Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Certification
Languages
Affiliations
Websites
Research Experience
Work Availability
Timeline
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Karla Thomas

Evanston,IL

Summary

I am a visionary, results-driven leader committed to bringing about meaningful change through strategic transformation and operational excellence. Passionate about leveraging my leadership experience to create lasting impact, I excel at guiding organizations through complex challenges, fostering collaboration, and developing innovative solutions through research and data.

Overview

21
21
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Co-Founder/Consultant

Sprint 2 Equity
Evanston, IL
12.2016 - 12.2020
  • Served as a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Consultant, delivering high-impact strategies and tailored solutions to drive organizational change and measurable results in educational and community-based organizations.
  • Applied a collaborative and data-driven approach to help organizations achieve their DEIB goals through scalable programs.
  • Designed curriculum and facilitated seminars and workshops to educate teachers, community parent groups, and organizations on institutionalized racism and systemic racial disparities, with a focus on educational institutions.

Managing Director - Global Corporate Services

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
Chicago, IL
07.2014 - 12.2016
  • Served as a Senior Consultant specializing in Process Improvement, Change Management, Supply Chain Network Analysis, and Location Strategy.
  • Conducted hands-on market research and supply chain network analyses to develop strategic solutions for complex business challenges impacting corporate location, and real estate decisions.
  • Managed complex global projects utilizing a Six Sigma Master, a statistical data-driven approach, and leveraging quantitative analysis of client global network data to drive informed decision-making.

Director of Continuous Improvement

RTC, INC.
Rolling Meadows, IL
01.2013 - 07.2014
  • Worked directly with the CFO and COO to create a Continuous Improvement Program that fostered innovation and a measurement-driven culture.
  • Designed functionally tailored continuous improvement, change management, and financial training to meet the company's global needs.
  • Identified key opportunities and championed cross-functional teams to resolve productivity, quality, and systemic issues to increase the company's EBITDA.
  • Mentored and championed 19 CPI projects using DMAIC, Lean, and Action Work Outs for an annualized benefit of $556K.
  • Activated a global 5% overrun policy and management process for 32% of our orders, resulting in an annualized sales increase of $1.8 million.

Global Project Manager

Avon Products, INC.
New York, NY
01.2010 - 01.2013
  • Led the team to design, implement, and globally train users on a $7.6 million system for Strategic New Product Development and Sourcing for 13 product categories.
  • Identify, prioritize, and track all global projects for the Supply Chain executive team.
  • Conducted over 80 interviews and eight focus groups with marketing, design, and supply chain team members, executives, and suppliers to understand the pain points in the old process, and the needs for their job functions in the new design.
  • Led a global project team to create a new global process and integrated concept-to-launch product management system.
  • Collaborated with the IT team to take the design to implementation.
  • Designed the software usage and process curriculum and managed training deployment to all four regions using a train-the-trainer model: 750 internal users and over 700 suppliers.
  • Led the change management and implementation team across EMEA, APAC, LATAM, and NA; personally trained sessions in Mexico, the Philippines, England, and Hong Kong.

Continuous Process Improvement Manager - Master Black Belt

Avon Products, INC.
Chicago, IL
12.2006 - 01.2010
  • Creator, Trainer, and Manager of the Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), and Lean Six Sigma Program.
  • Responsible for over 20 Black Belts and over 45 Green Belts across North America, Canada, and the Caribbean
  • Tracked the financial benefits of all projects conducted by the CPI team and managed on-time delivery.
  • Senior Statistical Project Manager on large-scale analysis for quantitative global and national projects.
  • Saved $465K in training costs by internally creating an industry-specific curriculum for Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt classes targeted at Avon.
  • Managed 13 Six Sigma projects as a Master Black Belt (2 years), resulting in $2.3 million in savings.
  • Led a sourcing team to gather best practices and create a standard operating procedure for the inspection of all sourced products to Avon, in preparation for the new federal regulations concerning lead in toys.
  • Delivered training in Hong Kong and China to 54 suppliers.

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

General Electric
Chicago, IL
07.2005 - 12.2006
  • Led Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing initiatives of a three-facility plant campus.
  • Trained, coached, and mentored business team members and Green Belts in the practical application of Lean tools to drive significant business impact and overall culture change.
  • Trained and mentored 14 green belt candidates through projects that achieved $424K.
  • Reduced work completion-to-invoice cycle time to three days from thirteen days.
  • Labor savings of $185K by conducting a week-long Kaizen event with the entire work team.
  • Labor savings of $150K in the Paralleling Switch Gear plant by simplifying the process, eliminating three positions.

