Kathryn Thornton Email and Phone Number

Lead a team of 20 Technical Specialists and Consultants in designing and integrating measurement systems, targets and specific initiatives in support of business strategies related to technology adoptionCultivate relationships with key stakeholders to ensure alignment with departmental/enterprise strategies

Developed the effective use of software technology within the office territory and integrate the use of new and existing software technologies into the financial advisors'​ practices by coaching, mentoring, and training on software technology productivity.

My main objective as a Technical Trainer was to help Financial Advisors effectively incorporate technology into their financial planning practice. I partnered with Advisors and their teams to create a plan with specific action steps to achieve their goals and increase efficiency in their practice through the use of technology.As Director of Training, I was responsible for creating and implementing a high-quality training and development program for all new and existing Financial Representatives and Financial Advisors. I partnered with other staff members and experienced Financial Advisors to provide industry knowledge and innovative ideas to our agency.

I helped people learn more about how a career, either as a full-time Financial Representative or as a College Financial Representative intern, can provide the rewards and opportunities of self-employment -- flexibility, having a positive impact on people’s lives and virtually unlimited earning potential.

Women in Transition is a facility that supports women with mental illness and helps them develop skillsets in the home and work environment. As an Overnight House Manager, I was responsible for medication dispensing and monitoring, documentation of significant consumer events, and providing support for ongoing consumer treatment.

I specialized in Biological Anthropology and Plio-Pleistocene Archaeology as a graduate student at UW-Madison. As a zooarchaeologist, I examined fossilized faunal remains from African archaeological assemblages dating to over one million years old. Specifically, I was involved with an international research project, The Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP). TOPPP is conducting large-scale excavations in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania–one of the premier archaeological locations in the world for scientists interested in human evolution. For the past several years I have spent my summer months traveling to Tanzania to participate TOPPP’s incredibly productive excavations. Once back in the United States, I also assisted in the analysis of a portion of the recovered fossilized material.While in Tanzania with TOPPP, I also spent time as an ethnographic field assistant living and working with a hunter/gather group, the Hadzabe (also known as the Hadza). As they engage in a hunting and gathering lifestyle, the Hadza traditionally do not grow their resources but instead hunt and gather wild animals and plants (although presently most Hadza individuals trade with local agricultural groups for a variety of resources in addition many communities obtain supplies from the Tanzanian goverment). As part of a long-time field study, I assisted in the collection of data relating to diet and hunting and butchery practices. This entailed living with the Hadza for weeks at a time in remote camps around Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.

As a teaching assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I taught Anthropology 100 (Introduction to Anthropology) for five thoroughly enjoyable semesters. This course introduces students to the theory and methodology of the three subfields within Anthropology: Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, and Cultural Anthropology (although Linguistics is often included as the fourth subfield of Anthropology, UW-Madison has a separate Linguistics Department). Within the fifteen weeks of this course, students learn about human evolution, ancient human civilizations and modern human cultural variation. The format of this course involves teaching assistants holding weekly fifty minute lectures, in-class laboratory exercises and classroom discussions. In Anthropology 100, teaching assistants work together and with the supervising staff to develop instructional material, compose assignments and exams, and determine and post student grades online.