Staff Spotlight: Teresa Bowman

Teresa Bowman’s title is Data Analyst, and she also works in Quality Assurance at Family Service Rochester. As she explains it, though, her title only begins to describe what she does each day.

Teresa serves as the system administrator for CareLogic, FSR’s electronic records system. She trains new staff, helps current staff navigate the system, and supports the day-to-day questions that come with keeping records accurate and useful. She also manages much of the organization’s non-financial reporting, including information needed for grants, internal review, program tracking, surveys, and quality assurance.

“My title is data analyst, but that doesn’t really describe what my day-to-day work looks like,” Teresa says.

Her work often sits behind the scenes, but it touches nearly every part of the organization. CareLogic is used across programs, including therapy, case management, and aging services. Teresa helps make sure the information going into the system can be used well when it comes back out. Sometimes that information is needed for funders. Sometimes it supports audits or recertifications. Sometimes it helps leadership and program staff understand what is happening across the agency.

In her Quality Assurance role, Teresa helps FSR look at its work from a broader view. That includes making sure information is being tracked, surveys are going out, reports are completed, and programs have useful information for learning and improvement. She describes quality assurance as “our opportunity to be continuously improving what we have, making sure that we’re measuring the great work that we’re already doing.”

Teresa grew up along the West Coast and calls Seattle her hometown. She attended Calvin College, now Calvin University, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she studied English and business. While an English degree might not seem like the obvious path to database work, Teresa sees a clear connection.

“I never wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be an editor,” she says. “I always wanted to help other people have better work. I always wanted to be in the background.”

For Teresa, editing and database management both involve making sure information is in the right place. That skill first showed up during a college internship with a nonprofit, where she helped manage donor fundraising software. When the organization’s system administrator left, Teresa was hired into the role. She later brought that experience to Rochester after moving here with her husband, who had accepted a job with IBM.

Teresa started at FSR in December 2014. She saw the job posting on the Minnesota nonprofits job board, looked at FSR’s website, and thought it seemed like a place where she would be a good fit. More than a decade later, she says that feeling proved right.

“I’ve never not been proud to work at Family Service Rochester,” she says.

Over the years, Teresa has seen the agency grow and change. Her own role has expanded along with it, especially as reporting needs have become more complex. She values FSR’s willingness to respond when the community needs something.

“We never shy away from an opportunity to do something to make the community better,” she says.

Teresa’s work in data and Quality Assurance helps FSR see patterns more clearly. She says data can help confirm what staff are experiencing, challenge assumptions, or show whether an issue is larger or smaller than it feels in the moment. In that way, her work supports both accountability and learning.

As she looks ahead, Teresa sees continued opportunity in programs that support parents and families, as well as the growing needs of older adults in the community. She also sees a need for FSR to keep adapting how it communicates and gathers feedback, including recognizing that many older adults are increasingly comfortable with technology.

Through it all, Teresa remains focused on helping the organization use information well, improve its work, and better serve the community.