Christian R. Shepley '14 

2020 Recipient of the Graduate Of the Last Decade Award 

Christian Shepley’s time at Carroll University led him to, and prepared him for, a variety of unique opportunities. These include traveling to Lagos, Nigeria to teach a college-level Calculus & Probability course to actuarial students, playing on a prison ministry basketball team that competes against inmates in correctional institutions throughout Wisconsin, and being a featured speaker for Carroll’s Board of Trustees and President’s Advisory Council.

During Christian’s career at Carroll, he was an active student-athlete and leader. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2014 with a 4.0 GPA, earning degrees in actuarial science and business finance. He was recognized as the Actuarial Science Student of the Year, was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and volunteered as a mathematics tutor at the Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy in Milwaukee. 

Outside of the classroom, Christian was a point guard, two-year captain and three-time Academic All-Conference selection for the Pioneer Basketball Team. He helped lead the team to three consecutive Midwest Conference Tournament appearances, including an MWC Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament berth in 2012.

While at Carroll, Christian secured actuarial internships in Milwaukee with Assurant Health and Northwestern Mutual. He accepted a full-time actuarial analyst position from the latter during his senior year. At Northwestern Mutual, Christian had rotations in the Long-Term Care, Annuity Pricing and Life Insurance departments. His primary responsibilities were to help develop, price and support new products in the insurance market. 

His savvy in the field led to his recruitment to the innovative software practice, Milliman IntelliScript, in 2015. IntelliScript specializes in providing electronic data and data interpretation to insurance companies for use in underwriting. Since 2015, the practice has averaged an annual sales growth of over 30% and has grown from 30 employees to over 130.

At IntelliScript, Christian and his team focus on building predictive models and data intelligence software that use prescription histories and medical record data to assess risk. He also serves as director of IntelliScript’s actuarial student and college internship programs and is a member of the actuarial hiring committee.

Christian is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), the highest credential offered in the actuarial profession. To reach the FSA designation, actuaries must pass a grueling series of exams, assessments and classes that stretch over many years. He is also a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). Additionally, Christian is a member of various committees with the Society of Actuaries. His responsibilities include helping to write the actuarial exams and speaking to universities and high schools about the profession. 

As an alumnus, Christian remains active by participating in a variety of activities and committees. He serves on the President’s Advisory Council as well as the Pioneer Athletics Fundraising Committee. He has given several presentations for Carroll’s Actuarial Science Club and provided guidance to many prospective actuarial science students. He also participates in the annual Pioneer Golf Classic and Carroll Alumni Basketball Game and is a frequent fan at Pioneer sporting events.

The Shepley connection to Carroll University extends beyond Christian. His wife, Emily (DeNoyer) Shepley, graduated in 2014 and went on to receive her Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Carroll in 2016. Emily scored over 1,000 points for the Carroll Women’s Basketball Team and was twice named MWC First-Team All-Conference. Christian’s brother, Colin, graduated from Carroll in 2019 and was a three-year starter for the Pioneer Football Team. He is currently earning his doctorate degree in Carroll’s PT program, with anticipated graduation of 2021.