Comfort With Uncertainty
Works through ill-defined goals and ambiguous mandates, establishing structured paths, clear metrics, and decision criteria when the situation offers none.
Operations Executive
DBA | M.S. Biology
Operations · Quality Systems · Organizational Transformation
I lead complex operations and technical teams through growth, transformation, and increased demand. My experience spans manufacturing in life sciences and aerospace.
Leadership Profile
My résumé shows what I have delivered. This profile shows how I lead, make decisions, and work with people when the work is complex, the pressure is real, and the path forward is not obvious.
Leader Assessment
Works through ill-defined goals and ambiguous mandates, establishing structured paths, clear metrics, and decision criteria when the situation offers none.
Handles change in the operating environment without losing the plot, modifying approach to fit changing circumstances while maintaining structure and focus.
Works fluently with both concrete data and hypothetical scenarios, integrating engineering, scientific, operational, and financial considerations into long-range strategy.
Absorbs new technical information quickly and moves decisions forward rather than allowing work to stall, while maintaining disciplined execution.
Builds trust across highly matrixed organizations so people feel valued, supported, and motivated to contribute toward common objectives.
HIGH5 Core Talents
I solve the systemic problem, commit to the delivery date, and develop the people who sustain the results long after the project is complete.
Insights Discovery® Archetype
Observing Reformer
High precision, analytical system design, and meticulous handoffs. I gather the data before I move, then move decisively.
Published Perspective
A published perspective on how listening and research reshaped the way I approach inclusive leadership.
Published Leadership Article
Build With Her Magazine
How doctoral research reshaped my approach to fairness, trust, transparency, and access to opportunity—and how those lessons show up in everyday leadership decisions.
Read the article“Caryn can steady a high-pressure operation and think three steps ahead. She overhauled procurement and induction workflows, reducing induction time for more than 200 critical tools from two weeks to just over 28 hours, then coached the supply chain team to replicate the approach. She does not just solve today’s problems. She builds the systems and organizational capability to prevent tomorrow’s.”
Stephen AquinoSenior Manager, 737 Supply Chain ManagementThe Boeing Company“A great leader inspires, supports, and genuinely cares about the team, and that is exactly who Caryn is. No matter how busy she was, she remained approachable and responded thoughtfully and promptly. Working with Caryn gave me confidence and made even the tougher days easier. Leaders like Caryn are hard to find.”
Christina SeztoAviation and Aerospace Professional“Caryn has a genuine commitment to collaboration. She shares ideas, listens to diverse perspectives, and contributes constructively to complex issues. She has the rare ability to balance strategic thinking with empathy, making her someone colleagues naturally respect and trust. She brings intelligence, integrity, and dedication to every leadership opportunity.”
Rob NicklaPublic Health Laboratory LeaderAssociation of Public Health Laboratories“Caryn has a strong leadership presence. She communicates with clarity, builds trust quickly, and brings people with differing perspectives to a common understanding. She creates confidence and alignment around difficult decisions and keeps discussion focused on what actually matters. She leads with conviction and perspective, which makes her especially effective in complex environments where influence matters as much as authority.”
Wendy WaiteDirector, Corporate Real Estate & Workplace Experience“Caryn brings a strong enterprise perspective to every problem she takes on. She assesses what matters most, aligns people around the right priorities, and moves organizations from ambiguity to focused action. She connects strategy, execution, and business impact in a way that few leaders do, and she brings sound judgment and a steady leadership presence to high-stakes environments.”
Ricardo LoSenior Product Manager, Ads & Marketplace Monetization“Caryn is a thoughtful, decisive leader. She brings clarity to complex situations, prioritizes well, and sees the connections across an organization that others miss. She balances big-picture thinking with practical execution, challenges assumptions constructively, and moves discussion toward action. She is a tremendous asset to any leadership team navigating growth, change, or transformation.”
Impact
The short version of what changes when I take the operation: backlogs clear, budgets get defended and spent well, and the people doing the work get an organization that supports them.
90%
Reduction
Turnaround time slashed from 25+ days down to 2 days via SLA-based prioritization and workflow redesign.
16
Sites / 1M+ Activities
