Title: IT Data Scientist II

Education: Master of Science in Data Science from the University of Wisconsin-Superior; Bachelor of Science in Biology and Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Superior

Summary: In her position, she wears a variety of hats. Kaitlyn builds and monitors Machine Learning & statistical models that promote business growth, monetization, and streamlined processes; I also am responsible for various forms of analytics to inform decision making and extract insights from large amounts of data. In addition, she helps with master data management which includes eliminating bad data and ensuring data is synchronized across systems.

Title: Meteorologist/Multi-Media Journalist, WDIO

Education: Bachelor of Science in Meteorology and Broadcast Journalism from the University of Miami

Summary: Sabrina is a meteorologist on weekends, and she fills in for the other two meteorologists as needed. This includes forecasting the weather, writing a web story with a forecast summary, radio, making/editing graphics, and presenting the forecast on-air during newscasts. Sabrina is also a multi-media journalist, which means she is a reporter that usually does her own camera work and editing. She often does weather-related news stories when she reports and does team coverage as a field reporter as needed, occasionally reporting outside in a winter storm.  

Title: Hydrotreating Process Engineer

Education: Received a BSChE (Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering) degree at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD)

Summary: In my position, my role is to monitor and troubleshoot both long term and day to day ongoings in my units. I perform a wide variety of tasks anywhere from conducting investigations to climbing towers while conducting line verifications.  In my daily tasks, I often lean on the math skills I have acquired in my education. One example of where I utilize math in my career is by constructing mathematical models to predict the life cycle of catalysts found in my unit’s reactors. In this case, math is a very powerful tool that helps me to protect my units equipment and catalyst. Math is a critical tool here as it also helps me to predict and boost unit productivity as well as help to organize unit outages in a way that is most economically beneficial.

Title: Operations Accountant

Education: BS in Music and Mass Communication from UW-Superior

Summary: I do volumetric accounting which consists of reconciling sales and receipts with inventory changes to determine our daily production. I compare volume changes in tanks to ensure they match up with what the tickets and transfer sheets show should have gone into or come out of the tank. Products are temperature corrected  to 60 degrees F to account for expanding and contracting due to temperature changes. I do a lot of investigating when the numbers seem off. I pull other instrumentation data and determine things such as how much product a flow meter shows went through it for a set time period to see if that matches what the tank or specific product volume change show. Finance and accounting need to report the volume of each product that we have, and they rely on me for that information. It is important identify and resolve anything that could cause the reports to misrepresent what is actually in the tanks.

Joscelyn Skandel (Joscy) is the Manager of Regulatory Compliance, Policy & Rates at Superior Water Light & Power (SWL&P), a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE Inc., providing electricity, natural gas, and water to customers in Superior, Wisconsin, and adjacent areas. Prior to joining SWL&P in 2014, Joscy spent 10 years in various Accounting leadership positions at ALLETE, Inc., an energy company headquartered in Duluth, MN.

Joscy’s current responsibilities include oversight of all state regulatory filings and compliance requirements including state, federal, environmental and legal, as well as oversight and leadership over all regulatory and rate requirements, cost of service studies, and rate cases for the electric, gas and water utilities. Rate making in the utility industry is all about math. In very simple terms, the utility costs a certain amount of money to operate and maintain. Rate making is an art that utilizes math to ensure the costs of operation are recovered from rate payers.

Certified in Lean Six Sigma, Joscy holds a degree in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin – Superior and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota – Duluth. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Title:  Nurse Manager, Essentia Health St. Mary’s Hospital of Superior Outpatient Surgery Department

& Essentia Health Twin Ports Pre Procedure Assessment Department

Education:  Bachelors Nursing, College of St. Scholastica

Summary: I have worked in many different roles in my nursing career, nursing homes, medical teaching units, surgery, and now leadership.  Math has always been an important part of each role.  As nurses caring for patients, we are responsible for medication delivery & dosing  which can involve math calculations.  We also need to understand both the metric and standard measuring systems, & know how to convert measurements between the two, such as temperature and patient weight.  In leadership, math skills have been important to help me understand budgets and finance related responsibilities.   

Title:  Manager - Tax

Education:  Bachelor of Science in Accounting from UW-Superior

Summary: Rena Verdoljak leads the tax department at ALLETE / Minnesota Power, and team of 8 accountants.  Her title is Manager – Tax.   She holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from UWS. Prior to ALLETE, she spent 13 years in public accounting at RSM in Duluth.  The tax department is responsible for filing all income, sales and property tax returns for ALLETE and its subsidiaries.  The department is also responsible for the tax accounting entries, due diligence for acquisitions, and research for new projects.  Math plays a role in the day-to-day tax functions such as filing returns and preparing accounting entries.  The less obvious role is the problem solving used to solve for missing information with other pieces of available information and applying reasonable allocation methods when data is not broken out to the level of detail necessary.      

Title:  Project Engineer
Education:  Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota Duluth

Summary

I worked as an Environmental Engineer intern at Sappi (pulp and paper mill) and Chemical Engineer at Sunstar Americas (toothbrush, toothpaste, mouth rinse manufacture). My focus was project-based for waste reduction and construction and implementation of a new blending facility for manufacturing toothpaste and mouth rinse. Now as a Project Engineer at AMSOIL, my focus is receiving specific customer-required approvals on products and internal process improvements and implementation. I live in Duluth, MN with my husband and two kids and enjoy yoga, sailing, gardening, herbal remedies and learning new things.

Title: Chemical Lab Director, AMSOIL

Education:

B.S. Chemistry – Business Emphasis, University Wisconsin – La Crosse

M.S. Analytical Chemistry, Illinois Institute of Technology

Quick Career Synopsis:

• 15+ years as a Chemist working in the Industry to enable properly working mechanical systems through supporting technical needs related to working fluids, lubrication, and engineered materials.

• In my current role I lead a team of chemists and technicians to drive & enable the research, development, and production of high performance and high quality lubricant formulations.

How I use Math in my career:

• Utilization of common statistical methods to assess data and setup experimental design.

• Calculations/conversions to understand formulation composition, cost, and support production.

• Managing and justifying resource/budgets, calculating/communicating cost savings & productivity opportunities.

• Analytical test methods. Development of calibration or reference standards, preparation of samples, analysis and measurement.

• Understanding of chemical reaction rates and kinetics, application of reaction kinetics to understand accelerated test methods and equipment operation.

Title:  Product Development Engineer

Education:  Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Title:  Clinical Supervisor, Med/Surg, Essentia Health, St. Mary’s Hospital Superior

Degree: Bachelor's of Science in Nursing from the College of St. Scholastica

Certifications: Wound and Ostomy Nursing

I started my career as a nurse in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. As a floor nurse, I used math to calculate medications, complete accurate cardiac and hemodynamic monitoring measurements, tally percentages of total body surface area burns, compute fluid rescuscitation needs and record patient's intake and output.  When I moved into the charge nurse role, I often used math to determine staffing needs. Later in my career, I transitioned to specialty nursing as a Certified Wound and Ostomy Nurse. We frequently used math to measure wounds and determine healing and used ostomy size and output to determine product selection. In my current role as a Clinical Supervisor, I use math daily when planning patient flow and capacity for our unit, as well as productivity management and position control. Math is an important part of the work we do in patient care.