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Carpenter Enriches Life, Community Through UT Tyler

Dr. Rob Carpenter grew up in Tyler and graduated from Whitehouse High School. Although he took a few classes at UT Tyler after high school, he completed his undergraduate work at Parker University and went on to earn a Doctor of Chiropractic there.

Following a neuroscience fellowship, Carpenter returned to the Rose City in 1998 and began several medical clinics that were eventually bought out by a public company in 2006. This led to his transition into the investment firm arena, where his focus has mostly been on businesses in the medical space. One of the primary businesses is Advanta Analytical Laboratories, which he started in 2011 and serves as its CEO. Since then, Advanta has evolved into a robust syndromic molecular testing laboratory.

Learn more about Carpenter, how his life has been impacted by the University – and how he continues to give back in the following question and answer segment.

Describe your educational journey. . .How did you discover UT Tyler?

Around 2013, I was hiring all these “kids” with MBAs who were way smarter than me. So, I decided that I should spend some time back in the classroom and completed UT Tyler’s MBA in healthcare in 2015. I really enjoyed getting back into academia and subsequently decided to enter the Ph.D. program in Human Resource Development. I graduate this December.

My educational journey at UT Tyler is somewhat unique because my business career was already well established. For me, that was helpful because my motivation was not particularly for career advancement, but more for personal growth. That optic was really important for allowing me to gain insight from the program(s) that may not have otherwise been appreciated. Although my business background aptly served as agency for the material, I underestimated how much I really didn’t know about the scholarship. Now, I gravitate more toward theory and research then the practitioner literature — an evolution that I believe has made me a better business leader.

What do you like best about the Soules College of Business?

Specific to my pursuit is that the Ph.D. in human resource development program is within the business school. Most HRD programs are within the universities’ education department. I believe this distinction separates this program as well as this business school as evidenced by the national accolades UT Tyler’s HRD program often receives.

Who is your favorite professor, and why?

Dr. Harold Doty has a big brain, and he’s aggressive about challenging you with it. His cadence matched mine and we had some good back and forth. He was able to enlist his management acumen in a way that was uniquely received. He was always in his office with an open door to chat. You can just tell he loves to think about thinking.

I also hold a special place for Dr. Andrea Ellinger. At only a few weeks into the Ph.D. program, my son was tragically killed. Dr. Ellinger came to his funeral and showed her grace to me —someone she barely knew — outside of any institutional context.

How has UT Tyler prepared you for a successful career?

My UT Tyler education has added important layers to my development as a business leader. My personal depth and breadth have grown tremendously and engendered me to be a more rounded person and businessman. Now, I actually consider myself more of a scholar-practitioner, whereas prior to my UT Tyler experience, I was notably absent in any sense of scholarship without realizing its importance to my overall business journey.

How are you and your company working on the pandemic front lines?

Prior to the pandemic, Advanta was already genetically testing with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) platform designed to detect many viruses, bacteria and fungi species that cause human infections for various medical entities across the country. Of course, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is merely a strain of coronavirus, of which Advanta had up to that time developed genetic testing for six former strains. Thus, we were able to advance methodology to test COVID-19 fairly easily, and did so in May, when we realized this virus was going to be a long-term problem.

Since we were uniquely positioned with science and equipment, we made a commitment early on to service the local community by leveraging our operations and provided 24-hour turnaround times for all PCR COVID-19 testing. Fortunately, we’ve had long-term established relationships with the vendors that allocate the testing supplies for COVID-19, so we were lucky to be ahead of the curve there, too. Although we’ve noted some challenges along the way, since June, Advanta has performed over 150,000 PCR tests for our local entities, including the many of the municipalities in Northeastern Texas. Currently, we have the capacity to test 5,000 people per day.

How are UT Tyler students and graduates involved?

We have UT Tyler students and graduates involved at every level of our organization. Our last count was over 20. We currently employ two doctoral graduates: Dave Silberman, PhD (HRD), who serves as our chief development officer, and Kelvin Kenyoru, Pharm.D., who serves as our pharmacy specialist. Bringing a pharmacist into or organization was important in order to provide medication expertise to physicians who order PCR testing for various infections. Not only do we test for over 50 microorganisms, we also genetically test the antibiotic resistance of many these microorganisms. This can often lead to complexity when matching the appropriate medication to the microorganism causing the infection. Kelvin has been influential in collaborating with our genetic scientists and formulating action plans for doctors who order these tests.

Instrumental to the day-to-day COVID-19 testing are multiple UT Tyler graduates in chemistry and biology. These bench scientists have acted as key assets to formalizing operations for COVID-19 and ensuring Advanta delivers on its commitment. I have been amazed at the work ethic of many of these young graduates, who most times, work 12 to 16-hour days to meet the demand and fill the gaps during this pandemic.

We’ve also employed many of the UT Tyler nursing students to perform COVID-19 sample collections throughout the community. I receive constant feedback from our oversight managers and from stakeholders in the community about how professional they are. With conviction, each of them has jumped right in to help Advanta and our community. I have been extremely impressed with these students and how the nursing program at UT Tyler prepares them for the real world, even a pandemic world. 

How do you give back to the University, and why give back to UT Tyler in this way? 

Over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of having several young men and women sitting across my desk asking questions about college, business, finance and various life choices. I find myself desperate to bring value to these encounters and I direct many of them to UT Tyler.

What motivates you to stay involved?

Our organization has been blessed by the talent from UT Tyler graduates and we’ve made a commitment to give back to the University. Our company takes great pride at being a good steward of this relationship and helping to provide needed resources. Additionally, we make it a point to help many of our employees extend their education at UT Tyler by providing educational stipends to do so. I love to see these young people develop and grow, and then leave our organization for bigger and better things — that’s the reward.

What other causes/organizations do you support?

Our company, by proxy of my wife, supports the nonprofit organizations Women of Hope and For the Silent.

What advice do you have for current UT Tyler students?

These are more life mantras, not specific to school, however, aptly useful in one’s educational pursuit. I try to lead by embracing each in my daily life.

People choose to have, and people choose to have not. If you don’t have that’s your choice, it’s not for any other reason and certainly not the fault of others.

Disciplined consistency always works.

This has been said in various ways: The problem is not that you raise the bar too high and miss it; it’s that you raise the bar to low and achieve it.

Lastly, don’t be reliable only when it’s convenient. It’s easy to be reliable when it’s convenient for you; your true character is when it’s not. Be that way, and surround yourself with people who act this way.

What are your hobbies/interests?

I love my work and have never really considered it “work,” so I will call it a hobby.

 

Carpenter and his wife, Raquel, currently live in Flint with their dog, Carmella. Raquel owns and operates Luxe Med Spa in Tyler. Their sons, Colten and Caleb, work in the family business while their daughters, Hannah and Caylee, are forging their own careers in psychology and science, respectively.

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