Catherine Forrest Hernando

Experience and Skill Highlights

Transitioned from higher education to this K-12 position after returning to Austin. I plan on working here until I find the right fit in a local university! Lends more experience to K-12 High School Outreach.

Role Description

• Managed transition from grassroots record-keeping to a formal Student Information System and all new enrollment process for private 3-12 hybrid preparatory program (enrollment 63).
• Administer and support entire process of admission to enrollment (SIS admissions funnel, tours, interviews, applications, and enrollment packets).
• Manage external communications through web updates and marketing materials, as well as internal communications such as weekly newsletters (mailchimp), parent presentations (verbal + canva), staff trainings (in person or loom).
• Developed budget and maintain record keeping and reconciliation for instructional and administrative staff (12 staff members).
• Contribute expertise to emerging marketing, fundraising and grant needs.
• Lead weekly small groups for middle school girls.
• Act as a senior capstone mentor with weekly meetings to explore vocation, skills and future goals as well as capstone design and implementations.

Experience and Skill Highlights

• Managed communications, recruitment strategies for higher ed office (tabling at recruitment and new student resource fairs), application design and review for student fellowships, all student engagement, including bimonthly presentations and workshops for students across campus on various topic, as well as budgets, speakers, setup and catering needs. (12K enrollment)
• Worked closely with International Student Scholar Services AND Global and Intercultural Affairs to support women on campus interested in intercultural bridging and international students.
• I LOVED this position but made the decision to move back home to be closer to family.

Role Description

Communications Manager (70%)

• Communication by phone, email, social media and formal campaigns with students, faculty, staff, external partners, and general public.
• Designed and executed annual Humans of NY style campaign featuring 15 bios of faculty, students and staff for web and social media. Responsible for theme and nomination materials, nominee selection, interview scheduling, write-ups, coordination with graphic design team, publishing schedule and event remarks.
• Designed and executed weekly Newsletter for 1K subscribers.
• Designed and executed 20 page biannual Newsletter profiling current projects, partnerships, vision and strategic directions.
• Planned social campaign and scheduled daily content. (brought engagement up 30%)
• Managed web content creation and updates including institutional restructuring and accessibility goals.
• Coordinated with internal and external press for interviews and quotes.
• Managed print and digital creation budgets and spending.

Student, Faculty and Staff Administrative Support (30%)

• Created recruitment materials and manage tabling for prospectives and recently admitted.
• Served on Search Committee for campus partner hires and student fellowships. (both material development and application review)
• Interfaced weekly with 21 students on 3 executive boards to coach and supervise monthly event execution during Fall and Spring.
• Managed caregiver support duties including assessment, budget, event planning and user experience for lactation rooms, caregiver support groups, resource fairs and misc events.
• Founded and managed caregiving coalition to maintain strategic partnerships with 20+ offices and liaison with president's commission to consult on policy change needs based on user input.
• Coordinated with community organizations that support needs for caregivers on campus, conducting intake appointments and delivery of care packages.
• Managed multiple inboxes for university wide support and resource correspondence.

Experience and Skill Highlights

• Self Starting ability to manage any/all aspects of the organization in ways that support the mission and vision.

Role Description

• Designed and delivered funding presentation for multi-site funding strategies for 501c3.
• Social enterprise (mobile coffee shop) to support intercultural community building between people of privilege and those who have been pushed to margins by systemic and/or situational barriers.
• Recruited board members and built and maintained relationships with 5 primary and 20 secondary stakeholders, networking with at least 3 potential partners per week and creating partnership database.
• Designed brand media assets and initial social campaign strategy.
• Outlined training for volunteers on boundaries and bonding with cultural 'others'.
• Consulted on operations and partnerships for managing director.
• Stepped down when startup was viable due (opened Summer 2023 and is in operation today).

Experience and Skill Highlights

• Despite director level experience, demonstrates ability to complete administrative tasks related to customer support and general operations.
• Gap employment due to grant delay related loss of pay in my previous position

Role Description

• Engaged with customers to build rapport and loyalty, intuitive engagement based on desired assistance levels.
• Performed hourly locates and and packing and shipping requests.
• Prepared merchandise for sales floor and maintained excellence in boutique aesthetic.
• Managed call campaigns between customer engagement with tracking data from 50 calls.
• Assisted in opening and closing duties.

Experience and Skill Highlights

• Hired to build rapport with external stakeholders through strategic campaigns based on my program evaluation of LoveAlaska training materials conducted collaboratively. through my previous position (3DM). This position was short-lived due to a delay in a grant and my decision to return to higher education as a result of loss of pay and the unstable climate of the nonprofit industry.
• Transferable skills: mindful communication with internal and external relations.

Role Description

• Conducted program evaluation and wrote written reports to strengthen language and impact of community training programs and initiatives.
• Began podcast production initiative to gain traction between new partnerships and build public interface within anti-trafficking.
• Collaborated on multi-site initiatives to build spaces where client care intersects with community and builds work skills and community integration for survivors of sex trafficking. Two sites have been approved and start-up costs funded; my local 501c3 is up and running (see Startup Founder).

Experience and Skill Highlights

• Relied on my ability to build external partnerships to strengthen small coaching/training business during COVID. Accomplished profit and expansion goals that within 3 months of hire.

Role Description

• Supported executive level leaders, forging productive partnerships with key global leaders and serving as key advocate for various personnel issues.
• Managed communications (social, web, interpersonal) of 3DM publishing and coaching, orchestrating forward-thinking strategies.
• Tracked and analyzed profitability and key metrics of social media and email campaigns to improve overall profitability and bring in new clientele through targeted external market campaigns.
• Interfaced with all partners as point person through personal correspondence, weekly informal newsletters, and monthly newsletter campaigns.
• Built team of volunteers to construct and maintain website and SM presence for new initiatives.
• Utilized assessment data to formalize programs and develop partnerships for new initiatives. (which created my next position at LoveAlaska)
• Began to takeover consultation calls at local businesses and nonprofits

Experience and Skill Highlights

• Experience in curriculum development in higher education

Role Description

• Research assistant. Clarified RQs, organized and researched for field statements, implemented exploratory/praxis case studies for proposal design.
• Managed ADA accomodations between professors and students.
• Converted findings into content for publishing and coaching arms of 3DM.
• Teaching Assistant in charge of syllabus design and grading for Masters and PhD level classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Wheaton College.

• Assisted in music infant cognition lab in participant recruitment and experiments.
• Mentored students in technique, character, and musical expression in cello, orchestra and composition.
• Advised parents on triadic relationship dynamics that foster personal/skill-oriented growth.

• Developed syllabus and course structure for lab school's dual language immersion summer camp.
• Collaborated daily with Art and Spanish co-teacher to promote cross cultural/lingual communication and collaboration.
• Collaborated weekly with Arts Literacy Project director and school owner Kurt Wootton to promote learning goals.
• Selected curriculum topics to support research focuses of concurrent teacher conference.
• Designed, performed, and collected data for 4 quantitative research measures involving language development (coding phoneme pronunciation) in classroom. Measures were based on neuroscience research links between music and language cognition.
• Conducted weekly student interviews on topics including motivation, independent learning growth, and cultural connection and understanding. Presented research focal points and results for parents and conference attendees.

• Contributed to curriculum design, cello instruction, documentation, and program evaluation.
• Implemented El Sistema teaching methodologies for low SES interventions.

• Trained Suzuki Cello instructor in Books 1 and 2.
• Emphasis on discipleship oriented character development through a combinations of classical and project based instruction.
• Experience with ages 4-15 and teaching methodologies that honor neurodivergence, diverse goal setting and faith backgrounds.