Alumni Focus: Nancy Swartout

Education backgrounds in both science and business administration have served Nancy Swartout well during her professional career.  After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Nancy became an R&D chemist with the iconic American multinational oil and gas corporation, ExxonMobil.  Nancy held that position for 6.5 years when, in 1995, she became a procurement manager for Vulcan Materials Company, a Birmingham-based producer and distributor of construction materials.  The transition from research and development to management, or from science to business, is where the Turner College enters Nancy’s professional journey.  As it turns out, she earned an MBA from the Turner College at CSU in 1994, thus providing Nancy with a smoother path to career advancement in corporate management.  After five years with Vulcan Materials Company, she returned to ExxonMobil as a procurement manager.  Over the next 22 years, Nancy advanced through the corporate hierarchy at ExxonMobil.  She became a supplier diversity manager in 2004, and in 2009 advanced to area procurement manager for refining and chemicals.  Later, in 2013, Nancy took on the role of Procurement Planning & Reporting Manager.  She now holds the title Global Sustainable Procurement Manager, a role she began in 2016.  Nancy’s path to her current position with the sixth-largest American company is remarkable.  That the Turner College played a role in her transition from the science lab to the corporate ladder is, hopefully, inspirational to current and future Turner College students.