Maria Schwingler: A Legacy of Lifting

Maria Schwingler has held many roles. She is a Partner and Midwest Regional Assurance Practice Leader at Eide Bailly, the current Board Chair for TeamWomen, and a Co-founder and Board Member of Hearts 2 Hope, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting moms with complicated pregnancies. She is also the mother of twin daughters. 

Her legacy in her career and with her children has had a similar theme: Lift. 

In the last decade she’s been with TeamWomen, Maria has made it her mission to lift and inspire other women– whether through TeamWomen or in her work at Eide Bailly. It’s the same mission as TeamWomen: To inspire women and girls to rise together. 

Now, she’s guiding her twin daughters through their own TeamWomen experience so they can rise together.

Maria’s first introduction to TeamWomen was in 2014 when an intern at her firm invited her to attend TeamWomen’s Annual Leadership Conference. 

“I was so engaged and enjoyed the day so much,” Maria told TeamWomen. “I knew I wanted to get more involved.”

She said a specific moment at that conference was a spark for her. Part of the program included two women– Alicia Johnston and Dee Young– who shared their experiences working together as a mentor and mentee in TeamWomen’s Mentor Program. 

Maria soon became a formal member of TeamWomen, where she has participated in many capacities over the years. She was a founding member of the Young Professionals Advisory Board, where she served for four years before joining the Executive Board. She has also been the  Chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Mentor Program Committee. Through those experiences, she formed relationships and worked closely with women like Alicia Johnston and Dee Young, who she has built friendships with through her TeamWomen connection

That’s the magic of TeamWomen. Women and girls rise together when they lift each other. 

Maria has loved the Empower Leadership side of TeamWomen, especially as her daughters have gotten older and become more active in the organization. 

One of the twins’ first experiences with TeamWomen was in 2018 at the Empower Gala. Back then, one of the opening activities was a simple and memorable get-to-know-you activity. Each woman or girl was given post-it notes and encouraged to find someone in the room they didn’t know and share one positive comment about the person on the post-it note.

Maria’s daughters loved this activity, handing out nearly a dozen post-it note comments each. It’s a memory Maria and her daughters still cherish– her daughters still keep the post-it notes they received that night.  

“It’s meaningful to involve [my girls] and expose them to resources that help build confidence and resilience,” she said.  

Outside of TeamWomen, Maria’s career is equally impressive. A Partner at Eide Bailly since 2017, Maria has carved a path in public accounting, an industry where leadership roles have traditionally been male-dominated. 

Her journey, however, is defined by support and advocacy. “I’ve had male and female advocates who have believed in me and kept me in mind for opportunities I wouldn’t have expected,” Maria said.

Her leadership trajectory is notable: she became Audit Department Head in Minneapolis at a young age, overseeing a team of 40 professionals. Recently, she stepped into a regional leadership role, overseeing audit practices across the Midwest.

Within Eide Bailly, Maria has been a champion of the firm’s initiatives supporting women in leadership, particularly through the firm’s Women’s ERG (Employee Resource Group). She’s been a participant and has facilitated conversations on confidence, biases, and professional growth— critical topics in male-dominated spaces. 

Maria has seen firsthand how these initiatives have shifted Eide Bailly’s culture, moving the needle of female partners significantly, from when she first began her career in public accounting.

Maria’s work of championing men and women is woven throughout her personal and professional life. She attributes some of this to her own experience with several mentors who were able to guide her through the complexities of being a working mother. 

TeamWomen means a lot to Maria and she loves introducing new members to the organization. 

“The Annual Leadership Conference is one of the best days of the year!” she said. 

Maria embodies what TeamWomen is all about: As she’s risen through the ranks of her career and in TeamWomen, she’s lifted countless others around her. 

Learn more about TeamWomen’s Annual Leadership Conference here. Learn more about Empower Leadership Academy here.