I am passionate about financially educating youth and educators. As the Founder and Executive Director of Financial Garden, I have developed an interactive curriculum for kindergarten - high school students and a professional development curriculum for educators. A few company highlights include being a runner up in the national Essence & Pine Sol's "Build Your Legacy" pitch competition and financially educating over 1,500 students!My current role involves me writing federal and corporate grants, leading fundraising initiatives and building strategic partnerships with school districts and youth organizations to ensure that we achieve our mission: To improve the financial health of our communities by providing financial education to both students (grades K-12) and educators with an emphasis on serving historically disadvantaged communities.

Leadership role overseeing Joint Use Revenue Operations, I supervised a team of analysts and contractors and my focus is on optimizing billing and revenue collection processes to increase cash flow. I directed efficiency improvement projects and automation initiatives to eliminate manual processes and streamline organization workflows. But beyond my main responsibilities, I improved employee engagement on my team as reflected in Gallup Engagement Surveys.My key achievements in this role include: ✓ Redesigned organizational aging report process, generating $100k monthly revenue increase.✓ Streamlined customer complaint evaluation processes through root-cause analysis and Pareto charts, decreasing issue resolution timeframes from 12 months to 60 days.✓ Repositioned maintenance billing process to have real-time insight into revenue, shortening the timeframe for distribution of key financial metrics to the leadership team.✓ Revamp maintenance billing and lattice antenna processes to increase accuracy and improve efficiency, thus achieving 60% performance goal.✓ Organize community outreach events for department employees with 90% team involvement.✓ Identified backlog revenue and in expense overcharges due to lack of contractor expense and work scope oversight.

After building expertise in the internal audit division, I was promoted to Senior Financial Analyst with the Fossil Generation department. I was tasked with identifying cost saving opportunities, particularly within the energy plant facilities. My main achievements and contributions included: ✓ Devised comprehensive plan to analyze and evaluate gaps in tracking periodic outage costs for the Fossil Generation Fleet plant facilities.✓ Introduced companywide process improvement by leading cross-functional team meetings to identify periodic outage cost tracking tool issues, guaranteeing timely and accurate resolution.✓ Implemented new training solution for cost management by designing Standard Work Instruction documents and instructional videos, guiding users to accurately track costs associated with outages. ✓ Designed and implemented new modeling tool for process optimization, earning the Lean Six-Sigma Continuous Improvement Award.

Upon joining DTE Energy, I assumed the role of financial auditor to perform independent evaluations of the organization’s operational and business controls. I also evaluated financial and information systems and recommended controls to guarantee system reliability and data integrity. One of my main responsibilities was to control deficiencies and remediation plans through communication with staff groups and prescribing timelines for change implementation. After three years, I was promoted to Senior Financial Auditor due to outstanding performance and leadership. My major accomplishments in this role included: ✓ Drafted and presented audit reports, control deficiencies and departmental outcomes relating to key metrics and budgets to Senior Management. ✓ Coached and mentored newly hired analyst team regarding auditing and project evaluation, which resulted in improved performance quality.✓ Re-designed the audit planning process by developing and implementing a Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) manual and in-person skills training for 15 employees, which led to a 5% reduction in external audit hours.✓ Developed and implemented internal controls training for all key employees, reducing controls gaps and company policy violations.✓ Increased audit program efficiency by performing trend analysis in MS Excel, which prevented a significant calculation error in a client’s 5-year forecast.

I started my accounting career at EY in their Assurance Services division, providing clients from various industries with comprehensive audit and accounting advisory services. I reviewed clients' financial statements to ensure compliance with generally accepted accounting principles and Sarbanes Oxley 404. Within two years, I earned recognition for my performance and was promoted to a Senior position on the Assurance staff.Some of my key contributions included: ✓ Designed controls framework for Wisconsin-based startup to monitor and maintain financial data and systems integrity. ✓ Identified critical controls risk for grant request process of Michigan-based foundation and introduced new controls structure, facilitating implementation of financial risk management software. ✓ Assessed and completed valuation audit for IFRS client leading to purchase of Milan Ford plant.