IRC's Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) is a unique Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Loan Fund and a subsidiary of the International Rescue Committee. CEO offers small-dollar, affordable loans primarily to low-income refugees and immigrants to help accelerate their upward economic mobility. Our loans are closely connected to related programs, like financial capability, workforce, or microenterprise development - and help participants in these programs build credit and overcome financial barriers. By offering consumer loans - including credit-building, auto, education, and immigration loan products - CEO also serves as an alternative to fringe financial service providers that are prevalent in low-income communities across the U.S.As Deputy Director, Learning & Innovation, I am currently responsible for supporting CEO's operations through technology, partnerships and training for our staff, our partners and our borrowers; I oversee data security and accuracy and manage content used in reporting and help center; and lead the charge on pilot projects/ products, exploring new tools/pathways for impactful partnerships.

As Senior Operations Manager, I led a growing team to support in a variety of loan fund operations, including, but not limited to:- Implementing and internal training of an enterprise CRM platform through Zendesk- Developing help center articles, how-to guides and other resources for our borrowers and partners.- Mapping of all data and leading the custom development projects with our loan mgmt system- Revision and codification of policies to meet the growing demand of an expanded borrower base.

As Operations Manager, i joined a small team to support in a variety of loan fund operations, including but not limited to:- Providing borrowers with high-touch customer service regarding their active loans with flexible and empathetic collection efforts.- Providing partners with hands-on training on our business processes, policies, and platforms.- Communicating with dealers and other financial institutions to close auto purchases and refinance deals - Facilitating with internal staff to develop and implement more efficient processes and procedures.- Leading the project design and operationalization of pilot programs to enhance product offerings.

Supervise a team of two business counselors and various interns.Build capacity through staff training and resource sharing.Leverage external partnerships to increase program impact.Advocate to local government for more micro-business friendly regulation.Manage caseload of dozens of entrepreneurs at any given time, with various business needs, including, but not limited to: - Access to capital - Business Plan Development - Marketing Plan Development - Tax and financial record management

The Microenterprise program supports immigrant and refugee business owners through technical assistance and small business loans in the San Diego community. As a business counselor I work with entrepreneurs to start and/or grow their small businesses, assisting in the areas of: - Business plan development - Business tax certificate/ business filing - CA Seller's permit - Industry specific licenses and permits - Industry research and trend analysis - Bookkeeping practices - Financial literacy and credit coaching - Business loan underwriting - Marketing/ advertising assistance - Logo and branding design/ referral - Online review site set-up and optimization

- Worked collaboratively with the company's academic staff to develop new content and curriculum.- Participated in promotional sales campaigns for new product offerings.- Analyzed, with staff, session quality and reported student issues in order to improve service offering.

- Facilitated English learning through an online platform.- Selectively worked through a set curriculum to best suite the needs of students on an individual basis.- Carried out 45 minute causal or classic lessons with preparation, execution, and feedback.- Challenged students in a dynamic and engaging online classroom.

- Planned, executed and evaluated 4-week curricula based on improvement in the target English language of international adult students, academically, communicatively and professionally.- Focused intensively on a variety of business courses from Business Writing and Interview Skills, to Presentational English. - Facilitated humanities courses from International Current Events to Discussion Circle. - Carried out skills based courses from Listening & Pronunciation to Public Speaking.- Developed clear communication skills in a multicultural setting to properly target specialized curricula.

- Performed 1-on-1 English language consultation. - Offered professional linguistic approaches to executives at multinational firms.- Facilitated language growth utilizing a variety of methods ranging from presentations, role-plays and case studies. - Increased vocabulary in business English terminology.

- Worked together alongside as an English language teacher for high school students in the south of Chile.- Used and added curriculum to coincide with current English language learning.- Focused on conversational and presentational aspects of learning a foreign language.- Understood the dynamics of a classroom setting in a foreign country.