Information technology (IT) professional and recipient of a Masters degree in Library and Information Science with a focus in knowledge management, project management and business analysis. As a business analyst, use of human and observational research to create business cases for business process redesign and operational improvements.
Education
Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS), Dominican University 2009
Coursework included: Online/Social Communication, Knowledge Management, Reference, Research, Database searching, cataloging, etc.
ALA Accredited Information Science Program
Bachelor of Arts in Marketing Management, minor in eCommerce, DePaul University 1999
Experiences
TEK Systems, Downers Grove, IL 2010 – Present
International IT Consulting Firm
Client: Argonne National Laboratory
Technical Writer
I am a consultant performing original research work for the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Since I began in April 2010, I have written more than 150 original technical papers on a variety of topics, and edited more than 100 papers written by others on my team. I also redesigned the user interface utilized to write the papers, designed the new format of the final paper, and wrote a training manual and taught a training course for 10 people in support of the new system.
- Research and author reports on a wide variety of topics and industries in support of national security.
- Redesigned and tested the existing user interface utilized by the technical writing team to create national security reports.
- Authored a new training manual in support of the research and development process.
- Designed and taught a training class for 10 users of the new system.
YMCA of the USA, Chicago, IL 2009
Nationally recognized not-for-profit
Knowledge Management Intern
I completed an internship of 120 hours in the YMCA’s Knowledge Management Center. During this internship, I completed a content audit of 110 pieces of documentation, and assigned keywords and metadata to the documents.
- Validated the structure of the organizational taxonomy for key documents used across the organization.
Valauskas & Pine, Chicago, IL 2008 – 2009
Intellectual property law firm
Document Manager
While working for the Firm, I was responsible for managing the flow of documents within the office. I also wrote outgoing client correspondence, and maintained recordation of legal documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- Improved flow of correspondence.
- Eliminated document loss.
- Found critical documentation that helped win cases.
- Sped turnaround time of outgoing correspondence.
Dominican University, River Forest, IL 2008 – 2009
Accredited liberal arts university.
University Reference Desk Librarian
While completing my Masters Degree in Library and Information Science, I staffed the university library’s Reference Desk for 12 hours per week for 12 months. I directly assisted students and members of the surrounding community in locating information on the Internet, and within library and government databases.
- Created user guides and training materials for the Library and IShare online catalogs.
Dunn Solutions Group, Skokie, IL 2007
Technology consulting firm.
Consultant, Quality Assurance
In this position I worked on two projects to improve the self service customer experience. I designed an automated workflow management system to allow citizens to request court hearings, and pay fines online. I wrote online user help guides to assist customers with their purchases of nutritional supplements.
- Designed an automated workflow management system.
- Wrote online user help guides for rollout of new client shopping website.
Discover Financial Services, LLC, Riverwoods, IL 2001 – 2006
3rd largest global credit card network.
Project Manager and Business Analyst
While at Discover Card I led 40 large-scale enterprise projects. I used various research methods including direct observation and focus groups to document challenges in the customer experience and write documentation detailing these challenges. I utilized this information to redesign the customer experience, eliminating roadblocks and increasing credit card application rates and data quality while decreasing the cost of acquiring those applications.
- Led technical and legal compliance of and creation of corporate governance documentation – taking 2K+ pages published bi-annually.
- Increased by 200% new credit card applications taken via the phone with a 30% decrease in call talk time, and a 50% increase in the data quality of applications input by customer service representatives.
Allstate Insurance Co., Northbrook, IL 1988 – 2001
Large insurance company.
Project Manager and Business Analyst
I worked directly with Allstate’s 10K field sales agents and a team of 100 customer service representatives to uncover and resolve various issues with Allstate’s insurance quoting system. Once the issues were determined, I was responsible for providing supporting documentation, and working directly with the development staff to resolve the issues and have a solution deployed.
- Managed 10 quality assurance team members, and the quality assurance cycle, beginning with initial planning through conducting tests to final defect documentation and deployment.
- Performed weekly regression, end-to-end and user acceptance testing of large-scale, mainframe, and enterprise-wide projects in an automated test environment. Average size code release per week was one (1) million lines of code.
Technology Expertise
Technical Writing:
Authored several user training manuals
Researched and authored reports on a variety of topics and industries in support of national security
Library Science:
Records and repository management (HP Quality Center, Worldox GX)
Taxonomy Development
Indexing, categorization, metadata
Development of content management guidelines, policies, processes, and procedures
Social networking, Twitter, Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds
Project Management:
Project management methodologies (Agile, Waterfall)
Business Analysis:
Process mapping software (Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Project)
Business modeling tools (Microsoft Visio, Oracle/BEA Aqualogics)
QA:
Software platforms (Windows XP/NT, MAC, Websphere, Unix, AS/400, TSO)
Testing applications software (HP Quality Center, Mercury Test Director, QTP, WinRunner)
Applications software:
Microsoft Access, Adobe Professional
Memberships, Presentations and Honors
American Library Association Emerging Leaders Program, 2009
Practicum with the Knowledge Management Center of the YMCA of the USA, 2009
Designed and presented a bibliographic instruction session for LAMP, 2009
Conducted research study examining personality types of library science students and presented the findings, 2008
Authored and presented a paper on usability testing and its application in libraries, 2008
