About Carol
When Carol Bogacz graduated with a degree in mathematics from Truman State University, she didn’t have a clear career path. She earned a master’s degree in statistics and started looking for a way to apply her passion for predictive modeling. At the time, data science wasn’t an actual discipline. But Carol forged a path, working as an analyst in a range of industries, from telecommunications to trucking to insurance. She even worked briefly as an actuary but found predicting life spans was not how she wanted to spend her days.
Eventually, Carol became the first person at Burns & McDonnell with the title “data scientist.” Since then, she’s been named a Top 25 Thought Leader in Utility Analytics by the Utility Analytics Institute, helping the utility industry get value from their data and build long-term projections for key industry trends.
How Carol helps her clients
Carol’s natural ability to teach, coach and mentor, coupled with her deep industry knowledge, has a significant positive impact on her clients. She also doesn’t segment work into “projects” or “problems.” Instead, she looks at “people,” and approaches work from that perspective.
What motivates Carol
For Carol, learning is the biggest motivator. Coming to work and spending her days with smart — really smart — people is a joy for this lifelong learner. Her philosophy: everyone has something they can teach you.
A little bit about Carol
In addition to her day job, Carol has spent nearly 20 years teaching at the university level. She spends her spare time working with students at various universities, serving as a professor of mathematics and statistics. When she’s not wading through tests and papers, she spends time with family. Her husband is one of eight children, so Carol has no shortage of nieces and nephews. A fun fact about Carol: She and her husband go all out for the Christmas holidays, putting up 18 full-size trees and hosting an array of get-togethers for family and friends.