Her Story
About Erica
Erica Cooley is a procurement and supply chain professional. She currently works as a Buyer at Packsize in the procurement department, where her responsibilities include writing and tracking purchase orders, speaking with suppliers and vendors to ensure on-time delivery, and collaborating with management and R&D teams. Prior to this, she served as Operations Support at Horner Industrial Group for two years, assisting with inventory management, writing purchase orders for office supplies and motors, ordering parts, and analyzing processes to find better vendors. She also worked as Quality Coordinator at Rivian Automotive, where she helped create the position and developed standard operating procedures to standardize processes across locations. Erica holds an associate degree in business administration from JCTCS and is pursuing supply chain demand management studies at WGU. Her main area of expertise is supply chain development.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Erica
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I had a manager who was very hard on me at one time, and at first, I was a little bit caught off guard by it, but she really taught me how to push myself and not to give up. And sometimes when things are looking down, just stay positive and keep rolling with the punches, because at the end, it's just making you a better person.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just get all the experience you can in every department, because you never know where you'll need it somewhere else. Even if it's just a small test, put all you have towards it, and just keep pushing forward. Don't give up.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges include increase in price and tariff fees. Trying to get everyone on the same page as far as vendors and suppliers, knowing what the right price is to set, and making sure that people aren't trying to get over on you. Doing research and making sure everything is correct is really important right now because of all the change in the economy.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Faith - I couldn't do anything without God. Keeping your morals no matter where you're at to make sure that you're in a good culture and don't ever settle for somewhere you're not comfortable at. It's very important to be comfortable and happy where you're at as well.
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