Unified multi-site operations and standardized governance for enterprise-wide service reliability.
$23M+
Budget Governance
Direct management of multi-million dollar annual capital and operational funds to execute infrastructure modernization.
500+
Technical Professionals
Organizations led and developed across scientific, engineering, and technical disciplines.
Case Studies
Workflow redesign, SLA prioritization, and operating discipline produced a 90%+ improvement leadership had judged unreachable.
16 sites|1M+ activities
Standardized governance and service reliability across a complex, multi-site network and a 250+ supplier ecosystem.
$23M+ governed|$6.6M secured
Built and defended modernization investments tied to real operational demand, directing capital where throughput required it.
Experience
My career spans enterprise operations, biotechnology, regulated laboratories, public health, food manufacturing, and small-business growth. The timeline below shows the formal progression of my leadership career; the Masters Construction feature reflects a parallel family-business role that has shaped how I think about customers, reputation, growth, and accountability.
Career Timeline
Parallel Business Experience
Family-Owned Business
Masters Construction
Business Operations & Growth
A longstanding connection to the realities of building, growing, and protecting the reputation of a small family business.
Why It Matters
Masters Construction has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up around the business, helping where I could and learning early that reputation, customer trust, and follow-through are not abstract concepts. In a family business, they determine whether the next opportunity comes through the door.
My role today is focused on business operations and growth, including marketing, digital presence, lead generation, customer engagement, and relationships with contractors, suppliers, and business partners.
The environment is very different from the large, regulated organizations I lead professionally, but the operating fundamentals are remarkably similar: understand the customer, build trusted relationships, solve the problem in front of you, and deliver what you said you would.
Business Contribution
Supports growth through lead generation, market visibility, customer outreach, and identifying new opportunities for the business.
Shapes digital presence, messaging, and promotional strategy to strengthen awareness and help translate reputation into new business.
Supports customer communication and relationship-building from initial interest through project engagement, with trust and responsiveness at the center.
Maintains relationships across contractors, suppliers, and partners that help projects move efficiently and support consistent service delivery.
Leadership Foundation
Large organizations teach scale. Small businesses teach accountability. Both require trust.
Credentials
Scientific depth, leadership scholarship, and professional credentials that support disciplined operations, trusted quality systems, and continuous improvement.
Doctor of Business Administration
Organizational Leadership & Development
Advanced research focused on inclusive leadership, organizational decision-making, and the conditions that shape access to career advancement.
Master of Science
Biology
Graduate scientific training that supports leadership of complex technical, industrial, and regulated operating environments.
Bachelor of Science
Biology
Established the foundation in scientific method, analytical reasoning, evidence evaluation, and repeatable results.
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence
Advanced capability in process analysis, waste reduction, performance improvement, data-driven decision-making, and sustained operational change.
ASQ Internal Auditor
Quality Systems & Internal Auditing
Professional preparation in audit planning, objective evidence, compliance evaluation, findings, corrective action, and quality-system effectiveness.
Capabilities
A focused leadership architecture spanning enterprise operations, technical systems, quality, transformation, and people development.
Leadership Architecture
Leadership Foundation
Disciplined operations. Trusted quality systems. Strong leadership.
The foundation beneath every operating decision, transformation initiative, and team I lead.
Human
Leadership does not stop at the edge of the workplace. I give my time to animal rescue, veterans, STEM education, and access to opportunity because service, follow-through, and care for others are part of how I lead.
Volunteer Foster
Volunteer foster for Washington German Shepherd Rescue, Hidden Gem Cat Rescue, and Northwest Working Breed Rescue, providing rehabilitation, medical care, behavioral support, and placement assistance for surrendered, abandoned, and neglected animals while helping increase successful adoptions.
Grant & Merchandise Coordinator
Secured grant funding and managed merchandise operations for a nonprofit that trains and places service dogs with veterans, helping sustain and expand its programs.

