American Woodmark Corporation is a $1.9B manufacturer and distributor of kitchen and bath cabinets. I serve on the Corporate Human Resources Leadership Team and support the senior leaders for manufacturing, supply chain, and distribution operations comprised of approximately 8,000 employees in the United States, Mexico, and East Asia. I also provide human resources leadership and support to the HR teams in our manufacturing plants focused on all functional areas including compensation and benefits, employee and labor relations, leadership development, training, and legal compliance. As a company, we are focused on three, five-year initiatives including growth, digital transformation, and platform design. I appreciate American Woodmark's commitment to our employees through a strong culture and high expectations for all leaders to consistently live out our CITE principles - customer satisfaction, integrity, teamwork, and excellence.American Woodmark provides an opportunity for me to use all of my HR generalist skills acquired throughout my career while applying servant leadership principles to my own team and those HR and operations team with whom I work every day.

BTD is a Tier 1 metal fabrication supplier to some of the largest and most recognizable brands in the commercial, agricultural, and mining companies around the world. I provided HR leadership to the locations in suburban Minneapolis, MN, and Peoria, IL, and oversight of the company's environmental health and safety function at all locations including the other facilities in Detroit Lakes, MN, and suburban Atlanta, GA. My HR team supported talent acquisition for multiple production expansions across all platforms. We improved our training and onboarding programs to help increase the production efficiency of those new employees. We also provided formal leadership training programs to support the development of new productions supervisors and managers given new roles to support the expanded manufacturing. I also implemented numerous safety initiatives based on the behavior-based safety model that helped drive awareness and decision-making at the production cell level which helped generate safety and ergonomic suggestions. Ultimately, these changes resulted in sustained improvements to our key safety metrics for incident rates and lost time injuries. We implemented a regimented environmental testing program to decrease operator exposure to welding fumes and made meaningful improvements to PPE systems on our paint cleaning and applications lines.

Crenlo, LLC - a Tier 1 supplier for fabricated operator cabs used in heavy construction equipment and enclosures for computer and electronic applications. I provided HR leadership to a team supporting two manufacturing plants and corporate functions including engineering, sales, IT, and finance. I served as 2nd chair negotiator in contract negotiations process that resulted in greater operational flexibility and more effectively managed costs. My team developed talent management strategies that provided growth opportunities and succession planning pathways for managerial and engineering employees. To help build company culture and improve onboarding on new employees, I implemented employee communication strategies that conveyed a full-scale employee value proposition. We implemented safety principles built upon behaviorally-based methodology that helped decrease our overall incident rate and lost time injuries through employee suggestions and ergonomic improvements.

Jostens is well-known for helping people celebrate "moments that matter" - from Super Bowl winning teams to high school seniors, and everyone in between. I provided leadership to the Minnesota-based HR operations, including a call center and manufacturing facilities. My HR team and I coordinated the talent acquisition plan for seasonal production increases by focusing on finding employees who could relate to the mission of the company and meaningfulness of the events. I served as 2nd chair negotiator in contract negotiations process that resulted in greater operational flexibility and more effectively managed costs. I worked with the operational leadership team to develop succession plans and readiness assessments for supervisors and other high-potential future leaders.  In response to the results from annual employee survey, I created facility-wide and targeted communications pieces designed to inform and motivate employees.

Manager the human resources and labor relations operations of Toro's union plants located in Windom, MN; Shakopee, MN; and Plymouth, WI. Served as 1st chair and 2nd chair negotiator in three contract negotiations that resulted greater operational flexibility and lower costs; consolidated union medical plan with company's plan. Hired and professionally developed two direct reports into manager-level positions.  Both remain key contributors within the company and have since been promoted. Worked with plant leaders to identify high potential employees and create stretch assignments and other professional development opportunities for plant expansions and succession planning. Served in a lead capacity on corporate and manufacturing facility committees to review and improve HR policies and procedures.  The results were a streamlined onboarding program and more consistent policies across all facilities.

Oversaw the human resources operations at Toro's manufacturing plant in Windom, MN. Implemented multiple programs that increased employee and management participation in plant safety function while decreasing workers’ compensation costs.  Injury rates improved over 50% during this time; lost days metrics improved by 80%. Improved employee engagement and trust within the facility by meeting regularly with employees, supervisors and managers to investigate and resolve employee complaints and concerns.   Collaborated with the plant leadership team to gain improvements in plant efficiency through consolidation of job duties, fewer union grievances and expanded use of non-union third-party providers for component parts. Coordinated rollout and communication of lean manufacturing initiatives that allowed for a 40% increase in plant standard hours due to more efficient plant layout and better support systems.

Negotiated collective bargaining agreements on behalf of the University with Teamsters, AFSCME and other labor unions. Provided human resources generalist leadership and direction to employees and leaders across the University system.

Provided human resources generalist support to employees in a large suburban public school district. Negotiated collective bargaining agreements on behalf of the district with bargaining groups represented by Education Minnesota, SEIU, and other public sector unions. Led recruiting initiatives for roles in educational administration, teaching, and all support positions. Reviewed benefits claims data and made annual recommendations to the policy board regarding medical, dental, and other benefit plans.

Coordinated the compensation plans for 500+ non-exempt and exempt employees at the headquarters offices of a global non-profit organization. Evaluated and categorized job descriptions and job families and conducted regular salary surveys to create pay grades and ranges. Presented pay plan recommendations to the executive leadership team. Also provided HR generalist support to employees regarding key HR functional areas.

My senior-year internship, focused on the development of a back-to-work program for injured employees, turned into my first "real" job after I graduated where I coordinated the University's workers' compensation program. After streamlining the injury reporting process, I worked directly with employees and supervisors to reduce injuries through work station and worksite improvements. I served on the University's safety committee and used data analysis to recommend positive changes to the standard work procedures for hourly employees. I also coordinated University's compensation and classification system for professional and administrative positions along with the tenure application process for faculty.