Sheila Simpson Email and Phone Number

In the spirit of Christian love, the Director of Information Technology & Business Operations of FOCCUS Marriage Ministries will provide direction and leadership for FOCCUS Marriage Ministries the areas of information technology and business operations including team leadership, supervision of direct reports, web and technology solutions, and numerous business operations functions. This position must be able to assist with strategic planning, tactical action and operational decision-making in line with the mission and goals of the Archdiocese of Omaha and FOCCUS Marriage Ministries.

• Set objectives and strategies for the FOCCUS IT department• Select and implement suitable technology to streamline all internal operations and help optimize their strategic benefits• Design and customize technological systems and platforms to improve customer experience• Plan the implementation of new systems and provide guidance to FOCCUS business team• Approve purchases of technological equipment and software and establish partnerships with IT providers• Oversee the technological infrastructure (networks, databases and computer systems) in the FOCCUS organization to ensure optimal performance• Direct and organize FOCCUS IT-related projects• Monitor changes or advancements in technology to discover ways the company can gain competitive advantage• Analyze the costs, value and risks of information technology to advise management and suggest actions• Planning, implementing and overseeing all marketing and advertising campaigns• Liaising with sales and public relations team to align objectives• Growing and developing the in-house FOCCUS marketing team• Conducting marketing research and staying abreast of competitor positioning• Contribute to new business development initiatives

Plan, initiate, and manage information technology (IT) projects. Serve as liaison between business and technical aspects of projects. Plan project stages and assess business implications for each stage. Monitor progress to assure deadlines, standards, and cost targets are met.PROJECT PLANNING- Develop and update plans for web applications and IT projects including objectives, technologies, systems, schedules, funding, and staffing.- Assess current or future customer needs and priorities through communicating directly with customers, conducting surveys, or other methods.- Develop and manage work breakdown structure (WBS) of IT projects.- Establish and execute a project communication plan.- Schedule and facilitate project meetings.- Documenting current and new applications and work flow.- Developing specifications from current software and data sources.- Designing general screenshots and layout mock-ups.PERSONNEL AND RESOURCES- Select vendors or consultants to meet project needs.- Identify initial and supplemental IT project resource requirements.- Assign or coordinate the activities of project personnel.- Confer with project personnel to identify and resolve problems.- Negotiate with project stakeholders or vendors to obtain resources or materials.- Manage budgets for appropriate resource allocation.MONITORING- Monitor or track project milestones and deliverables.- Manage project execution to ensure adherence to budget, schedule, and scope.- Prepare project status reports by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing information and trends.- Analyze security of systems, network, or data.- Develop guidelines for system implementation.- Verifying that applications developed by third party developers conform to project specifications and security requirements.- Prepare analytical reports.

Opportunity Education is a non-profit foundation that provides the tools teachers in the developing world need to create quality educational experiences for their students.As Senior Project Manager I participate in the full-life cycle of projects, including strategy, requirements gathering, creation of functional documentation, management of projects, liaison with vendors, testing and release.Key Accomplishments:■ Designed & implemented public website www.opportunityeducation.com & internal website (OEAdmin) for domestic & international staff use.■ Designed & implemented V-Learning on a portable hard drive housing all of DVD lessons, Teachers Guides, supply Lists, and Videos. Implemented in 11 countries & over 1600 schools.■ Assigned to multiple special projects as needed by the CEO (Joe Ricketts).■ Designed & implemented Secondary Curriculum (Opportunity Campus) website deployed as standalone on 100 laptops to schools in Tanzania. Coordinated Vendor Bids for the laptops, imaging and shipment. ■ Manage Opportunity Tablet project plan. This project evaluated tablets & curriculum to provide on the tablets. Went to India 2012 to evaluate three tablet manufacturers. Project piloted in 10 Tanzania schools May 2013. Pilot resulted in a new project Next Generation Learning which is in testing phase in Tanzania, Bellevue, NE & Santa Rosa, CA.■ Manage all equipment and vendor relations in the office from router, network, printer/copier, computers, firewall, postage, help desk, phone, and building security.Other Responsibilities:■ Documents requirements, defines scope & objectives, and formulates systems to parallel overall business strategies.■ Oversees all aspects of projects.■ Sets deadlines, assigns responsibilities, monitors & summarizes progress of projects.■ Builds & maintains working relationships with team members, vendors, & other departments involved in the projects.■ Prepares reports for upper management regarding status of project.