Educator & Advocate
Advocates for STEM literacy so students build the skills to solve problems, evaluate evidence, and make informed decisions in an increasingly complex world.

Educator & Presenter
Supported Young Women Investigating Science and Mathematics, working with local schools to build eighth-grade girls' interest in mathematics and science careers.
Selected research and transformation programs showing how I turn inquiry into practical action—from workforce development and scientific research to measurable operational improvement.
Redesigned the operating model for high-volume enterprise operations after flow time remained above 25 days for more than six consecutive quarters. The solution replaced undifferentiated FIFO scheduling with risk- and due-date-based prioritization, reducing turnaround to approximately 2–3 days while improving responsiveness to production-critical and business-critical demand.
View full project
Project completed at Boeing
90%+
Cycle-time reduction
25+ → 2–3
Days
End-to-end flow time
90%+
Reduction
Sustained cycle-time improvement
~10K
Monthly
Operations activities supported
6+
Quarters
Baseline performance above 25 days
System Constraint
Work entered a common queue regardless of operational risk, production impact, customer need, due date, available alternatives, or business criticality. The resulting backlog delayed priority work and obscured the operations’s true capacity requirements.
Operating Intervention
The redesigned workflow prioritized work using customer due dates, operational risk, available alternatives, production impact, and business criticality—improving flow without relying on additional headcount capacity.
DMAIC Execution
The project combined customer requirements, operational data, root cause analysis, Lean waste reduction, change leadership, standard work, and ongoing performance control.
Define
Customer and business need
Defined excessive operations flow time as an enterprise constraint affecting production, quality, engineering, research, testing, and operational readiness.
Measure
Baseline performance
Established the sustained 25-plus-day baseline, evaluated workflow demand, and measured performance across a high-volume operation.
Analyze
System root cause
Identified FIFO scheduling, undifferentiated priorities, queue growth, and distorted capacity signals as primary drivers of delay.
Improve
Risk-based workflow
Replaced FIFO with prioritization based on customer need, due date, operational risk, production impact, available alternatives, and business criticality.
Control
Sustained performance
Embedded standard work, turnaround monitoring, escalation criteria, stakeholder governance, and visible performance measures into daily operations.
Enterprise Impact
Designed and executed an applied laboratory study examining how foodborne E. coli O157:H7 isolates changed their sorbitol fermentation behavior over time. The research combined culture methods, PCR characterization, controlled observation, and statistical analysis to evaluate a consequential limitation in traditional food-safety screening.
University Research
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Department of Biology
63
Wild-type isolates
Randomly selected E. coli O157:H7 isolates from confirmed-positive beef samples
3
Virulence genes
PCR characterization of eae, stx1, and stx2
3.871 days
Average fermentation
Mean time for wild-type isolates, with a standard deviation of 1.04 days
p = 0.681
Key finding
Virulence-gene presence was not significantly associated with fermentation time
Research Question
Traditional culture screening often differentiates E. coli O157:H7 by an assumed inability to ferment sorbitol within 24 hours. This study tested that assumption across wild-type isolates obtained from traditional N60 excision and IEH N60 Plus beef samples.
Evidence-Based Conclusion
Wild-type isolates fermented sorbitol in an average of 3.871 days, while the generic positive control averaged 0.281 days. The presence of the eae, stx1, and stx2 virulence genes did not significantly affect fermentation time. The findings reinforce the risk of relying on traditional sorbitol culture behavior alone to detect and differentiate pathogenic variants.
Executive Technical Value
The work demonstrates the ability to frame an applied problem, design a defensible experiment, analyze complex biological data, challenge an established assumption, and communicate implications for laboratory and food-safety decision-making.
Experimental design
Designed a controlled, time-based study using selective and differential culture media, a positive control, defined incubation conditions, and repeatable observation criteria.
Molecular microbiology
Integrated PCR-based virulence-gene characterization with culture-based phenotypic analysis of foodborne E. coli O157:H7 isolates.
Quantitative analysis
Used linear regression correlation testing to compare fermentation behavior by virulence-gene profile and against a generic E. coli control.
Operational relevance
Connected laboratory evidence to the limitations of traditional culture screening and the risk of missing sorbitol-fermenting pathogenic variants.
Research conducted with Dr. Julie Shaffer and Dr. Travis Bourret; supported by Tyson Foods Fresh Meats regional laboratory.

Doctoral Research
Capella University
Qualitative DBA research examining how leadership decisions, organizational systems, and informal practices shape access to opportunity, sponsorship, and promotion for women in biotechnology. Inclusive leadership is not a program. It is a practice.

Enterprise Learning Program
NanoString Technologies
Sponsored and program-managed an enterprise Skilljar learning platform delivering on-the-job training, lean foundations, leadership development, and onboarding, with metrics-driven iteration on program effectiveness.

Leadership Research
Capella University
Examined how leaders' beliefs about the limits of their own knowledge shape decision-making, communication, innovation, and culture, and why humility produces more adaptive organizations.

Applied Scientific Research
Tyson Foods
Evaluated incoming microbial load on carcasses and quantified the reduction capability of a multi-intervention slaughter process.
Community
I don't lead in a vacuum. These are the rooms where I trade notes with other operations and quality executives, mentor the next group coming up, and keep pressure on the standards our industry says it cares about.

Women in Manufacturing
Active Member
Global trade association advancing women in manufacturing through leadership, education, and professional networking.

Women in Bio
Sponsorships
International life sciences organization promoting leadership, career development, mentorship, and entrepreneurship.

American Society for Quality (ASQ)
Active Member & Volunteer
Global professional society advancing quality, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across industries.

K-LEADS
Council Chair
The Boeing Company leadership community focused on developing engineering leaders through mentorship, networking, and advocacy.

End Workplace Abuse
Advisory Board Member
Nonprofit organization advancing healthy, accountable workplaces through education, advocacy, and policy reform.