns something or has that aha moment. It’s so fulfilling.”

Tippins is also pursuing her master’s in adolescent math, adding to the bachelor’s in mathematics she earned from Cambridge University, where she participated in a program offering math tutoring for underserved teens. She credits this program for opening her eyes to the impact that teaching can have on someone’s life. Her efforts helped those students pass exams, setting them on a completely different life path.

Innovating in derivatives

Tippins continued on her math track after graduation and joined Deloitte, where she earned her accountancy qualification. Soon after in the early 1990s, a twenty-something Tippins accepted a product control job at J.P. Morgan in London at a time when derivatives were taking off.

“I was not one of these people for whom finance was my dream,” she says. “I never thought I’d be in finance for so long.” But, “derivatives were exciting and interesting and I was sort of a math nerd,” she says. She built relationships, and 18 months later switched into a role that involved innovating and creating new products. “It was a really fun, interesting, creative place to be, and it meant that I could do maths all day long, which is what I loved.”

Her work took her around the world, from Asia to the U.S. Ultimately, she moved to New York City, in part to fulfill a dream of working abroad. At the firm, Tippins consistently took on tasks outside her comfort zone and had supportive mentors. “I always put my hand up, and said, ‘I’m up for it!’” she says. “The firm was really good at giving opportunities to those who wanted them.”

J.P. Morgan taught her professional and life skills, instilling in her a strong sense of integrity that she’s carried with her to the world of teaching. She’s eager to bring her real-world experience to students because “the best teachers I had myself were those in industry and business, and they brought that into the classroom,” she says.

A camper van and a drum set

Outside of work and school, Tippins enjoys traveling—when she turned 50, she and her family rented a camper van and visited the remaining three U.S. states she had yet to see. “The goal was 50 by 50!”

That same year, she also bought herself an electric drum set. “I decided, if teaching doesn’t work out, I’d become a drummer for a rock band,” she says, tongue-in-cheek.

Tippins still keeps up with former J.P. Morgan colleagues in New York and abroad, and she continues to feel thankful for her formative years at the firm.

 “Anyone who leaves J.P. Morgan, a piece of their heart is still there,” she says. “I feel incredibly lucky for the career that I had, and incredibly lucky for this career switch.”

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