Carolyn Dobbs works at Northrop & Johnson in Crew Services, transferring from Fairport after 2 years with the company. Carolyn entered the yachting industry at the end of 2006 after leaving her Interior Design position at Forum Studio in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned her bareboat captain license while working on her design degree after she was chosen for a design studio which began aboard a Beneteau 50’ sailing the Aegean Sea ending in a redesign of the interior space. After exploring her Architecture career for a few years, she returned to the sea. Carolyn worked onboard yachts for nearly 15 years accumulating 18 years in the industry. Pursuing viable solutions that compass the Human Factor in the maritime industry she developed a crew hiring assessment which is currently in beta stage. Recently she partnered with the University of Central- Florida (UCF) on a Crew Resiliency study aimed at researching crew burnout. Carolyn is dedicated to how the Human Factor drives the yachting industry as the soundness of it dictates much of the yachting market.
Carolyn grew up in Independence, Missouri spending 10 years in academia earning her first BS in Philosophy from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Deciding not to pursue her Juris Doctorate she returned to MU earning her BS in Environmental Design (Interior Design) and MA in Architectural Studies- Design for Confined Spaces focusing on Yacht Interiors. Carolyn was a graduate instructor at MU for 2 years and participated in housing research grants for the State.