{"id":8492,"date":"2017-11-14T15:22:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T23:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/?p=8492"},"modified":"2017-12-06T12:03:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T20:03:25","slug":"career-math-followed-philanthropy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/11\/career-math-followed-philanthropy\/","title":{"rendered":"A career in math followed by philanthropy"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was not unusual for Judy Faucett (\u201970) to be the only woman in the room. She recalls that she was the only female student among 90 students in her advanced calculus class at OSU, her first class after she transferred from the mathematics program at the University of Oregon (U of O).<\/p>\n

At Pacific Mutual Life, which she joined right after graduation, Faucett was one of the first women to be hired and complete the company\u2019s actuarial training program. She not only made an \"\"<\/a>impression for being one of the few women in her math classes and at her job, but also for her exceptional performance both academically and professionally.<\/p>\n

She received excellent grades in her calculus class as well as every other mathematics course at OSU, which made her professors and fellow classmates realize that she was \u201ca serious student of math.\u201d Faucett transferred from U of O because she wanted to study statistics and applied math.<\/p>\n

Her unwavering goal throughout her undergraduate career was to become an actuary, an idea instilled in her by a high school counselor, who told Faucett, \u201cIf you want to study math, why not become an actuary and make some money?\u201d<\/p>\n

Faucett achieved a career milestone when she passed her actuarial exams after five years at Pacific Mutual Life, which led to a fulfilling career as an actuary, and propelled her into \u00a0management and corporate operations. Faucet started her career at Pacific Mutual as an actuarial trainee and rose to the position of Vice-President over a 15-year span (1970-1985).<\/p>\n

\u201cMy courses in applied mathematics at OSU and passing the actuarial exams opened the doors to better opportunities for me,\u201d observed Faucet, who was the first person in her family to go to college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Faucett, who describes herself as hailing \u201cfrom a long line of farmers,\u201d lived in Salem with her family until she was 15, at which point they moved to Eastern Oregon, where her parents owned and operated a hardware store.<\/p>\n

Faucett\u2019s career took her quite far from her agrarian roots and into the offices of top actuarial firms in the country.<\/p>\n

After Pacific Life, she was a consulting actuary at Miliman and Roberston for a few years before joining Coopers & Lybrand (now Pricewaterhouse Coopers), where she worked as a principal and consulting actuary. Faucett retired in 2004 as a senior vice president from Equitable Life Assurance (now AXA US).<\/p>\n

While Faucett admits she faced a certain amount of gender discrimination as a woman be it in her math classes or during her early years as an actuary, she says the experiences made her more determined to succeed professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were not many women doing what I was doing in the seventies. But the negative experiences made me very stubborn and inspired me to work harder.\u201d Fortunately for Faucett, her male bosses turned out to be ahead of the times, proving to be supportive and encouraging mentors. \u201cI had the opportunity to have a great career because I had mentors and bosses who believed that if you could do the job, nothing else should matter,\u201d said Faucett.<\/p>\n

Alongside her professional achievements, Faucett also has an impressive record of service to the actuarial profession, particularly to the Society of Actuaries (SOA). She was on the SOA Education and Examination Committee, where she rose to the position of General Chair responsible for all educational syllabus and exams administered by SOA.<\/p>\n

She was a member of the SOA Board of Governors and made important contributions to the literature on market practices and ethical conduct of insurance companies toward consumers.<\/p>\n

Faucett spent her career in California, New York City and Philadelphia. After retirement, she settled near Newport, Oregon, to be close to her family. Faucet has traveled frequently all her life and she continues to make trips back East to reconnect with friends and enjoy the theaters and museums in her old haunts.<\/p>\n