■ Analyzed the manual ordering, inventory and payment processes to recommend to the Owners an automation strategy to increase productivity and reduce inefficiencies. The automation strategy was to develop a 24x7 B2C ecommerce website that would facilitate:o user security o product offering and pricing based on customer type (retail or wholesale) o online ordering with immediate credit card approvalo gift certificates and discount couponso content managemento email campaigns and management o data extracts to interface with weekly delivery route sheets, order labeling, packing lists and accounting software■ Due to the size of the company and the budget I recommended a packaged solution that consisted of a hosting company, Early Impact Product Cart Web Application, Authorize.Net for credit card processing and Constant Contact for email campaigns and management.■ This automated solution is now going on its four year supporting Moore Farms and Friends and is now fully supporting the business. It changed the customer payment method from after receiving an order to payment upon ordering and has allowed the number of orders to increase from 45 to 300 a week with no increase in staff.

■ Manage and maintain records on individual goat production, health, proper grazing/feed, breeding and kidding. Implemented and operate a goat milking facility approved by Georgia Department of Agriculture for Grade-A Milk Production and pass all monthly inspections.■ Collaborated with large successful industry organizations such as; Fort Valley University and Sweet Grass Dairy to plan and obtain a Grade-A, top of the line, Dairy Goat Herd of 40. ■ Worked directly with USDA National Resource Conservation Service to implement environmental quality practices according to USDA specifications, established forage species for livestock grazing, and constructed an electric high tensile 5 strand fence (over 5500 ft. (one strand)) to manage wildlife, livestock and people. This $80,000 project allowed me to use my liaison skills to coordinate 50 volunteers which included the media at the same time (Times-Georgian – Raising a Fence). Stayed within the • allocated budget, balanced the acquisitions, equipment and labor within the designated time frame. • Provide Dairy and Goat education to school children and community by providing demonstration, presentations and speeches on and off-site.

North America’s leading manufacturer of wire and cable used in the distribution transmission of electricity. www.southwire.comWeb Development Manager Led teams in mission-critical development projects; ensured on-time, within budget delivery. Negotiated vendor contracts with Sybase, Oracle, WebTrends, Vignette, and Seapine. Established IT policies and standards. Recruited and hired staff and 3rd-party contractors. Oversaw daily departmental operations. Conducted presentations and delivered progress reports to CIO, CEO, CFO, and key customers such as Southern Company, Duke Energy, and Home Depot.Key Accomplishments:■ Spearheaded design and implementation of company’s 1st online sales website (24x7 myqservice.com); led 10 developers and 5 contractors; administered $5M budget.■ Piloted design and implementation of company’s 1st web portal (southwire.com) by integrating key legacy systems (Mainframe, PowerBuilder, and EDI) with new web technology; leveraged Java platform to provide service to customers, employees, and contractors. ■ Established policies and standards for IIS, TomCat, Oracle, object oriented, version control, code reviews, development software, application testing, and monitoring. ■ Represented company as speaker for dinners, college tours, and technical conferences regarding website achievement.

■ Obtained business requirements and converted them into technical requirements that were then used by programmers & database analysts to build computer systems that helped run the business.■ Promoted reuse of database structures to leverage the company’s data and to increase development time and reduce costs.■ Created & maintained data models for business databases.■ Lead the Data Standardization International Project to standardize the Coca-Cola terms, meanings and uses to reduce hours and manpower necessary at month-end closing. This project was the foundation to data sharing across company organizations, projects and applications.

■ Created company wide data modeling & data analysis training program for developers and business analysts. Conducted regular training classes.■ Developed a corporate data modeling standards to ensure consistency across data analysts and to leverage the corporate data assets.■ Developed data models for customer service & customer billing systems.