In this volunteer role, I am preparing over the next year to lead Western New York's pre-eminent human resources professional organization. Presiding over an organization with a membership of more than 600 professional and student members, I will partner closely with the President over all responsibilities including Chairperson for the BNHRA Board of Directors.

In this volunteer leadership role, I monitor pending legislative, regulatory and legal changes at the federal, state and local level that may have an impact on HR management. I communicate these changes to the Buffalo HR community so that they are informed with factual information that may impact their workforce policies and practices.I also produce, edit and host a monthly podcast on Spotify, "Governing HR," that is a conversation between myself and another business or HR professional in Buffalo. We discuss upcoming regulatory changes and how to implement them.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the world's premier public engineering, design, and construction management agency. USACE is a civilian agency serving the American people, striving to provide the most effective engineering and environmental science solutions to the nation's complex problems.● Serves as the first Talent Manager for the Buffalo District, advising the Commander, Division Chiefs and branch leaders on talent acquisition strategy, progress, workforce resources, program objectives, and best practices.● Serves as the lead for talent acquisition, marketing, and outreach across all District branches, placing mission-critical roles. Partners with the Equal Employment Opportunity and Public Affairs offices to collaborate on cross-functional outreach to the community.● Develops and executes recommended and emerging talent strategies to include head hunting, succession management, development and internships. Utilizes a variety of tools including artificial intelligence, LinkedIn and Indeed recruitment platforms, and USAJobs resume database.● Implements data-gathering tools for the District to monitor and improve processes with key performance indicators and scorecards. Monitors employee hiring, onboarding and exit feedback and builds actions plans in coordination with District leadership to address patterns.

Applied Potential Solutions is not your typical HR consulting firm. We specialize in staying up to date with the latest trends and understanding what is legitimate, and what are just talking points. Combining this with our capabilities in data analytics allows us to build long lasting, meaningful HR and business solutions. Our goal is to empower organizations to achieve results by selecting the correct data-driven tools to address their needs, and showing them how to use these tools to their full potential. Our approach is rooted in the fundamental that success is driven by science, data, and expertise, which is why we go beyond traditional practices to offer innovative, tailored solutions.

● Provides expert guidance on legal and compliance matters on an interim basis.● Oversees the open enrollment process, including: HRIS setup, EDI file integration and testing with vendors, employee communication and calls to action, and post-enrollment processing and report validation.● Ad hoc resource for expert consultation on complex employee relations matters.

● Collaborated with 9 functional leaders to create and drive the people strategy across an organization of more than 1,000 employees. Managed a team of 4.● Partnered with senior leadership on an organizational design restructuring 400 employees into 3 colleges. ● Guided the succession planning process for the university at all levels of leadership. Created a structured performance review process with goals for high-potential employee career paths. This process led to immediate fills for multiple roles including on the President’s Cabinet and mid-level leaders.● Analyzed employee turnover data and collaborated with leadership to create career development and succession planning for 75+ employees in high-turnover departments. ● Planned and partnered with the finance office on the annual merit / cost of living compensation process. Researched market data, and coached all levels of leadership on consistent application and equity. ● Planned and executed the employee relations strategy across all departments, overseeing investigations. Maintained 100% "no probable cause" findings for all Division of Human Rights and EEOC complaint filings achieved by consistent and fair application of processes. ● Spearheaded change management: implemented an applicant tracking system, reducing time to fill to 36 days, and renegotiated benefits, reducing company cost by 10% and providing savings to 12% of the workforce.● Facilitated talent development programs for supervisors and the executive leadership with a participation rate of over 90%. Onboarded new Cabinet members, Deans, and other leadership.

● Lead and executed HR strategy with 18 functional leaders supporting 300+ employees at Greenpac Mill, LLC and Cascades Containerboard Packaging Niagara Falls manufacturing plants, responsible for the people strategy of a combined $382M business. Directed a team of 5.● Served as a trusted executive advisor to the Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Human Resources responsible for executing leadership and cultural changes. ● Designed talent acquisition process, building aptitude assessments into applications for front-line employees to improve hiring, boosting retention to 91% and generating $375K+ cost savings per site.● Spearheaded the United States COVID response by researching and reporting daily COVID trends to executive leadership, developing contact tracing guidelines, and recommending and implementing a compensation system for employees placed in quarantine.● Created an internship talent pipeline, partnering with major institutions including RIT and UB to attract qualified finance, accounting and engineering professionals. The pipeline filled more than 25% of salaried roles by 2021 without external recruitment cost.● Lead safety investigations, acting as first responder to all major safety events, by performing root cause analyses and implementing corrective actions. Significantly reduced OSHA recordables, with the longest injury-free period surpassing 500 days—a world-class record.● Acted as a key HR mentor for the Containerboard division tasked with onboarding all new HR Managers into the company as well as mentoring HR leaders on the compensation and performance cycle, annual budget process, monthly reporting of HR analytics, as well as HRIS and payroll system operation.● Administered high-risk cases as the designated employee relations investigator for the Northeast U.S. region.● Navigated negotiations with IAMAW District 65 to develop the first union contract at the Niagara Falls plant.

● Oversaw organizational management at Greenpac Mill, LLC, managing employee relations, investigations, talent acquisition and retention, onboarding, leadership development, performance management, succession planning (9-box facilitation), corrective action guidance and risk mitigation, while managing a team of 3.● Member of the Senior Management Team and a dedicated business partner on strategic planning initiatives, projects, and committees for a startup state-of-the-art mill.● Guided all projects and change initiatives for new HR processes and programs. Launched a new Human Resource Information System (SuccessFactors) in collaboration with HR Shared Services along with a new payroll system (Ultimate Kronos Group) to automate basic tasks and reduce the need for manual input. ● Served as the pilot for the company’s digital benefit enrollment system (PlanSource).● Coordinated employee focus groups to gather employee engagement feedback, creating action plans that boosted employee engagement scores by 12% in just 2 years: in 2020, achieved a score of 75%.● Collaborated with senior corporate and plant management to implement a career path system based on merit for salaried employees. Facilitated education on compensation ratios, job families, and improvement potential. Educated employees on the process and deployed it in the performance and compensation cycle.● Fulfilled an executive leadership request to coordinate with the Boston Consulting Group on the launch of a lean six sigma rapid shift turnover team-based culture. Over a two-year period, served as the implementation project manager responsible for rolling this change across the organization, enabling Greenpac Mill, LLC to achieve its production budget for the first time in 2020 and achieve machine capacity in 2021.

● Launched a pay-for-skills system for tradesmen employees, reviewing market rates and collaborating with managers and engineers to develop skills assessments. The implementation reduced turnover from 57% to 18%.● Headed full-service, high-volume talent acquisition across 9 locations, recruiting a variety of managerial and highly technical roles, including mill managers, automation engineers, controllers and field service.● Deployed inaugural senior leadership training. Facilitated the program in person and remotely for all North American site leadership of more than 300 participants.

● Collaborated with management on employee relations, engagement, and recognition initiatives, as well as with market managers and a 300-employee sales team.● Engineered and implemented training for M&T’s Banking Built for Business product launch.