Faucett\u2019s career has been defined by her versatility and her willingness to broaden her role in an organization. She moved adroitly from pricing and risk evaluation to acquiring expertise in legal issues and sales and marketing at Equitable. Faucet never missed an opportunity to learn new things and to work in different areas and projects, a trait that enabled her to acquire positions in senior management and leadership. \u201cIn actuary, it used to be that you did the same kinds of things for 40 years. But I didn\u2019t want that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faucett\u2019s career graph didn\u2019t fail to attract notice. \u201cOften a younger actuary in the company would say, \u2018I want a career path that you have.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The secret behind her professional success, Faucett says is her skill as a technical communicator, an art she wholeheartedly recommends to present day science graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that really helped me get ahead was an ability to communicate my work to non-actuaries. I am not technical in my speech,\u201d observed Faucett. She has given many talks on market conduct issues at industry events in the course of her career, and it wasn\u2019t uncommon for people to approach Faucett after her talk. \u201cThey would often say, \u2018I can\u2019t believe you are an actuary because I can understand you!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Faucett offers some unbeatable wisdom for science students. \u201cWe need to be much more inclusive in how we communicate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a student many decades earlier, Faucett relied on scholarships to attend college and graduate debt-free, and that experience has inspired her to create a difference in the lives of students who may face similar personal and financial obstacles in their path to higher education.<\/p>\n

Passionate about helping hard-working students achieve their dreams, Faucett is a longtime contributor to the Science Scholars Fund, which broadly supports science students with financial needs. She is also working with the OSU Foundation to establish a scholarship fund in the College of Science for students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

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Faucett enjoys reading the letters from scholarship recipients that eloquently testify to how the award helps them continue with their education and keep moving forward with their dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese young people are going to change the world. They are doing incredibly important things,\u201d she enthusiastically states. Her favorite letter is from a student who thanked her for making it possible for her to drop a third job to focus on academics.<\/p>\n

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An active donor for more than 40 years, Faucett has also supported a broad range of educational endeavors in the sciences and contributed to other academic resources for diverse groups of students. These include the Actuarial\/Financial Math Unrestricted Fund, the SURE Science Program, which funds summer undergraduate research opportunities, as well as\u00a0the Gretchen S. Schuette College of Science Fund, which supports and encourages students from Oregon community colleges to complete\u00a0a bachelor\u2019s degree in science at Oregon State.<\/p>\n

With Faucett\u2019s deep commitment to philanthropy, it is clear that young people aren\u2019t the only ones who are going to change the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After graduating with a degree in mathematics, Judy Faucett (B.S.’70) enjoyed a successful career as an actuary in some of the country’s top firms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[645351,641666,1168293],"tags":[648365,712347,37185,2477],"class_list":["post-8492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-and-friends","category-mt","category-student-success","tag-author-srila-nayak","tag-science-careers","tag-stem","tag-women-in-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6vHeb-2cY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11451,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2019\/06\/math-senior-finds-inspiration-from-women-mathematicians-at-osu\/","url_meta":{"origin":8492,"position":0},"title":"Math senior finds inspiration from women mathematicians at OSU","author":"nayaks","date":"June 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Inspired by her mathematics professors, Sara Tro is headed to the University of Colorado, Boulder, to pursue a Ph.D. in applied mathematics.","rel":"","context":"In "Mathematics"","block_context":{"text":"Mathematics","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/departments\/mt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5942,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/02\/struggling-math-student-nationally-recognized-teacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":8492,"position":1},"title":"From struggling math student to nationally recognized teacher","author":"nayaks","date":"February 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Mathematician Mary Beisiegel (BS \u201996) receives national award for distinguished teaching from the Mathematical Association of America.","rel":"","context":"In "Faculty and Staff"","block_context":{"text":"Faculty and Staff","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/faculty-and-staff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/02\/Mary-B-pic-700x394.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/02\/Mary-B-pic-700x394.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/02\/Mary-B-pic-700x394.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/02\/Mary-B-pic-700x394.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1899,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/07\/math-student-nabs-osus-top-graduate-teaching-assistant-award\/","url_meta":{"origin":8492,"position":2},"title":"Math student nabs top graduate teaching assistant award","author":"farrisd","date":"July 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cI can do anything. 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