From F-16 operations to Caterpillar operations

Kelly Orr (MS T’00) has spent a lifetime traveling around the world. She grew up in Connecticut, but she’s traveled in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, South America, and various corners of North America.

When Orr decided to earn a master’s degree, she enrolled in the Purdue College of Technology weekend master's program to study industrial distribution. At the time, she was the only female in the program.

“When I went to Purdue, I was out of the service and already working for Caterpillar, so I had some life experience, but Purdue helped me grow as a professional and diversified my thought processes even more,” Orr says. “The case studies of various companies that we reviewed helped me see things from a different perspective. For example, we did a study on Subway and at the time I thought ‘What can I learn from a sandwich company?’ But I learned a lot about forecasting and the importance of controlling product flow.”

Orr was part of the first cohort of the Weekend Master's Program, which is now the Center for Professional Studies in Applied Research and Technology (ProSTAR). She was featured in the September/October 2013 edition of the Purdue Alumnus magazine. Read the full story.