University of Minnesota

University of Iowa

Vice President Customer Advocacy & Capabilities at Optum

Member of UHG Senior Leadership Team (SLT)
Lead multiple enterprise, customer-centric, shared services and capabilities programs to deliver improvements in experience, quality, productivity and growth for health services consumers, providers, payers and clients. P&L responsibility of over $70M and 900+ global employees as well as multiple significant capital transformation programs.

Customer Experience & Design strategy and services supporting business and product development, experience, quality, productivity and growth. Customer journeys, research, insights, journey mapping, co-creation, design, measurement and strategy. Developed an Optum Consumer Experience Strategy reporting to the Chief Consumer Officer for Optum.

Enterprise Customer Data Services team to transform and streamline services across the organization to support best-in-class services for our customers who seek increased value from interconnected experiences. Includes leadership of a company 'top 10' capital tech transformation program for customer eligibility and identity.

Enterprise Client Value services focused on demonstrating our integrated value and missional outcomes to our clients in support of customer success and growth. 

Enterprise Reporting and Analytics delivering critical customer, product and operational reporting, business intelligence and analytics.  

Quality and Variable Compensation services supporting quality and performance across Optum to deliver on our mission and promise to customers.

Optum

Vice President Customer Experience & Capabilities, Optum Enterprise Insights & Quality Services

Co-founder and Executive Sponsor for UHG Unidos, Latin ERG focused on: 
1. Employee Experience & Engagement 
2. Member & Leadership Development - Recruiting, Retention, Development, Advancement 
3. Mission & Business Impact

Executive Sponsor, Unidos UHG Latin ERG

Supported the development of Optum's first Customer Office and the establishment of enterprise client experience capabilities.

Led an Optum enterprise 'Big Bet' program to identify and improve the top client experience opportunities.

Director Customer Advocacy & Experience

brightpeak is an independent division of Thrivent Financial focused on innovation, digital solutions, and new business strategies to reach new and underserved markets. Thrivent is a Fortune 500 not-for-profit membership organization of 2M+ Christians.

Executive team member for brightpeak; create strategy, develop roadmaps, and lead teams designing digital and physical products, services, and experiences using human-centered and Agile principles. 

Chief Executive/ Product Owner of Love & Money™ programs and products; hold P&L responsibility, define KPIs, cultivate talent, and communicate mission and strategy to associates, C-suite stakeholders, and external partners. 

•	Created innovative engagement strategies and partnerships, leading to growth of Latino consumers from under 1% to 9% in 1 year. 
•	Founded new service offering, Love & Money™, to engage millennials in holistic improvement of financial wellness. Generated 1M+ engagements in 2018 and beat out established industry leaders in financial education programs for large national partnerships.
•	Designed innovative, data-driven, and behavior-based tools, digital apps, financial education programs, books, and courses, improving consumer health and wellbeing and creating new and long-term business growth opportunities for organization. 

Work Includes:
- Strategic business development
- Customer insights, research and data analysis
- Product innovation, product development and product management
- Customer Experience (CX)
- Distribution, channel growth and network and partnership development
- Marketing and communications
- P&L development and delivering on expense, revenue and KPI goals

Thrivent

Director, Strategic Development & Experience Design | Chief Executive (Product Owner): Love & Money

Directed onboarding operations for large, complex human capital management (HCM) and specialty software as a service (SaaS) solutions with major account clients in central region of US. Oversaw region of 100+ associates and leaders. Transformation office member leading business process improvement (BPI) efforts to improve tools and customer experience.

•  Drove quality/NPS, revenue and client retention goals, and business process improvement initiatives, delivering improved client experience, redesigned tools, and productivity growth.
•  Spearheaded creation of client quality centered associate development and call coaching program, resulting in top quality and service center performance. 
•  Awarded President’s Club, recognizing highest performing implementation region in country.