Operations Manager/ Master Scheduler

General Electric
Chicago, IL
12.2003 - 07.2005
  • Managed the daily operation of a paralleling switchgear plant with 18 salaried employees and 120 hourly associates.
  • Directly responsible for production, maintenance, shipping, and test engineering groups, with a $3M P&L.
  • Key liaison between marketing and sales to ensure a smooth and even transfer of jobs to production.
  • Exceeded manufacturing output per sales plan.
  • $17.25 Million vs. plan of $14.72 million by creating a more cellular process and improving efficiencies.
  • Reduced average lead time by 1.2 weeks, increased productivity by 13%, and kept ship date requests by 20% through a series of process simplification efforts and three Kaizen events.
  • Reduced defects per unit opportunity by 45% by implementing an associate quality team to complete root cause analysis and implement corrective actions and by driving individual ownership

Global Strategic Sourcing Leader

General Electric
Chicago, IL
06.2002 - 12.2003
  • Responsible for six junior buyers, as well as managing all strategic sourcing moves to low-cost regions: China, India, and Mexico by category.
  • Effectively managed 17 deflation projects and managed supply risk.
  • Developed new suppliers and negotiated new pricing on our solenoid and electrical resistor purchases, generating $454K in annual deflation.
  • Conducted one-on-one negotiations with 15 medium-sized suppliers and facilitated the transition of six commodities, resulting in $92K in savings.
  • $28K annual savings in a global freight reduction initiative.

Operations Management Leadership Program

General Electric
Lewiston, ME
06.2000 - 06.2002
  • A rigorous 2-year program designed to accelerate the development of entry-level talent and produce leaders capable of meeting the operations management function's challenges.
  • The program builds leadership and functional skills through challenging rotational assignments, and world-class training.

Education

Ph.D. - Human Development and Social Policy: Additional Black Studies and Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences Certificates

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
06-2025

Master of Education - Education - Human Development and Social Policy

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
01.2024

MBA - Business & Its Social Environment, Management & Strategy, Marketing

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
06-2005

B.S. - Mechanical Engineering

University of Mississippi
University, MS
05-2000

Skills

  • Operations management
  • Strategic visioning
  • Data analysis
  • Systems implementation
  • Lean manufacturing and design
  • Agile methodology
  • Change impact analysis
  • Research proposals
  • Qualitative and quantitative research
  • Business process re-engineering
  • Productivity improvement
  • Project management

Accomplishments

  • NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship
  • AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research (Declined)
  • Chapin Hall Equity First Summer Fellowship $10K
  • David L. Clark Graduate Seminar in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
  • Political Science Research Grant - $2500
  • ARIS Scholars for Social Justice Inaugural Cohort
  • Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductee
  • Multidisciplinary Program in Educational Science - $100K 3-year Graduate Fellowship
  • Chicago Lean Start-Up Challenge Winner – Entrepreneur Award $10,000

Certification

  • Six Sigma Master Black Belt

Languages

Spanish
Limited

Affiliations

  • AERA Conference Reviewer - 2024
  • Chair - Evanston Equity and Empowerment Commission - 2021 to 2024
  • Habitat for Humanity Global Village - Trip Leader - Cambodia - 2018
  • Habitat for Humanity Global Village - Nepal - 2016

Websites

Research Experience

Graduate Researcher - Sept 2020 - Present

Dr. James Spillane - School of Education and Social Policy (NEA grant-funded research).

  • Recognizing classrooms of Black Florida educators as potential fugitive spaces in the aftermath of Florida’s unjust Stop W.O.K.E Laws, my dissertation study attempts to capture the resistance, justice-making, world-building, and communal care that resides in liminal spaces. Conducted qualitative research (interviews, observations, and ethnography) of 70 Florida Black educators and parents in the aftermath of restrictive Black educational policies.

Dr. Kihana Ross - Black Studies Department, Northwestern University

  • Conducted archival research at Shorefront Legacy Archive to understand the efforts Black Evanston residents endured between 1950 and the present in the struggle for educational justice in the District 65 and 202 school systems.
  • Conducted semi-structured interviews, oral history interviews, and focus groups to understand the experiences of Black Evanstonians, particularly surrounding the history of the closure of the historically Black school, and the community’s imagined futures of educational reparations.

Dr. Simone Ispa Landa - School of Education and Social Policy - Human Development

  • Conducted semi-structured interviews with high school students for grant-funded research on a sense of belonging in high school environments.

Dr. Nichole Pinkard (Northwestern) & Dr. Sheena Erete (Depaul) - School of Education and Social Policy - Learning Sciences

  • Assisted with a strategy for parent outreach and student recruitment for the program. Document the outreach channels, response rates, and success rates for recruitment.
  • Coordinated a focus group of community stakeholders to help better determine the needs of the parenting community, to support their kids in STEM programs.
  • Created a curriculum for STEM programming for 6th to 8th-grade Digital Divas around space. design.

Work Availability

monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Timeline

Co-Founder/Consultant

Sprint 2 Equity
12.2016 - 12.2020

Managing Director - Global Corporate Services

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
07.2014 - 12.2016

Director of Continuous Improvement

RTC, INC.
01.2013 - 07.2014

Global Project Manager

Avon Products, INC.
01.2010 - 01.2013

Continuous Process Improvement Manager - Master Black Belt

Avon Products, INC.
12.2006 - 01.2010

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

General Electric
07.2005 - 12.2006

Operations Manager/ Master Scheduler

General Electric
12.2003 - 07.2005

Global Strategic Sourcing Leader

General Electric
06.2002 - 12.2003

Operations Management Leadership Program

General Electric
06.2000 - 06.2002

Ph.D. - Human Development and Social Policy: Additional Black Studies and Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences Certificates

Northwestern University

Master of Education - Education - Human Development and Social Policy

Northwestern University

MBA - Business & Its Social Environment, Management & Strategy, Marketing

Northwestern University

B.S. - Mechanical Engineering

University of Mississippi

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