Past Experience
Strategic Planning
Developed and implemented a two year plan to establish the Personnel Security Division (PerSec) as a Best-in-Class Organization within the Personnel Security community. Established Goals and Initiatives – Optimize Personnel Security Processes Through Advanced Technology, Organizational Effectiveness, and Enhanced Customer Service. The Plan provided a mission and vision to move forward; PerSec’s processes and procedures have been benchmarked by several other agencies over the past four years.
A Principal in the design and implementation of the two year plan that transitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) into a “Customer Friendly Culture” using customer focus sessions, customer surveys, and customer communication programs. This plan enabled the USPTO to be recognized as one the top customer friendly agencies in government and through these efforts was selected as a High Performing Organization.
Authored a three year phased approach to move the Software Development Center-Washington DC to Software Development Center-Fort Harrison. The Plan involved over 2000 elements, was briefed to and approved by the Under Secretary for Finance and the US Congress, and was fully implemented within timeframe. Result centralized all US Army financial systems onto one enterprise platform providing both funding and resource savings.
Designed and captured data on staffing and funding requirements for the Software Development Center-Washington DC. The data supported the need for an infusion of dollars and was briefed to the US Congress. Results provided funding for over 500K allowing the Center to continue operation for another year.
Implemented a program to monitor and allocate space for the Defense Language Institute. The program captured data on classroom and instructor utilization around student attendance. The data captured was provided to the US Congress resulting in funding for new buildings for classroom allocation.
Benchmarking and Business Process Reengineering
Received Vice President Gore’s “Hammer Award” for introducing the benchmarking methodology across the federal government and creating a Benchmarking organization; by training more than 4,500 federal, state, and city personnel, speaking at conferences, and sponsoring/participating in studies.
Reengineered the Office of Human Capital process at the U.S. Patent and Trademark; using the benchmarking methodology as the data collecting mechanism. The study results were recognized by the Reinventing Government Office as one of the best ever written.
Reviewed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Quality Review process and streamlined it by using automation, process reconfiguration, and installing strict timeframes. These changes decreased the time from 60 days to 23 days, including the appeal process.
Reengineered the Travel submission process; impact changed the process time from four (4) weeks to five (5) days.
Reengineered the File Management Unit; implemented a new filing system, an automated reporting system, and found flaws in the automated system that reduced down time to zero. The improved Unit was able to reduce case fulfillment from three (3) days to two (2) hours.
Technology Innovation
Created the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Integrated Security Information Management System (ISIMS), which is a full end-to-end paperless security solution. ISIMS is in alignment with e-Government and the White House Clearance Reformation Team streamlining processing time from eight (8) weeks to two (2) weeks saving over 2M dollars a year in processing costs, a savings in resources reducing the requirement for personnel, and a decrease in hiring time so that eligible personnel can be put on the front line faster.
Set the “Bar” of reaching the Office of Personnel Management e-QIP goal of 100% electronic filing within a two year timeframe. The establishment of the Electronic Filing Unit for all applicants enabled the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)to fully meet this goal in processing over 20,000 non-screener and contractor applicants a year. TSA is now in full compliance of the OPM requirement and processing over 70,000 applicants electronically each year.
Transitioning 200,000 paper personnel security cases to digital medium has allowed PerSec the ability to decrease response time for requests from three (3) weeks to twenty (20) minutes. This digital case will be attached to the ISIMS case which will provide immediate access for all PerSec staff and other security professionals. This improvement has decreased costs of approximately $20 thousand dollars a year by alleviating the need to order cases from the archive facility which charges for retrieval, shipping, and refilling. (Note: The saving of response time is immeasurable.)
Redesigned the process of updating record layouts in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Electronic Filing Systems (COBOL Mainframe system) by automating the change process from “stubby pencil” to electronic uploads. This improvement changed a three to four day process to twenty (20) minutes and the error rate to zero. These changes also resulted in creating CDs for our customers so that they didn’t have to redesign/rewrite their systems in alignment to IRS form changes with a savings to them as well.
Training
Worked with course designers in creating an interactive training course that all Integrated Security Information Management System (ISIMS) users will be required to complete before receiving user rights and having access to the system. Seven different modules were designed to capture training for each user profile and over 1000 users will be processed through this training course prior to using the ISIMS system.
Authored a benchmarking workbook and created a benchmarking training course/workshop. Using these tools trained more than 4,500 federal, state, and city personnel in the “Art of Benchmarking.”
