HRER 417 - Managing and Motivating Employees - Adjunct Professor for Fall 2021 Semester - Part of Baumhart Scholars Program

Leads organizational change and improvement programs for private companies as a manager working within Deloitte’s Organization Transformation practice based in Chicago. Leads Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) initiatives in house and for clients. Conducts business analysis and develops strategic programs and processes to achieve each client’s desired solutions. Supports stakeholders and teams through training and changes. Assigned primarily to the Power & Utilities, Manufacturing, and Consumer Products industries, but has led projects in other industries.Notable Contributions: • Maintains a full schedule of assignments due to a history of strong client relationships and successfully delivering on project commitments.• Attracts top team members from the pool of Deloitte consultants because of a strong reputation of team leadership on challenging assignments. • Frequently requested to work across industries due to an extensive range of skills and experience. • Selected to participate in Deloitte’s Cloud Institute to expand organizational transformation skills in cloud strategy. Key clients have been domestic and international organizations, including utility companies, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, agricultural conglomerates, consumer product businesses, financial corporations, accounting firms, and businesses attempting post-merger M&A integrations. Many clients have been Fortune 500 companies. Project types have included D&I assessment and strategy, global organization design, IT solutions & implementations, M&A integration management, training, process and procedural changes, project portfolios, change management, organizational structural improvements, communication programs, performance re-designs, employee engagement initiatives, and more. Most projects take between 3 to 12 months.

Promoted to establish a more proactive customer-centric strategy by transforming the HR department to serve more as the heart of the organization. Drove the support of CTA’s core values and cultural changes toward high performance and accountability. Managed a team of 50 employees across the core units of Talent Management, Compensation and Benefits, and Employee Engagement. Responsible for a budget that grew to $8 million in 2015. Directed the hiring process for 100+ new employees each month across 17 bargained unions. Managed the benefits presentations across 20 CTA locations. Notable Contributions: • Increased departmental efficiency by analyzing roles and streamlining the Talent Management department. • Attracted higher quality candidates by utilizing LinkedIn for sourcing talent. • Reduced workers’ compensation injuries by establishing new pre-hire requirements simulating real-life job scenarios to ensure candidates could actually meet the physical demands of the positions.• Improved planning for upcoming key vacancies and hard-to-fill roles by providing input to the budget planning process, including data analytics and workforce planning programs. • Cut redundancy for a potential cost saving of $13 million annually by leading a staffing reorganization. • Created a feedback process to generate performance discussions between non-bargained employees and managers.• Appointed as Trustee to CTA’s retirement plan and health care trust with combined net assets of over $2 billion.

Hired to enhance and enforce CTA’s commitment to diversity, equal opportunity, and a workplace free of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Responsible for company compliance with all federal and state regulations and statutes related to Supplier Diversity, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), American with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)/Affirmative Action (Title VII). Managed a team of 15+ employees.Notable Contributions: • Created the DBE Program Goal methodology used for CTA’s submission to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for Fiscal Years 2013 through 2015.• Presented CTA’s diversity strategy at conferences, workshops, and forums, sharing our best practices as an example to other businesses.

Program Manager responsible for leading the University’s effort to comply with State of Illinois’ Business Enterprise of Minorities, Females, and Persons with Disabilities Act (MAFBE). • Managed the project implementation of the University of Illinois supplier diversity program with an annual expenditure goal of 20% per year of State of Illinois appropriated dollars.• Created strategic plan and marketing materials to highlight recent University accomplishments and future goals to promote the Supplier Diversity Program.• Participated and presented at diverse affinity networks conferences and panels to share best practices for establishing and maintaining purchasing contracts with public agencies.

Program Manager for The Contract Compliance Division, which is the back office of the Supplier Diversity Program whose mission is to enforce City of Chicago contract goals and Supplier Diversity regulations by implementing policies and practices, which protect small business and encourage a diverse workforce. • Led a centralization initiative to transfer over 1,600 active city contracts from a paper process to an e-solution.• Saved the City of Chicago over $1.6M in overpayments from Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Chicago Residency Ordinance (CRO) compliance audits, an increase of over 85% compared to 2009 audit totals.

Leader of finance project teams consisting of 10 to 20 professionals, responsible for coordinating the issuance of IHDA’s debt obligations including municipal bonds, notes, loans, and participation certificates from the conceptual state to closing. •Managed project teams in issuing over $440M in tax-exempt bonds, including completing nine Multifamily Developments and creating over $800K in revenue since March 2007. •Established and maintained business relationships with various bond counsels, investment bankers, and trustees to discuss the structure, financial cost, and ways to mitigate risk of issuing housing bonds.•Participated in several conferences to present the Capital Fund Financing Program to Public Housing Authorities. Secured over $20M in commitments from those Housing Authorities.•Initiated analysis of adding Target Date funds to the retirement plans, including researching and preparing a presentation for the Retirement Planning Committee. •Presented monthly finance resolutions during IHDA’s Finance Committee and Board Meetings to IHDA’s Board of Directors informing the board of financial projects and petition authorization to issue debt.

Relationship Manager for the largest faith based pension fund (403(b) plan) in the United States. Provided a high level of service as the point of contact by phone, email, and fax with 16 Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit Plan Sponsors with assets which ranged in size from $10M to $40M and a combined pool of over 10,000 participants. •Integral part of the team that secured the first non-plan sponsor investment client. The client transferred assets totaling over $21M to the General Board of Pension.•Established role as project SME for SunGard Omni Plus, Compass and other software’s including writing test plans/cases/scripts and documenting acceptance test results.•Represented GBOP in face-to-face client interactions to review defined benefit and defined contribution plans documents, SunGard products, and to resolve difficult situations.•Maintained 90% customer satisfaction reviews from plan sponsors for three consecutive years (2004 to 2006).

Lead analyst on the International Paper Team, responsible for responding to all hourly non-union defined benefit pension requests (estimates and retirement packages), with a population of approximately 25,000 participants. •Project leader over 3 analysts on special check requests. •Served as a point of contact for State Street Banking Solutions and adjusted pension systems to ensure check delivery. •Mentored newly hired employees to provide them with an understanding of the different roles and responsibilities they can expect as an employee of Towers Perrin.

As the team’s subject matter expert on special calculations, led a team of 6 analysts responsible for performing Defined Benefit calculations in excel including non-qualified plan (SERP Plan), Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO), and prior plans, that were exceptions and could not be calculated by the PenStar administration system.• Life Benefits Team Leader (pension) responsible for calculating and setting up payments for surviving spouses and beneficiaries.• Reduced average delivery for pension calculations from 30 days to 14 days.