As it was for everyone, the pandemic was a difficult time for the Association from a business perspective. The restaurant industry was particularly hard-hit by stay-in-place orders and the measures required to protect public health.

However, it was also a moment that fomented a strong sense of purpose and pride in the organization for which I work. I'm not sure what amazed me more, the speed with which our broader team learned how to successfully adjust to remote work or the determination by Association leadership to pivot to a mission focus in the face of an assured revenue drop.

For me, it gave me the opportunity to take on a new project inspired by the needs of industry workers during a dire time: Strategizing and building a low-cost subscription service that could provide virtual health care access and resources for saving money and managing household finances. It was an opportunity to work outside the bounds of the Association's core business on a completely new business model that was not only forward-looking and opportunity to create a recurring revenue stream, but it also fit the mission of supporting the industry in a way that was fulfilling and encouraging.

That project absorbed much of my focus in 2021, giving me an opportunity to flex my business development muscles and demonstrate my strategic skill and competency to executive leadership. And it likely played no small part in my being offered a promotion as part of a divisional reorganization that took me from a role where I was focused on launching new products and business to one that is responsible for the product portfolio driving the bulk of the revenue from the Association's core business: Food safety training and certification.

My team and I are not only focusing on the product life cycle strategy for the products comprising the portfolio, but also managing its migration from a decade-plus-old technology stack to the Association's new "transformation" technology platform. All of this while adjusting and adapting our way of working to rethink our business processes as part of the change management underway with the reorganization.

It's a lot, but it's exciting. I am always at my professional happiest when tackling new challenges, so this continues to be an enjoyable and fulfilling ride.

After spending several years in roles with a development-heavy product management focus, I leapt at an opportunity to delve back into my Marketing roots for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) as Director of Marketing, Technical Solutions.

My role and the Technical Solutions team I managed were completely new within the HMH Marketing team. I relished the opportunity to direct a team of 4 full-time Marketing professionals. And the culture at HMH provided an opportunity to work cross-functionally to more effectively communicate the overall product strategy internally while ensuring customers understood the capabilities of our platforms and interoperability options. 

The Technical Solutions team was responsible for digital initiatives, including technical services, partnerships and alliances, website support, and renewals.

Taking direct responsibility for the platform marketing and communications strategies, I drove the go-to-market strategy for the launch of the next-generation HMH online learning system. New HMH programs in Social Studies and Science with a $45M revenue target are being deployed on the new system.

My team also developed and executed the website and email campaign strategy for the back-to-school implementation initiative. 

I was hired by Pearson's Professional Development International group (later folded into Global Schools) to manage the development of a blended on-site and online professional development products focused on training K-12 teachers in global markets.

This role provided me with my first experience in managing a team virtually. I recruited, hired and supervised freelance staff spread across multiple countries spanning three different continents to build several professional development courses.

I worked with contributors based in the United States, Chile, Spain, Colombia to develop HTML5-based course content for deployment on a proprietary Pearson learning management system (LMS). 

In early 2008 I made a lateral move from the professional development services business to Pearson's larger-revenue core curriculum business joining the science curriculum team as a Director of Product Management.

I was placed in charge of managing $40M-revenue legacy alternative and supplemental science curriculum product lines that included activity kits and legacy titles Pearson had acquired in previous years. 

My biggest priority was to lead the evaluation of potential third-party partners for providing supplemental activity kits in conjunction with the launch of Pearson's new K-8 science programs.

Inventory of certain components from the legacy titles were beginning to run low and, though obligated to support customers of those titles, Pearson wanted to avoid a large-scale re-printing and warehousing effort. I designed a online solution for replacing out-of-print components that preserved our obligation to legacy title customers while minimizing costs for Pearson.

Given some of the challenges faced with marketing professional development to institution-level customers, I was promoted to product manager in 2004 to help drive cross-functional conversations focused on aligning development priorities with our sales and marketing strategies. 

I added product line strategy responsibilities to my marketing role and began making regular and frequent trips to the Santa Monica, CA-based office where development was based. 

Tasked with leading by influence, I learned to leverage market research and analysis to better shape business cases and to infuse a stronger customer perspective into the development roadmap. Doing so, I was able to drive a market extension of the flagship products to create a smaller, more cost-friendly line that strategically fit better with the sales strategy. 

In late 2005, Pearson acquired Cambridge-based K-12 professional development provider Co-nect and merged it with LessonLab to create Pearson Achievement Solutions. Following the merger, I had the opportunity to design and direct a $50K market research project involving focus groups in Chicago, Boston and Dallas.

My first role with Pearson allowed me to combine the graphic design, writing and editing skills that I had cultivated earlier in my career with thinking more strategically from a target market perspective.

SkyLight Professional Development, at the time, focused primarily on marketing master's degree programs and graduate courses to K-12 teachers. 

At that time, the bulk of the work was print-based as I focused on writing, editing and designing direct mail pieces, brochures, flyers and trade show collateral. I got to dabble in creating email campaigns.

The highlight of this role was having the opportunity to be heavily involved in a major re-branding initiative focused on design and messaging cohesion across multiple product lines. I got to work closely with a third-party vendor hired to help with the initiative.