Assisted in the design of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Quality Management and Training Unit aligning the information obtained from the quality reviews into training sessions in order for common mistakes to be addressed and corrected. Training was designed to ensure that all examiners were using the same guidelines, procedures, methodologies. Common threads were developed and discussed.
Provided training
to Internal Revenue Service customers on changes impacting the forms for the
upcoming filing year. Training was provided in manuals
and also during presentations at the “IRS Road Show”. The IRS Road Show
reached out to thousands of users every year.
Prepared and provided training manuals, procedural guidelines, process workbooks
and other type of training tools for users throughout the course of the past
32 years.
Strategic Partnerships
Established the first Federal Quality Consortium Group that met quarterly to share information, lessons learned and project/program plans. This Group assisted in gathering data and providing insight to issues and problems that were being experienced. The sharing of information helped in establishing standards across federal lines and stopped others from reinventing the wheel or experiencing the same problems.
A Principal in establishing the Inter-Agency Benchmarking and Best Practices Council that provided assistance across government. This Council had over 500 active members that shared information on programs and projects. The Council sponsored three (3) conferences that featured speakers across government and private industry sharing information on benchmarking, reengineering, performance metrics, customer service, strategic planning, and issues of the day. The Council was featured in articles in the U.S., Canada, and the UK.
Established a partnership with the European and Korean Patent and Trademark Offices and hosted visits where information was provided and shared. The information was used in comparative analysis and this outstanding exchange of information assisted many with very important decisions. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) benefited from the exchange by making improvements to their processes and quality program.
Partnered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Quality Review Team that tested the IRS Electronic Filing Systems. This partnership involved providing system documentation and working together through issue resolution in order to field a quality program within a specific timeframe. The partnership allowed the Electric Filing System to meet their release date for the first time since the systems had been implemented. The partnership provided a learning experience for both offices and the culture/knowledge exchange was enhanced and a better understanding of roles and responsibilities was understood.
Communications:
Established the Personnel Security Division (PerSec) Customer Service Unit at a time when PerSec had the reputation of one of the worst Units within TSA. This Unit changed the face of PerSec by creating a central point for customers to call and get information in a timely manner. The Unit receives 200 telephone calls and 300 e-mails daily and has decreased the response time for information and assistance from 7 days to 2 business days. To date this Unit has been benchmarked by the US Postal Office, ICE, DOD, DHS, and IRS.
Designed and published Personnel Security Division (PerSec) brochures and a Home Page featuring information on PerSec’s products and services. The information educates our customers explaining the personnel security process and why it is required. Provide PerSec briefings to customers and business partners upon request.
Developed and implemented unique communication plans for the seven different Art Units within the Patent Corp in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The communication plans provided internal and external strategies ensuring that information and changes were communicated up and down the organizational chain. The communication plans were shared with other federal agencies.
Developed and implemented the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) the Employee Communication Mailbox that provided a vehicle for employees to ask questions about organizational plans, policies and procedures. The mailbox was requested by the employees and resulted in a mechanism that provided answers within two business days. Answers were sent to the requester and were also posted to the USPTO Quality Home Page for all employees to read.
Established the first U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Quality Home Page documenting; Quality News, survey results, Malcolm Baldridge initiatives, benchmarking studies/results, reengineering projects, and Units performance results. The Page was accessed by internal and external customers, other US Quality programs, as well as, those in Europe, Canada, and Korea.
Introduced and established the first Internal Conference that shared information with our own employees in a conference setting. This concept was so well received it was continued and became an annual program. This conference provided briefings on programs within the organization and gave the executive managers a platform to share information on future ideas and plans.
Organizational Performance
Designed and Implemented the Performance Balanced Scorecard for the TSA Personnel Security Division (PerSec). This new approach was implemented to provide performance metrics to PerSec supervisors, to the CSO and to TSA leadership providing not only performance information but workflow and workload information on a monthly basis. This information is used to improve the day to day performance of the organization.
A Principal in the design and implementation of a performance metric system using the Balanced Scorecard concept in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This two-tiered approach was implemented throughout the organization and used by the Administrator to manage and make decisions based on performance metrics. This system held the leadership accountable for their programs and was used by other federal agencies as a guide. Authored a Performance Guidelines Workbook for the USPTO and that was also shared with other agencies as a tool.
Participated in the Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) and implemented programs to track the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) performance. Participated in introducing the Malcolm Baldridge organizational design and assisted in implementing the process to measure the USPTO against its criteria. Implemented surveys into the USPTO culture and used the survey results to improve the organizational performance and met the expectations of the “Customer”.