People & Operations
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Engaging employees through programming.
Recognizing success and excellence.
Allocating resources to support employees.
Designing benefits to match employee needs; understanding the difference between perks and benefits.
Asking employees what kinds of benefits would be most valuable; not assuming employees’ benefit needs.
Educating employees about available benefits; offering resources is not valuable if employees are not benefitting from them.
Anticipating employee needs across life stages and providing community-building opportunities that are inclusive.
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Managing change requires tracking the success of intended impact.
Beyond setting a roadmap and designing diversity programming: learning from unsuccessful initiatives, asking for feedback, translating failure into success, designing thoughtful surveys for actionable data.
Allocating resources to support ongoing commitment to diversity, and avoiding the virtue signaling trap.
Building mentorship programs that support promotion within the organization.
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What does technical, emotional, social, and growth-oriented learning look like?
Designing programming for different kinds of learners.
Anticipating accessibility needs and integrating accessibility as a core value.
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Dispelling the myth of the “natural leader.”
Promotion is not the same as leadership.
Overcoming the inequalities that bias leadership development.
Teaching leaders how to have difficult conversations and practice active listening.
With experience in operations and design-thinking, I create environments and cross-functional strategies that promote a high-quality workplace culture for people with specialized skillsets. Empathy and creativity drive my approach to problem solving; employee wellness and engagement; leadership development; organizational growth; diversity, equity and inclusion; knowledge transfer; organizational development; learning and development programming; and traditional human resources.
Exceptional People Ops departments are based on a holistic approach to the community of people that make up an organization. It requires considering the unique assets each person brings to their role, matching resources to growth areas, identifying opportunities to develop leadership, and the ongoing evaluation of the success of programming and employee wellness and engagement initiatives.
Work Highlights
Consult with non-profit organizations on various human capital projects.
Produce graphically sophisticated project reports.
Developed People Operations department from the ground up at recruiting technology start-up as it scaled to 100+ employees.
Oversaw all human resource functions, including compliance, payroll, benefits and perks, employment classifications, and long-term planning.
Improved processes for and ran all on/off-boardings.
Worked directly with COO, CEO, CPO, CTO, finance lead, and team Directors on cross-functional projects; managed office manager.
Coached new managers on people management and conflict resolution skills; provided counseling to employees.
Created and distributed companywide engagement/wellness survey, analyzed data for leadership team, and presented findings in an all-hands meeting; worked cross-functionally on departmental eNPI assessments.
Served as primary point of contact for legal counsel and other third-party service providers.
Freelance Consultant
2020 – Present
As a design and media consultant, my projects include website design for real estate, media, professional services, and nonprofit organizations. I am also project managing the conversion of a 1930’s chicken coop into a habitable cottage in upstate New York—as part of this, I learned a breadth of construction skills and played a critical building role in the actual conversion of the structure.
As a consultant to Pedal Point Productions, I revamped the brand of a music service provider and introduced a new media management system. I created a new website to showcase the company’s live musical performance services and re-introduce vintage branding for the orchestra.
As the Consulting Director of Nonprofit Client Strategy at multimedia company MediaPlace, I completed a project involving market research, identifying new market segment opportunities, developing a business and marketing strategy, creating email marketing campaign, and performing new business outreach.
As a graduate student intern, I conducted research on fundraising strategies for campus sustainability programs and precedent studies for chemistry lab redesigns, presented analyses to the leadership team, and consulted on an undergraduate rain garden project.
Served as sole HR/People Ops administrator overseeing workplace culture initiatives, on-/off-boarding, software training, HRIS, payroll, timecards, visa/work authorization sponsorship program, benefits, and PTO tracking.
Overhauled HR/People Ops budget, strategy, policies, and practices.
Initiated and oversaw labor law compliance audit, handbook updates, and employee reclassifications.
Identified opportunity to improve staff growth plans and increase employees’ sense of belonging by designing more inclusive performance evaluations; presented analysis of findings and recommendations to firm Principal.
Conducted research on industry-wide compensation practices; negotiated expanded benefits, market-competitive salary packages, and professional development.
Managed daily operations including supervising office assistant, bookkeeping, general office management, negotiating vendor contracts, and performing on-site IT support.
Introduced knowledge and document management protocols, including writing training guides and handbooks.
Increased operational efficiency by conducting needs assessment, launching search for new PEO, achieving buy-in from leadership, and delivering custom training to employees; designed and delivered workshops on health insurance to staff, including developing a glossary of terminology to educate employees about coverage.
Produced employee appreciation and client-facing events, including holiday party for 300+ attendees.
Performed bookkeeping, AP/AR, and client billing duties using Excel, Harvest, and QuickBooks; improved expense report process through new protocols and introducing Expensify.
Prepared financial statements and forecasts, EOY contributions to PST/DBP, AP/AR, and client billing.
Monitored project budgets against contract terms (lump sum, IPD, hourly, not-to-exceed, etc.) for multi-hundred-million-dollar projects, including the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, Brown University Performing Arts Center, private residences, and mixed-use projects.
Collaborated with Marketing/Business Development Director on RFP/RFQ packages and project contracts.
Created marketing and project materials using PowerPoint, Acrobat Pro, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.
Identified and resolved knowledge gaps in protocol documents and training guides; wrote operations manual
Oversaw operations of NY office, including coordinating HR/People Ops, accounting, operations, high-profile client meeting preparations, professional development, on-site IT troubleshooting, and annual retreat for 50+ employees
Prepared NYC office for 20% growth; on-boarded and trained staff
Promoted a stimulating, supportive, and welcoming office culture; produced annual holiday party for 100+ attendees
Built Deltek Ajera project management widgets to improve tracking of cost and labor for multi-year, multi-million projects
Education & Certification
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Ed.M. in Education Administration
With coursework in Diversity and Inclusion (Graduate School of Education), Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (Harvard Law School), Urban Planning and Public Health (Graduate School of Design/T.H. Chan School of Public Health), Leadership (Harvard Kennedy School), and Financial Resources (Harvard Kennedy School)
Brown University
B.A. History of Art and Architecture (Architectural Studies) and Education (Human Development)
Society for Human Resource Management
Certified Professional (SHRM-CP)
Skills | Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, OneDrive, Teams), Google Workspace, Harvest, Expensify, Justworks, Deltek Ajera, Workday, ADP, Greenhouse, QuickBooks, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acronis, Tableau, Slack
Volunteering
John A. Reisenbach Trailblazer Council
2020 – Present
Responsible for memorializing meetings and tracking Trailblazer Council progress for a grant-giving foundation
Created on-boarding packet for new members and authored DEI survey for board members
Brown University Female Sexuality Workshop Coordinator and Facilitator
2006 – 2010
Facilitated more 1,600 hours of workshop programs for more than 80 students
Delivered more than 400 hours of facilitator training
Managed 5 to 7 facilitators per semester
Formalized institutional memory of successes and growth opportunities
Redesigned facilitation training program and created trainer handbook
Provided training to other student groups and ran train the trainer workshops
Authored curriculum on diversity, gender, sexuality, identity, communication, privilege, and oppression
Interests | architecture, photography, stone masonry, crosswords, live classical music, training my cat to do tricks