Bruce A. Voigt

Transformative Executive Leader with 40+ years of progressively broader experience and responsibility. Adept at managing large cross-functional teams. Entrusted by senior officials to direct a high-profile, critical U.S. Government program. Possess vast expertise in process analysis and developing and executing program improvements that enhance delivery of services. A collaborative manager capable of motivating large employee teams to maintain productivity in highly-charged environments while maintaining a commitment to service and quality. Now offering proven leadership, broad technical knowledge of VA benefits programs, and strategic perspective/planning to guide a large, multiple mission Regional Benefits Office in its mission of serving Veterans.

• Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program, 2021
• Executive Certificate in Public Policy and Leadership, Georgetown University, 2019
• Project Management Professional (PMP), 2013
• Project Management Professional Certification, Georgetown University, 2013
• Assistant Director Development Program, 2013
• Leadership Enhancement and Development (LEAD) 2011

• Focused on underserved rural Virginia veterans and survivors. Directed utilized web-based service to send benefits services guide to over 60 Congressional stakeholders, as well as veterans and their families. As a result, more than 20,000 Virginia veterans have applied for Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act claims.
• Expanded VA presence at outreach events and veteran related meetings to improve Veteran-to-VA transparency. Increased outreach events with Virginia veteran’s groups by 100%, as well as educating over 3,000 Veterans and family members.
• Established and implemented strategies and tactics that improved claim completion output by 125% over target. Recognized by the Undersecretary for Benefits as the top performing office in VBA.
• Managed quality and training initiatives that improved claim accuracy from 92.6% to 99.4% in a 3-month timeframe.
• Steer efforts by the Veterans Readiness & Employment (VR&E) team to serve 831 veterans across the state of Iowa, with 99 positive outcomes versus the standard of 80. VR&E also collaborated with the State of Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) department to assist Veterans with small business start-up expenses. Provided world-class customer service to 100% of Veterans applying for this benefit while saving over $36,000.
• Spearhead veteran outreach throughout the state that allows for Iowa Veterans and their families to become educated about the various benefits they have earned. As a result, outreach events increased by 77% and over 5,500 interviews have been conducted with 1,299 disability claims taken, an 89% increase.
• Implemented a program to use computer equipment in the five Central Iowa Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) for video-conferencing appointments. The office realized a 145% increase in Veteran compensation claim submissions.
• Guided the process of development, testing, implementation, and strategic direction for a new DRC process. As a result, led conception to full deployment in 4 months and improved claim completion timeliness by 200% for Veterans and their families.
• Collaborated with key stakeholders to build, test, and deploy a new BDD claims process within 5 months. As a result, over 46% of veterans successfully received decisions on their claims within a day after discharge.
• Charged with leading the creation of a national telework policy for employees across all VBA business lines. As a result, telework participants increased from 20% to over 50% of the VBA workforce. Exceeded over 1.3 million claims completed each year since implementation.
• Created an Innovators Network that encouraged employees to share ideas designed to improve processes and procedures, as well as business development suggestions; engineered a Human Centered Design (HCD) approach that focused on human needs to deliver value-added ideas and initiatives to 56 regional offices and over 20,000 employees throughout the VBA organization.
• Advised the Under Secretary for Benefits (USB) on all transformation and performance improvement initiatives; implemented over 60 initiatives, affecting 20,000 employees while increasing productive output from 900,000 to over 1.3M disability compensation claims per year, which improved claim processing accuracy from 85% to over 95%.
• Conceptualized and executed the Transformation Governance process for VBA innovation, transformation, and performance improvement. As a result, over 1,000 initiatives were processed, with 11 being selected for implementation and adopted by offices throughout VA.
• Nominated as the program manager for the congressionally mandated National Association for Public Administration (NAPA) study on VBA’s disability claims and appeals backlog and managed all deliverables from the $1M contract.
• Developed and deployed a comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategy to successfully address over 600,000 claims pending greater than 125 days in the inventory with 83% accuracy at completion. Championed working partnerships across the Veteran’s Administration to improve communication, collaboration, and transparency to mitigate risks and foster engagement among all key internal and external stakeholders (e.g., veterans, families, government oversight, employees, partnering state, local, and federal agencies).
• Identified and addressed gaps in current-state business practices and engaged with key internal stakeholders to resolve underperforming business practices.
• Established a Quality Review Team (QRT) comprising subject matter experts in veteran-related law and regulations to execute a Lean Six Sigma study that improved claims accuracy percentages from 66% to 92%.
• Formed the VBA Implementation Center (VBA-IC) as a Project Management Office (PMO) to build an infrastructure for supporting the preparation, execution and assessment of the implementation of VBA Transformation Initiatives in support VA's Agency Priority Goals for FY 2015. As a result, productivity rose 25% per FTE since 2011, and claims processors went from touching 5,000 tons of paper annually to processing 95% of disability claims electronically.
• Led planning and execution of the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) to 56 Regional Offices across the continental United States, Puerto Rico, and Republic of Philippines. As a result, claims processing timeliness improved by approximately 30%, and decision accuracy increased by up to 14%. VBMS allowed VBA to increase capacity to provide a higher level of customer service.
• Realized significant improvements in key performance metrics including 88% reduction in backlog, claims processor productivity increase of 25%, and decrease in total claims inventory of 884,000 to 360,720 (58%).