My career starts in the late 1990s. My first job out of high school was selling cell phones with Mid-America Wireless in Missouri.
This is where I made it to Senior Wireless Consultation and received my first professional awards. I was top salesman of the quarter for 6 quarters running, salesman of the year, and received top producer awards from Southwestern Bell Wireless.
This section does not go through all the positions that I have done. It does list the roles that I have held throughout my working life.
Information Technology was always a love of mine. My entry into programming was learning on the family 486 PC using QBasic.
I made a rudimentary game that asked the player to solve math problems. As each problem was answered the math problem was shot and then you moved to the next portion of space.
I also learned to work on personal computers during this time. I bought a couple used computers and learned to work on them by moving parts between them and upgrading them.
My plan was to pursue a career in IT. However, September 11, 2001 changed many things in our country. My career path was one of them.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services started the Center for Emergency Response and Terrorism. Their goal was to prepare the State of Missouri for Emergency Events. I took a position as Duty Officer with them.
My role was to monitor events in the state such as open bed in hospital ERs, bio-monitors across the state that watched for biological weapons, and monitoring news channels and reports for reports pointing to potential incidents.
It was during this time that my IT roots again became needed. There was no system for documenting events in the Department Situation Room and actions taken. I taught myself Relational Databases and Microsoft Access so I could build a system that would allow this documentation.
The final system not only documented the results but reminded users when pre-scheduled monitoring was needed, took entered data and filled out forms, then connected to a software fax machine and faxed reports where they needed to go.
It was also during this time that I was introduced to Missouri Task Force 1. This is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team.
I joined the Team as a Technical Information Specialist. The duties were to monitor and document activities taken during rescue events. Our team also trained all positions as Rescue Specialists.
I went on three deployments with this team in Louisiana, Texas, and Minnesota. On one deployment I served as the Planning Team Manager due to the manager coming down sick. This led me to becoming a firefighter with both Cole County and Boone County Missouri and a Hazardous Materials Technician.
Instructing is another love of mine. It was during this time that I became an instructor for Incident Command System, CPR, First Aid, and an Instructor Trainer for three American Red Cross Chapters.
I also taught Community Mass Care as an Adjunct Instructor for the University of Missouri Fire and Rescue Training Institute. This allowed me to teach across the state of Missouri.
I started at Wipro as a Medicare Claims Specialist. It was not long before my background and skills changed that trajectory.
A client was having issues on-site. They needed an experienced manager to go in and turn the project around. I was promoted to BPO Manager and sent to the client.
Within one week, we not only turned the results around but became the highest performing of three on-site contract companies and gained a contract extension. I also was assigned additional teams and asked to be Project Manager on a software implementation for a Medicaid Appeals System.
Supervised a team of up to one hundred people in Part D Pre-authorizations, Appeals, and Medicaid Member Services.
Created and taught course for New Hires in completing Part D Prior Authorizations.
Created algorithm that utilized attendance, call quality, NPS scores, audits, schedule adherence, and call time to credit a score that managers utilized for performance appraisals and promotions.
It was during these activities that I was introduced to the world of Data Science and Business Analysis. Personal issues (not related at all to work) caused me to need to move back to Missouri from Nashville.
It was at this time that I decided to go back to school and pursue a career change into Business or Data Analysis.
