Oswego, Illinois, United States
I earned an MBA from NIU on December 14, 2018, while applying elective courses toward an OM&IS Graduate Certificate, earned on December 15, 2016. I've been either employed by, or provided consulting services to, Westell, Tellabs, U.S. Robotics, Nokia, Abbott, Deloitte, Motorola, and Household Bank. After earning a B.S. from NIU, I was a Correspondent at The Aurora Beacon-News for 2 years. I then embarked on a 12 year technical writer career journey, winning 4 Society for Technical Communication (STC) awards along the way. I subsequently embarked on a 15 year sales career, commencing with Serv-U-Success inside Meijer for 2 years, where I increased store sales by 30 percent. I then applied sales skills in a 12-year estimating and project management role in the construction industry, managing a $750K project and eclipsing $1.3M in sales in 2008. In 2019, I became a substitute teacher for the 7th largest school district in Illinois, Oswego School District 308. In April of 2020 I began working as a relief caregiver for New Era Support Solutions. I was hired full-time in May of 2022 until May of 2023. I then worked part-time as a caregiver through CareLinx from September of 2023 until October of 2024. Nowadays I am a Dedicated Building Substitute Teacher at Traughber Middle School. Specialties: Writing, Usability, WYSIWYG layout tools, MS Office, Google Tools, DB tools, FrameMaker, Interleaf, Quicksilver, Sales, Substitute Teaching, Caregiving
Serving 1,024 students as a substitute teacher in the largest middle school in School District 308, the 7th largest school district in Illinois.
Gained valuable classroom experience as a substitute teacher at various schools within Oswego School District 308, the 7th largest school district in the State of Illinois.
Estimated commercial fire suppression and fire alarm system installation projects throughout Northern Illinois and Northwest Indiana. Responsibilities included office management, electrical and hydraulic conceptual, detailed estimating and take-offs. Worked with general contractors to complete awarded projects within their timeframe and budget. Performed continuous estimating process improvements in Microsoft Excel. Set up and maintained wireless network. Updated and added content to www.optimalfire.com and www.optimal-supply.com.
Estimated and managed large fire suppression projects of up to $300,000 in size. Worked directly with the Owner and Vice President to resolve site-specific and financial project issues. Quoted commercial fire suppression systems and fire extinguisher products to general contractors, electrical contractors, and owners for 7-year-old construction firm headquartered in Aurora, IL. Performed industrial and commercial estimating in a highly engineering-intensive environment. Responsibilities included hydraulic conceptual, detailed estimating and quality take-offs. Worked with various sub-subcontractors to perform and complete awarded projects within an estimated timeframe and pre-established budget. Automated estimating process using Microsoft Excel. Performed technical writing duties for redeveloped www.optimalfire.com company web site. Assisted with all content development and usability testing of the site. Reviewed all content for grammatical correctness and appropriateness. • Authored a complete OSHA-required company safety manual in 2011 to retain Caterpillar as largest customer
Estimated and managed commercial fire alarm system projects. Tracked and managed estimates in Microsoft Excel. • Successfully estimated and managed 3-month, $750,000, IMSA dormitory fire alarm replacement project • Brought in over $1,278,000 of new business in FY2008
Authored technical documents and web content for start-up manufacturing company. Generated web content, promotional materials, marketing materials and video production scripts. Conceptualized and authored two company newsletters. Conceptualized and authored award-winning trade show handout. • Sold over $29,000 of company product from trade show booth participation • Won STC Merit Awards for the HOTmesh Trade Show Tri-Fold and FiREX Flash company newsletter