Palmer Ball, MBA

Retired CFO, Spartanburg Day School (SC)

Palmer recently served as Interim CFO at Ashley Hall in Charleston, SC for 1.5 years.  Prior to that she was the Assistant to the Headmaster for Finance and Strategic Planning at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville, SC, for 4 years, following a 21-year career as the Business Manager at Spartanburg Day in Spartanburg, SC.  She recently served as the part time Executive Director of the Palmetto Association of Independent Schools for 7 years, helping to establish a MEP (Multiple Employer Plan) for independent schools in South Carolina. 

Since 2016, Palmer has served as a consultant for independent schools throughout the country, specializing in project work for financial operations. In addition to her consulting work, during Winter/Spring 2016, along with NBOA, she was an adjunct faculty member of the independent school finance graduate class at the Klingenstein Institute at Columbia University in New York City. Before joining the independent school world, Palmer was Vice President for Business and Finance at Converse College, her alma mater, for four years, following three years in the College’s Development Office. Prior to that, she served in the tax department at Price Waterhouse for two years.  

Palmer was the recipient of NBOA’s prestigious Ken White Award in 2015, served two terms on the NBOA Board of Directors, and was elected to the Association of Business Officers of Independent Schools (ABOIS) in 2008. She served on the faculty of the NBOA Business Officer Institute (BOI) numerous times and served as a faculty mentor for NBOA’s 2021-22 and 2022-23 Leadership Academy cohorts.

Palmer regularly speaks at regional and national conferences, giving presentations on net tuition revenue, cost effectiveness by division, data management, and long-range financial planning tools and data schools need in preparation for strategic planning. Additionally, she has presented NBOA's long-range financial model via Annual Meeting deep dive sessions, online classes, webinars and other presentations. 

Palmer received her BA in Biology from Converse College and her MBA in Accounting from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. She has served on a number of nonprofit boards, currently serving on the Converse University Board of Trustees and as an Elder at First Presbyterian Church. She and Michael have two daughters, Anne Dobson and Taylor, both of whom were lifers at Spartanburg Day School.