TA & HR Consultant for Wabtec Corporation.

As the Deputy Director of Events and Programs for Hiring Our Heroes’ (HOH) Military Spouse Program (MSP), I am responsible for managing the day to day operations of more than 40 MSP events and workshops annually. This includes national hiring events and receptions, HOH Career Summit integration of military spouse programming, and military spouse workshops and symposia. In implementing these events and programs, I work closely with strategic partners, including Chambers of Commerce, businesses, and non-profit organizations, MSEEEZ working group members and HOH Corporate Fellowship Program companies to develop content and promote military spouse employment. In addition, I oversee the development, launch and growth of 20 wellness workshops integrated into HOH Career Summits in 2020.Primary responsibilities include managing and maintaining the overall budget for events, working with the HOH Communications team on all communication and marketing material, managing select partner and donor relationships, and supervising MSP event staff.

I served as Senior Manager of Career Summits, managing events internationally to connect recruiters with top military talent. These Summits offer educational panels and workshops, along with first-class Networking Receptions and Career Fairs. In my role, I worked to bridge the gap between employers and service members, veterans, and military spouses. I worked closely with both small businesses and large Fortune 500 companies, aligning recruiting efforts to target specific skillsets at installations worldwide. Conversely, I assisted military installations in targeting employers based on service member interest and demand, resulting in higher placement rates with roughly 38% of attendees receiving job offers at Career Summits.My day-to-day involved planning and executing large scale Career Summits on military installations, in which I led or supported over 55 Summits, serving thousands of job seekers and employers in the process. As part of my job, I recruited volunteers, photographers, presenters, and employers; coordinated payments and contracts; and secured catering and AV. In addition, I managed the Career Summit budget and expense tracking of over 1 million dollars annually. In 2018, I came in under budget by 52 percent for events in which I was the lead plannerI also managed and developed over 40 corporate sponsor relationships for the entire Career Summit team by coordinating involvement in 25+ Career Summits annually, ensuring adherence to MOUs and promoting their military employment initiatives/programs. As part of a comprehensive marketing strategy, I worked with public affairs offices at installations, local chambers of commerce and state/federal agencies, along with our internal communications team to create a coordinated marketing strategy via social media and paid/earned media. I assisted in the crafting of marketing materials for Career Summits including event emails, event flyers, website verbiage, and other outward facing marketing materials.

As the Manager of Operations and Partnerships for Hiring Our Heroes' Military Spouse Program, I focused on building relationships with various partners and organizations within the military spouse and corporate community. I worked to spotlight the unique and complex struggles facing military spouses seeking employment through spouse-focused career events and programs, while also building relationships with nationwide employers and encouraging them to build or grow their military spouse hiring initiatives.My primary responsibility was to coordinate spouse-centered events including hiring fairs, networking receptions, workshops, and special partnered events with organizations such as the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and companies like Aon. In 2017 I planned 17 events nationwide, ranging from intimate, smaller-scale employment workshop sessions to a Military Spouse Symposium with over 270 attendees that included White House officials, Ivanka Trump and Kellyanne Conway. Responsibilities included creating marketing and event materials, drafting and managing all event-related email communications , coordinating with military installation leadership and employment program specialists, coordinating catering and set-up with venues, and creating outreach strategies, executing them to target both military spouse job seekers and local/national employers. I was also responsible for securing event volunteers and photographers, reviewing contracts, providing After Action Reports (AARs), and speaking at events by training workshops or introducing sponsors and panelists. As part of my role, I was also responsible for managing various administrative tasks including budget tracking, managing all outward facing event registration communication, creating weekly memos and agendas for the Director of Military Spouse Programs, maintaining spouse team documents including event calendars and staffing documents, and creating event training materials and templates.

