🚀 Smashing the Mold: Dr. Alison Burnham on Succeeding as a Woman in Automotive Tech
On this episode of the I’m A Car Chick Podcast, Shasta sits down with Dr. Alison Burnham — a powerhouse in data, technology, and automotive who’s now the CTO of AutoUnify, an automotive retail startup in Los Angeles.
They dive into Alison’s fascinating journey: from earning her PhD in mathematics and pioneering statistical process control in auto plants, to building loyalty and predictive analytics programs for massive brands across fashion, banking, sports, and ultimately automotive. Alison shares stories from her work at RepairSmith (which was acquired by AutoNation), her thoughts on what automotive can learn from other industries, and how she’s helping reshape the future of dealership operations with data-driven insights.
They also talk candidly about succeeding as a woman in a male-dominated industry, why mentorship and networking still matter, and what she hopes to see at the upcoming Women In Automotive Conference in Nashville.
👉 Learn more about Women In Automotive and register for Nashville: womeninautomotive.com
👉 Connect with Dr. Alison Burnham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonburnham/
Alison Burnham
CTO
Dr. Alison Burnham has over 30 years of experience in applying technology to a wide variety of applications including pricing, customer relationship marketing, predictive analytics, business intelligence, loyalty programs, and credit risk analysis. During that time, she has worked in a diversity of verticals across both B2B and B2C clients, including Chico’s FAS (Fashion Retail), ScoreBig (Ticketing), TD Bank, JP Morgan Chase, GE Capital, Esso, General Motors, M, Kraft, National Basketball Association and Fed Ex. She is currently CTO for AutoUnify an Automotive Retail start-up based in Los Angeles. For the six years prior to that Alison was part of the founding team of RepairSmith, a mobile repair start-up that was acquired by AutoNation in 2023. Alison has a PhD in Mathematics and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Her undergraduate and master's degrees are both from the University of Waterloo, Ontario.
