Grant Hauskins

From August 2021 to January 2023 I was a Sales Operations Support Specialist at TestEquity in Chicago. I was the primary client-facing point of contact delivering the Techni-Tool vendor-managed inventory (VMI) solution to six enterprise electronics manufacturers, $1.1M in annual revenue, in Infor WMS, Excel, and Salesforce. Through COVID-era supply-chain disruptions I worked with clients and operations to find alternatives and keep client fulfillment running.

I turned Excel-based sales and inventory analysis into demand-forecast insights and helped grow key-account revenue 33%, from $900K to $1.2M, and market penetration 15%. I reported demand estimates in quarterly business reviews, contributed to sales data reporting, and worked with sales, purchasing, IT, operations, and clients on the feedback loops that shaped VMI process improvements and strengthened account retention.

I am finishing a B.S. in Information and Decision Sciences with an MIS concentration at the University of Illinois Chicago, College of Business Administration, expected December 2026, with a 3.75 GPA. Coursework includes Business Statistics II, Business Database Technology (SQL), Spreadsheet Analysis (Excel/VBA), Business Objects Programming (Java), and Programming for Data Science (Python, in progress).

In November 2025 I co-founded the Information and Decision Sciences Student Organization (IDSSO) and served as its president through May 2026. We grew membership to 45+, built a seven-officer leadership team, and produced IDS inFOCUS 2026, the organization’s case competition and industry summit, followed by a spring professional development series. Since September 2025 I have also been a member of the INFORMS UIC Chapter, where I have co-hosted chapter events and conferences on data analytics and operations research. More at idssochi.org.

Honors

• Chancellor’s Student Service Leadership Award, UIC, Spring 2026
• Dean’s List, UIC (Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026) and Harold Washington College (Spring 2024)
• Samuel Weingarten Excellence in English Writing Award, Wilbur Wright College, 2025
• Presidential Scholar, Harold Washington College, Fall 2023

More on the UIC page.

I am a Program Instructor & Mentor with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. Since October 2023 I have led and mentored 100+ young adults across four cohorts through Water Works, an aquatics-focused, earn-while-you-learn workforce-development program, reaching a 95% Red Cross certification rate while keeping the program in full compliance with its standards.

I also handle the program’s data. I built an Excel analytics solution and workflows for grant writing and data collection, and I track attendance, on-time rates, and participant success KPIs by instructor and cohort in Excel and Google Sheets, and I keep participant records accurate with SQL updates. When operations launched in a lower-demand market, I designed and ran a data-driven marketing campaign that exceeded its registration goals by 25% and brought in new community partners.

In July 2026 I also designed and taught AI Decoded, a two-session AI literacy program for community members at the YMCA, sponsored by AT&T.

In July 2026 I designed and taught AI Decoded, a two-session AI literacy program for community members at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, sponsored by AT&T. The sessions ran on July 11 and July 18 for small groups of three to five people.

The program explains how AI systems produce their answers, where they go wrong, and how to check an answer before relying on it. One section covers bias: AI learns from human writing, flaws included, so “the computer said so” does not make an answer neutral.

From September 2020 to February 2021 I was a Member Service Associate at Costco Wholesale in Champaign, Illinois. I joined during the pre-opening launch phase of a new warehouse, before it opened to members.

During that launch phase I ranked as a top seller of Triple Play memberships and credit card sign-ups, and I grew sign-ups through direct, consultative conversations with members. On the operations side, I supported the warehouse launch and improved inventory accuracy through monitoring and discrepancy resolution.

• Start with the client. Know who the solution is for and what they need from it, then deliver my best work and keep improving it.
• Go and see. Data is one lens. Before I trust a number, I check it against what is actually happening (genchi genbutsu).
• Lead and pitch in. I set direction when it is my call and do the work alongside the team either way.
• Develop people. A team gets stronger when every member leaves more capable than they arrived.
• Build with AI, own the judgment. Automate the gathering and the first draft. Keep a person where the decision lives.
• Communicate in smart brevity. Bottom line first, then the why, then the detail for those who want it.

My first jobs were in the water. I lifeguarded for the Chicago Park District until 2017, then coached for the Iguanas Swim Club until 2018. Lifeguarding taught me to watch a whole system at once and act before a problem becomes an emergency. Coaching taught me to break a skill into steps someone else can practice.

Costco came next, then TestEquity, then the YMCA while I studied at Harold Washington College and UIC. The setting changed each time. The habit of watching the whole system did not.

Chicago is home. When I am not working on systems, I am usually reading, swimming, or cooking something new. I hold active American Red Cross Lifeguarding, Lifeguarding Instructor, and CPR/AED for Professional Rescuers certifications, which also qualify me to teach CPR/AED.

If you made it this far, you might enjoy typing a certain four-letter kitchen word anywhere on this site.