Four Degrees, One University: Why Cynthia Fernandes Chose Bentley Every Time

Cynthia Fernandes ’07, MSA ’08, MBA ’17, PhD ’27 is a first-generation college graduate on her way to becoming a quadruple Bentley Falcon — and she’s using her PhD research to tackle homelessness through a business and policy lens.  

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees through the Advanced Standing Program in Accounting, Fernandes completed an MBA and is now pursuing an Executive PhD in Business. Inspired by her parents’ belief in the power of education to create new opportunities, she is committed to opening doors — for herself and others. 

Here, Fernandes shares more about her Bentley journey, her work as the director of internal audit at the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MassHousing), and how she’s bringing a business lens to the housing crisis in Massachusetts.

You’re working on your fourth Bentley degree. What first drew you to the university? 

I chose Bentley because of the strong reputation of its accounting program. I’m one of those people who knew very early what I wanted to do in life. In the seventh grade, I shadowed a partner at PwC, and was fascinated by the opportunities that being an accountant could offer. Her office walls were covered in travel photos — and I wanted to travel the world, too. She told me about the stability of an accounting career (“You’re always going to need an accountant”). And from that day on, I was hooked. 

The next year I took an accounting class, and I loved the level of organization and structure of tracking money. It made sense to me. When I explored colleges, I found out that Bentley is the best at accounting. I knew it was for me. I needed to learn from the best of the best. 

What kinds of lessons impacted you early on at Bentley? 

I think it’s the networking and exposure — to new information, new people, new ways of doing things. It really opens up your mind and opens up pathways of different possibilities. 

Where else are you going to have a thousand people from different walks of life that you can just chat with on a daily basis in a room? At a campus like Bentley, you can zip around and see what people have going on. That opportunity doesn’t come along too often. 

An unexpected lesson came from studying abroad in Australia. While it was incredible to be in a different environment, learn from a different culture and be on my own, it also made me realize how important family is to me. I’m from Everett, Massachusetts, and my mom is here. I love to travel, but I know I don’t want to live too far away from my family. 

How did you dive into the world of accounting? 

I knew I wanted to work at a Big Four accounting firm, and I knew I would need a master’s degree to get my Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license. With that in mind, I continued after my bachelor’s degree to earn my master’s in accounting by doing the Advanced Standing Program that Bentley offers. 

After graduation, I joined Deloitte as an auditor. When the company was expanding its offices in India, I was on one of the first teams to pilot a program running across both the U.S. and India. I valued the learning aspect and the collaboration between cultures, and even got to host my Deloitte India counterpart when he came to the United States.  

I left Deloitte in 2011 when an opportunity for an internal auditing role came up at the Federal Reserve. I held myself accountable to obtaining my CPA license and successfully passed all exams in 2013, an achievement that wouldn‘t have been possible without my experience at Deloitte and Federal Reserve. 

At the Federal Reserve, I also obtained my Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) license, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Information Systems and Security Professional (CISSP) licenses. The internal audit role at the Federal Reserve opened new learning possibilities because internal audit is a different side of accounting that is focused on people, processes and technology. I also appreciate that in internal auditing you stick to one client, develop a trusting and collegial relationship, and follow recommendations through their implementation. 

What inspired you to enroll in the Bentley MBA program just a few years later in 2015? 

My mom and dad immigrated here from El Salvador and Cape Verde, respectively. My mom always valued education and wanted to go to high school, but she couldn’t until she got her GED in the United States. I’m one of four children, and my parents encouraged us to go to college so we could create upward mobility and choose any career we wanted — and all four of us have graduated. 

Mom’s love for learning has been instilled in me. So, when the Federal Reserve was offering partial sponsorship for an MBA program, I took the opportunity. I returned to Bentley for a part-time MBA because a lot of what I was doing at the Fed was watching large-scale projects be implemented. I was giving advice on project management standards and working at the intersection of finance and technology.

The MBA program further launched my network. I was in courses with working professionals who had a common goal: to get our projects done and do them well. I really liked that. Plus, the fact that it was part time made it accommodating for my lifestyle.  

Why did you say “yes” to becoming an instructor at Bentley toward the end of your MBA?  

I love pushing myself and helping people, so I started teaching undergraduate and graduate accounting courses. I like figuring out what students need and finding different ways of presenting information, so students connect with the materials. Having been a Bentley student, I understand the level of rigor that’s required and what we should expect from our students. So far, I’ve really enjoyed it. If I can do something that instills a growth opportunity for somebody else, it’s fantastic for me too. 

Your passion for helping people lends itself to your work as the Director of Internal Audit at MassHousing. What does that role look like? 

I help make sure the operations are working as efficiently and as effectively as possible, so I‘m typically leading the team performing the internal audits, working with external auditors, and working with management to achieve positive outcomes. What I love about it is that it’s different every day. As a new problem comes, I have to research and connect people to help solve it.  

I love researching, figuring out what a good solution looks like, and identifying how people can work together to have a win for everybody. I guess my career has always been that: offering up ideas to see what sticks so we can make incremental progress.  

What motivated you to enroll in the Executive PhD in Business? 

When I left the Fed, I was thinking about getting my PhD, but I was only finding full-time options. I knew that wasn’t feasible for me financially, or to leave room for work or other interests. 

Bentley’s Executive PhD in Business, which is offered in a part-time format, is creating a lot of opportunities for people like me. This format allows me to pursue my career, academic and other interests like traveling and running the Boston Marathon. The program is great for people who would like to keep working but are very interested in keeping their mind open and learning — I was particularly interest in learning the rigor of research and the techniques and theories for doing good business. If you want to be a top leader, you need these skills. 

What are some key takeaways from the Executive PhD so far? 

My mind organizes information into frameworks, and the PhD program has built those frameworks up to a higher level and a more theoretical standpoint. The MBA taught me about the tools in the toolbox, but the PhD is explaining why those tools are necessary. Instead of just going for an individual tool in the toolbox, I know the history and rationale behind it. That helps me apply how that one tool has additional use cases in other areas of business. It helps scale for broader business strategy and even redesigning the toolbox with certain projects or people in mind. This approach has transformed my way of thinking and is one of the complements I get from people working with me — how I explain “the why” in a way that makes sense. 

How does that influence your PhD research on evictions and affordable housing? 

The topic of homelessness is typically looked at from a socioeconomic standpoint. I’m working backwards to frame it as a business and macroeconomic problem — specifically the relationship between affordable housing and evictions. 

The availability of affordable housing impacts not only evictions but small businesses and how they’re able to recruit and retain employees. Pay structures play a key role. Most Massachusetts renters spend over half of their income on housing. People are no longer working to live; they’re working to just keep a roof over their heads.   

There’s a misconception that eviction is an individualistic problem: people not paying rent. In reality, it’s a business problem focused on the fact that people aren’t earning livable wages, they can’t find affordable housing, and they’re faced with a lack of reliable public transportation into cities where the jobs are. It’s a higher-level issue that isn’t being discussed enough right now in the traditional management scholarship. That’s what I’m bringing to the table to help create more awareness. As business professionals, we have a stake in this and should be thinking about it.