Mary Elizabeth Garrison, PMP, MCCT, is a professional data modeling instructor and project management practitioner with more than two decades of experience helping organizations modernize their reporting and analytics practices. As the owner of Sensible Solutions for Strategic Learning, Mary has taught thousands of professionals across industries — from small businesses to federal groups — guiding teams through the transition from Microsoft Access and Excel-based reporting into scalable Power BI models.

Mary’s background includes leading complex software implementation and analytics projects in transportation, financial services, and non-profit sectors. She brings PMI-certified discipline to every engagement, blending technical fluency with clear, practical instruction. Her specialty is helping teams understand the star schema, eliminate relational pitfalls, and build models that produce fast, reliable, and meaningful insights.

Her teaching philosophy is simple:

Once you understand the star schema, everything else in Power BI becomes dramatically easier.

A Note from Mary

The most common thing I hear after this session is: "I wish I had understood this before I started building." That is exactly why this session exists. You now have the foundation. Everything you build from here gets easier. — Mary Garrison