Dr. Sherry L. Fowler

Dr. Sherry L. Fowler
DBA Alumna Class of 2020
Professor of Practice (IT and Analytics) & Director of the Business Analytics Honors Program at NC State Poole College of Management

Background

Sherry L. Fowler, BSBA, MSCIS is a professor of practice, author, practitioner, and consultant in the fields of Information Technology and Business Analytics, with the specific goal of applying technology to solve business problems and strategically positioning companies to develop tech-related competitive opportunities. She has a varied and multi-year professional career of systems analysis, software design and development, project management, database design and development, data analysis, business process redesign, and IT consulting, working with large and small companies. She currently brings real-world discussions and solutions to the NC State University classroom, where she is a professor of practice in the areas of Information Systems Management, Software Development, and Business Analytics and the Director of the Business Analytics Honors Program for the Poole College of Management. She has research experience in spreadsheet data analysis and has authored a textbook related to that field. Her personal interests include travel, fitness, reading, volunteering, theology, watching suspense movies, and spending time with her family. Her reasons for pursuing doctoral studies was to better prepare to teach and consult in the business disciplines of IT and Business Analytics with a focus on applied technology research. 

Research Interest

Her primary research interest and desired field of study was the strategic use of information technology in business. This included the blending of software development methodologies, contemporary IT trends, data analytics and machine learning techniques, and many different types of information technology tools, all in an effort to customize solutions which add value to an organization or industry. She has a great passion for this field of study, and this interest has persisted for several years, beginning with her undergraduate studies in Business Administration and continuing during her graduate studies in Computer Information Systems. She has learned how IT can be used to distinguish companies and strategically equip them to revolutionize entire industries. Her studies and research on one IT sub-topic, spreadsheet analytics, has equipped her with content knowledge and technical experience on both operational and strategic information systems that is a strong asset to her DBA studies. After focusing the majority of her research, teaching, and consulting on the exploration of structured data and business processes, she extended her research pursuits to include business processes with unstructured data, including the ability to gain quick insights from the transformation of this data into information. Completing a terminal degree in Business with a concentration in Information Systems furthered her knowledge and expertise in this type of research and applied methods.

Dissertation

Use of Gang Member Social Media Postings to Detect Violent Crime