Winrock International is a recognized leader in U.S. and international development with a focus on social, agricultural and environmental issues. Winrock’s mission is to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources across the globe. As a Program Associate at Winrock, I primarily focused on the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F), recruiting and mobilizing U.S. experts to conduct agriculture-related volunteer assignments in developing nations.I recruited and mobilized over 40 experts to volunteer in Bangladesh, Senegal, Nepal, and Turkmenistan. I prepared volunteers by providing specific project goals, cross-cultural tips, safety/security briefings, health considerations, and environmental compliance information. I provided support to project manager's at the HQ as well as directors in each country by reviewing or providing feedback on scopes of work, editing various outreach or internal materials, and contributing to USAID F2F reports.In addition, I supported volunteer outreach efforts by providing content for Winrock’s social media platforms, writing articles for publications when needed, and editing/drafting blog posts for the website. I represented Winrock at domestic conferences and met with universities to recruit highly skilled volunteers for F2F assignments.When not working on F2F, I coordinated meetings and events including a staff retreat and week-long cultural exchange tour for Cuban farmers visiting America for the first time. When needed I provided assistance to the new business team by providing project-specific research for USAID proposals or reviewing and editing resumes. 

HOH's goal is to help veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses find meaningful employment through hiring fairs, digital tools, and educational programming. I began my career at HOH as the Education Programs Coordinator in 2014 and in January 2015 transitioned into the role of Manager of Education Programs. In this position I was responsible for the implementation of our robust employment skills workshop program for veterans and service members in which we trained over 30,000 job seekers. I worked with corporate sponsors, government and non-profit organizations, and individual community members to engage them in training military job seekers internationally. The HOH trainers are so thoroughly screened and the curriculum so comprehensive that the quality HOH produced is unparalleled. Over 83% of workshop attendees in 2015 agreed that he/she felt better prepared for the civilian job search process after the session. Additionally, I trained, managed and evaluated staff and created a consultant on-boarding guide that is now used across all HOH departments. In January 2016 I became the Manager of Events and Programs. Although I wore many hats, my primary duty was to assist and advise the Senior Director of Events and Programs. I worked closely with my Director to set program goals and monitor progress through data analysis and budget tracking. I worked closely with the events and education staff to ensure that the goals of my Director and HOH leadership were met and that communication among departments was streamlined and conducive to success.

As a Proctor for the US Senate Page Program, I supervised United States Senate Pages, ages 16-18 in their daily activities in Washington, DC. I planned and coordinated page program events such as dinners and field trips, provided peer mediation services for pages, monitored their mental and physical health, coordinated staff schedules, and organized and filed sensitive medical records and contracts.

I began my work for Governor Mike Beebe as the Assistant to the Director of Constituent Services. In this role I assisted during legislative session in bill signings and recording and receiving bills, attended legislative committee meetings and wrote meeting memos for the liaisons and Chief of Staff, and assisted constituents with case work issues involving numerous state agencies. As the Outreach and Events Coordinator I traveled with the Governor, briefed him on events and meetings, and spoke on his behalf at events. Additionally, I planned large-scale service projects and events, utilizing partnerships with state agencies, businesses and non-profits. In this role, I am most proud of my work on the No Kid Hungry Campaign. I met with elected officials and organizations throughout Arkansas, encouraging them to utilize the feeding programs in their communities. At the time of my departure, all but two counties had feeding sites through the No Kid Hungry initiative due to the collaborative effort of various community partners and the Governor's Office.

I interned for Senator Mark Pryor in the spring of 2010 in his Washington, DC office and in the spring of 2012 in his Little Rock office. As an intern I researched policy issues and grant proposals, attended committee hearings and meetings with business leaders, interest groups and constituents, drafted letters to constituents and answered calls/mail regarding various issues, compiled data to advise the Senator on future budget resolutions, assisted in scheduling meetings and flights for the Senator, and accepted and declined invitations. In Washington I focused on legislative issues and in Little Rock the primary focus was constituent services.

I focused primarily on scheduling as an intern for Governor Beebe. I accepted and declined invitations, drafted correspondence, and assisted the Director of Scheduling in coordinating events where the Governor would be in attendance.

At 944 Magazine I was an editorial intern and had several articles published in the Las Vegas market. I assisted editors with research, fact checking, and administrative tasks as needed.