I lead a talented team of outcome-focused Product Managers accountable for ensuring H&R Block has the digital capabilities needed to deliver best-in-class tax prep, mobile banking, and small business services to clients located anywhere in the US or abroad.Capabilities under management include client / agent collaboration portal, doc sharing between clients and tax pros, data extraction from digital images and PDFs, data import from third parties, client authentication, remote ID verification, e-signatures, and client data platform management.In this role, I partner closely with Marketing, Product, Engineering and Finance to ensure we're focusing our resources on the highest value opportunities. Shepherding strategic alignment in a large organization is a bit like ushering a bill through Congress; many players with many different perspectives and different narratives to contend with. While I love designing and building applications, my greatest strength is blending data and human experiences into stories that inspire stakeholders to align around a common interest.Once we have alignment among key stakeholders, the product teams can use their specializations to deliver high quality products.I have a passion for both client problem definition and tech solution definition. I love designing data models as much as I do E2E client experiences. The product managers, designers, and engineers I enjoy working with the most share the ability to think from the perspective of a client, engineer, and shareholder.

Enabling remote transactions by way of simple, secure digital identity management. Digital identity is a complex web of online interactions and identity evidence needed to bind those interactions to a known individual. When done well, digital identity management enables clients to engage with businesses remotely and securely, online or over the phone. When done well, it enables businesses to know their clients and build personalized experiences. When done poorly, clients struggle to interact with businesses remotely and bad actors can pose as legitimate clients -- putting sensitive data at risk. To ensure we're doing it well, I work with clients and researchers to deeply understand client goals and the obstacles standing in their way. I work with engineers, architects, attorneys and info sec experts to understand the nuances of legal and technical constraints and best practices. I work with business leaders to understand cost constraints and revenue impacts. I work with designers to design solutions that deliver value for clients while accounting for feasibility and profitability considerations. These solutions include remote signature capabilities, client ID proofing and authentication solutions, dynamic authorization solutions, and client / tax pro communications.We can do hard things if we keep moving forward; solving for one small client problem, one legal constraint, or one technical constraint at a time.

As a subject matter expert on topics of income tax, I analyzed tax legislation at the state and federal level for impact to corporate and individual taxpayers. I've served as a subject matter expert in media interviews with the New York Times, CNBC, and MSNBC as well as on expert panels with the National Council of State Legislatures on the topic of federal tax reform's impact on state income tax and with the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center on the topic of the taxation of cryptocurrency. As a subject matter expert on digital identity, I represented H&R Block on matters of customer authentication in several nationwide working groups, which included customer authentication representatives from the tax software and financial products industries as well as state and federal agencies. These working groups explored the application of digital identity thought leadership to the realities of consumer behavior and outdated regulatory regimes. The result was a good-faith effort from all involved to update regulatory frameworks to allow for responsible innovation in digital identity.As a manager, I hired those who were smarter and more credentialed than I am. I focused on building their credibility with peers, in turn building their confidence and ensuring they delivered at a high level with little oversight required.

Recipient of CALI Award for Excellence in Legal Analysis, Research and Composition.Graduated with specialization in Business Law and a primary focus in Tax Law.

Drafted pleadings and motions for supervising attorney. Researched defenses to foreclosure actions. Researched potential counterclaims, including deceptive business practice actions. Reviewed real estate contracts, promissory notes, truth-in-lending statements for non-compliance with federal and state lending laws.Reviewed written correspondence between mortgage servicers and mortgagors to determine compliance with federal and state foreclosure laws.

Analyzed Making Home Affordable policy guidelines. Partnered with municipal government officials, mortgage servicing companies, GSEs, private investors and homeowners to improve the implementation of the Making Home Affordable Modification Program.Managed a team of analysts who helped clients stay in their homes in the midst of foreclosure proceedings. By working with mortgage servicers to modify mortgages, we kept thousands of families in their homes and thousands of kids from being forced to change schools due to the inevitable relocation that follows a foreclosure.Consulted on the development of software intended to facilitate the submission of mortgage modification applications from 3rd party service providers to mortgage servicers.Planned and managed large events hosted by the City of Chicago housing counseling agencies during which we would educate homeowners on the federal modification program rules and, if they appeared to qualify, we would submit an application to the appropriate mortgage servicer.

Met with state legislators on behalf of the Kansas Organization of State Employees to advocate for KOSE-friendly policy initiatives. ·Identified and developed leaders among membership by reaching out to members, listening to their perspectives, and observing how they interacted with peers. The best leaders were the ones who had built credibility with a broad group of peers by working hard and sharing pragmatic, nuanced perspectives in the face of polarizing events.Analyzed employment contracts in context of members' needs; communicated findings to, and outlined proposals for, our team of negotiators.Wrote articles for monthly newsletter distributed to 10,000 state employees and organizers, with the goal of celebrating members' achievements -- both professional and personal.