Her Story
About Kelly
My career path has been a wonderful journey. I went to UW-Madison as a first-generation college student and really wasn't 100% certain what I wanted to do, though I knew I enjoyed psychology from high school. I initially intended to get my PhD and go down that path. While at school, I had work opportunities at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health for the pediatrics department, including some exposure to HR. Finding out that I really liked that HR work, I ended up expanding my education to include an economics degree as well as psychology, and then a business minor to kind of round things out. Before my current company, I worked for the QTI Group, a local organization in Madison that has been a full-service HR company. Working for them allowed me to get exposure to so many different nonprofits and startups and more established companies in the Madison area, throughout Wisconsin, and even a little bit beyond. That exposure so early in my career in a consultant role, developing those consulting skills early on, was really critical to furthering my career as an HR business partner. Now I work for Exact Sciences, and working for a company that is focused on eradicating cancer is beyond my most favorite accomplishment. Everyone has been touched by cancer in some way. As an HR business partner, I work with senior and executive leadership on workforce strategy, organizational design and effectiveness, and leadership decision-making, really focused on aligning our people strategies with business priorities. I've also been a fitness instructor part-time ever since I was a freshman at UW-Madison, for about 16 years now. There are two things about that that are really important to me: one is the impact on people, as people almost always leave a fitness class more happy than when they came in, and I've carried that into how I interact with people at work as well. Two, it's helped me be pretty comfortable speaking in front of groups - I've taught classes for well over 100 people in one class at a time. Outside of my career, I am an extremely proud wife and mother with the most amazing husband, little boy, and two dogs that I am so lucky to call mine.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kelly
01What do you attribute your success to?
My discipline. I grew up as a youngest child of divorced parents who worked hard, like so many parents do, and we also didn’t have the greatest financial stability. I look back at the discipline that I've had to do my best in high school, work long hours to financially support myself through college, and some of the challenging times that I've had, and I'm really proud of that and what I've accomplished. Family and friends have been so critical in cheering me on along the way. So even growing up in more of a financially challenging environment, as so many do, didn't mean that I lacked support and love in ways that deeply matter. But definitely just continuing to fight for my dreams has been key. I knew I wanted to use my skills to make a positive impact on people - period. Working for a company that is focused on eradicating cancer is beyond my most favorite accomplishment in my career. The impact that has is immeasurable.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Start before you're ready. Growth rarely happens when you feel completely, perfectly, 100% ready. It's easy to feel like you need to wait for that perfect moment, or the perfect role, or complete confidence, but I think real growth happens when you really push beyond that comfort zone. Even if you don't feel ready, try.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Ask questions! There are so many different areas that you can go into in HR, and getting into that industry, you might not even know what organizational development means or what it means to be a business partner, for example. People love answering questions, especially about what they do. So to that young woman who is considering whatever career she wants, I want you to believe in yourself and ask questions to learn more.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In HR, I think the expectations on what it means to be a business partner and how that shows up to an organization are ever-evolving. You could probably say that about a lot of different fields. I've really been fortunate to work for companies that value HR and really are committed to grow and develop talent. With the business partner role in particular, it’s so key to know what drives your business, know the talent top to bottom, know where your risk areas are, and have really strong talent and succession planning. I think that how the business partner role has evolved over time has been an opportunity, but a really exciting one to show the impact HR can have on business success.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Kindness, for sure. I think that kindness guides me both personally and professionally. I fully believe in treating people with empathy, with grace, with humanity, whoever that person is, and that professional success should absolutely never come at the expense of other people. I think the way that we treat people really defines the kind of leaders, and the kind of people that we are. And I pair kindness with integrity. I know integrity is a foundational value that's key for me too, and for me it means always doing the right thing.
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