The Lifelong Learner: Meet Carrie Sauter, Project Consultant
Many people receive their diplomas or degrees and move on from their education. They leave their institutions of learning, tuck their knowledge in a back pocket, and join a workforce characterized by stagnant processes. But for project consultant Carrie Sauter, learning and innovation are a constant part of the job.
“Every project is unique and presents its own challenges,” Carrie said. “Learning from these experiences is instrumental when working on new projects that face similar obstacles.”
Carrie’s career in project management began in 2007, when she worked as a project controls analyst in a government contracting environment at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Through her work on the NSLS II project and the BDN Portfolio project, she acquired a new set of skills that launched her passion for project management.
“There [Brookhaven] I became highly skilled in scheduling and planning, the cost estimating process, and EVMS reporting and analysis,” Carrie said. “That’s where the love started way back when. I just fell in love with the whole career,” she added with a laugh.
For more than 10 years Carrie learned to problem-solve and innovate, working on projects like NEXT and ABBIX at Brookhaven, before joining Argonne National Laboratory. At Argonne, Manny Abela served as her mentor as she sought a deeper understanding of project management.
“He provided me a tremendous amount of training in project controls,” she said. “Manny was instrumental in getting me into this field.”
After a decade in the industry, Carrie was able to accomplish her biggest career goal: becoming a consultant. Since 2017 Carrie has worked at Manta Ray Consulting, managing various projects and specifically aiding with planning, scheduling and creating new project procedures. She is currently the MRC lead on the ATLAS Phase II project.
Carrie is always looking for her next challenge, most recently taking on the lead role for the LBNL CUPID Neutrino-less Double Beta Decay Portfolio Review, but acknowledges the execution is a team effort. The ongoing support and expertise of the entire MRC team make Carrie feel empowered to learn, grow and problem-solve.
“Being with MRC, we have so many experts in so many different fields,” she said. “With any kind of challenge we receive, we have so many people we can reach out to within the team to help resolve issues.”
Being surrounded by knowledge seekers isn’t new for Carrie. A mother of four, Carrie’s children have also chosen careers centered around learning. Her eldest daughter is a microgreens specialist, her second a sonographer, her third a radiation therapist, and her son is an electrical engineer.
Outside the lab, Carrie enjoys the simple things: gardening, swimming, boating and spending time with her family. Some of her fondest memories are of times with her children and husband at their home in the Outer Banks.
Carrie’s advice to people looking to get their start in project management is simple: do the industry research and make the right connections. Once you start, you’ll be able to play an instrumental role in the success of critical projects and explore new scenarios every day.
“You are never bored,” she said with a laugh.