Vice President Implementation

Executive leader of onboarding operations for payroll and human capital management (HCM) software as a service (SaaS) solutions with small business clients in Midwest region. Oversaw ~75 associates and leaders including dotted line of offshore teams in Manila, Philippines. Headed quality/NPS, revenue and client retention goals, and business process improvement initiatives.

•  Delivered highest customer implementation quality and associate productivity nationally by creating customer-centric culture and focusing on employee development and excellent cross-organizational relationships.
•  Improved client quality and achieved exceptional KPI results by pioneering innovation of associate development and call coaching program and developing Emerging Leader Program to identify and grow associate talent. 
•  Achieved President’s Club, recognizing highest performing implementation region in country, and Superstarts, awarded to top 2 service regions nationally.
•  Recognized as 2011 ADP Small Business Services Region of the Year for highest quality.

Implementation Executive

Transformed customer experience operations and quality results leading Training and Development for 450+ associates, innovating call mentoring and coaching programs and overseeing directing Loyalty and Retention and Sales and Partner Support teams regionally.

•  Delivered highest quality scores nationally for ADP Small Business Services by creating customer-centric culture, a focus on employee development and excellent cross-departmental partnerships.

Client Relations Executive

Led client quality programs and operations through a period of organizational transformation serving Small Business clients in the Midwest region of the US. 

Responsible for;
• Training & Development – responsible for leading training and development of ~450 associates.
• Call Mentoring & Coaching Programs – created and rolled out a transformational client-centered program improving client experience.
• Client Loyalty & Retention – led strategy & innovation of client loyalty & retention programs exceeding revenue and retention goals.
• Sales & Accountant/Partner Support – led innovative regional sales & accountant (external partners) support teams.

• Delivered highest Sales & Accountant Support Quality scores in the country FY 2009.

Quality Executive

Turned around underperforming service center leading change management, transforming culture, and creating client-centered focus and developing new leaders. Drove every key metric to above standards in 1 year.Oversaw ~60 service and operations associates and leaders.

Service Center Executive

Responsible for managing and developing sales associates, delivering on sales quota results and mentoring new sales leaders.

• Awarded Regional Sales Manager of the year - fiscal year 2005.
• Achieved President’s Club, recognizing the top 10% of sales managers nationally and Superstarts, awarded to the top four managers nationally.

Sales Manager

Trained & developed new sales associates in the Minneapolis, Iowa & St. Louis regions.

Sales Training Manager

Business to business sales of business process outsourcing in software as a service (SaaS) for Payroll and Human Capital Management solutions.

• Achieved President’s Club, recognizing the top 10% of sales associates nationally.

District Sales Manager

The General College was designed to serve under-prepared students with special attention to areas of developmental and multicultural education.

Counselor/ advocate for approximately 85 first year students in a diverse developmental college at the University of MN with an emphasis on first-generation and/or low income students. 

Provided weekly career development assessments, as well as presentations on personal assessments and career development issues.

Advisor/ Counselor - General College

HACER is a non-profit working with Latino communities to generate and disseminate credible and relevant research in order to inform institutional decisions and public policy.

Managed qualitative and quantitative research & advocacy projects, grants & budgets related to the Latino/a community in the Midwest. Supervised project staff, facilitated focus groups and interviews, analyzed data and wrote research findings and presentations.

• 2001 APA Conference presentation “Hispanic Community Development in Rural Midwest: Thriving despite barriers” – Dr. Deborah Bushway & Rafael Robert.
• Samples of publications such as “The Vitality of Latino Communities in Rural Minnesota”, “Disparities in Health Access: Voices from Minnesota’s Latino community” and “Taking Action Against Secondhand Smoke” can be found at www.hacer-mn.org/publications.

HACER (Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment Through Research)

Research Development Program Manager

Health Care for the Homeless is a non-profit increasing access to health care by bringing services to convenient locations.

Lead coordinator for social services to ensure client psychosocial needs were met at various shelters and clinics for homeless or abused families. 

Assessed children and their families to determine eligibility for mental health programs and psychological service.

Facilitated weekly support groups at battered women’s shelters.