Carla Gentry

— Bio —

Being a single mother of two sons was a challenge but no one has ever accused me of backing down from a challenge, eager to learn and grow, I entered the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the spring of 1993. I worked in the Developmental Math Lab my entire tenure with UTC, assisting students with all levels of mathematics. Upon graduating from UTC with a double major, Applied Mathematics and Economics in 1998, I moved to the Chicago area to start my career in analytics. During the past 14 years, I have worked with Fortune 100 and 500 companies including but not limited to, Discover Financial Services, J&J, Hershey, Kraft, Kellogg’s, SCJ, McNeil and Firestone. Acting as a liaison between the IT department and the Executive staff, I am able to take huge complicate databases, decipher business needs and come back with intelligence that quantifies spending, profit and trends. Being called a data nerd is a badge of courage for this curious Mathematician/Economist because knowledge is power and companies are now acknowledging its importance.