Kimberly Blanchard
Columbine Valley,CO
Summary
Accomplished leader with a proven track record in education and assessment, adept in cross-functional team leadership and strategic planning. Spearheaded business development and innovative program management, achieving operational efficiency and enhancing customer relationships. Excelled in planning and executing complex programs against complicated requirements. Dedicated director committed to building diverse teams that prioritize equity and inclusion in all work.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Director, External Affairs
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
06.2022 - Current
- Direct complex portfolio of programs including business development, communications, marketing, website creation and design, and national events, to promote the public image of the organization and advance its financial sustainability.
- Identify, develop, and pitch new business opportunities and market trends, including new markets, growth areas, customers, partnerships, products and services, and new ways of reaching existing markets to drive organizational advancement.
- Orchestrate and oversee flow of communication and information between the organization and the public through management of all forms of media, including press releases and digital campaigns, print materials, social media, audio and video.
- Implement customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and software to increase brand presence and perception, identify new business prospects, develop connections with potential clients, and nurture current business relationships.
- Manage a highly productive team of communications and marketing specialists, project coordinators, event specialists, and administrative staff to design and execute project deliverables on time and within budget.
- Collaborate with executive leadership to evaluate complex strategic plans to optimize operations and increase return on investment.
- Implement crisis management strategies to communicate and mitigate emergent situations involving high-influence external stakeholders.
- Deliver presentations describing strategic initiatives at national conferences to state executives and national experts.
- Leverage metrics and data analytics to inform decision-making in critical areas such as sales forecasting, budgeting, or personnel management.
Head of Program Management, Operations, Innovation
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
09.2019 - 06.2022
- Design program and project guidance, structure, and leadership for the Project Management Office including the creation of end to end project management processes from project intake and prioritization process through project closure and lessons learned.
- Simultaneously manage multiple high impact programs of broad and diverse scope, complexity, budget, and cross-functional team size, using Agile, waterfall, and hybrid methodologies.
- Utilize theory of action and logic model methodology, to create various systems to support technology, assessment development, psychometrics, communications, and marketing.
Assessment Program Management Consulting Director
Assessment by Design, LLC
01.2016 - 09.2019
- Leverage expertise in instructional design, process design, facilitation, and program management to improve business processes and procedures, grow and develop assessment development initiatives and departmental activities, and increase company-wide efficiency.
- Create and implement infrastructures to manage the development and delivery of interim and summative assessments for multiple organizations.
- Conduct needs analysis and create item development processes to increase efficiency of test design and publication and decrease development time by 3 weeks.
Senior Program Manager
McGraw-Hill Education Inc.
08.2006 - 12.2015
- Concurrently deliver multiple state, custom, and federal contracts with individual annual revenue values of up to $15M.
- Drive optimization by maintaining less than 7% variance to plan for budgets exceeding $10M.
- Spearhead organizational transition from print-focused to online delivery of content and assessments.
Mathematics Teacher
Colorado Public Schools
08.2003 - 07.2006
- Instruct students in advanced placement mathematics courses including Calculus, Trigonometry, Geometry, Algebra, and Statistics.
Education
Master of Arts - Education Administration
University of Phoenix
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Skills
- Program & Project Management
- Cross-Functional Team Leadership
- Operational Efficiency
- Customer Relationship Management
- Risk and Budget Management
- Business Development
Certification
- Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute,
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Scrum Alliance
- Professional Teaching License, Colorado Department of Education
- Principal License, Colorado Department of Education
Timeline
Director, External Affairs
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
06.2022 - Current
Head of Program Management, Operations, Innovation
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
09.2019 - 06.2022
Assessment Program Management Consulting Director
Assessment by Design, LLC
01.2016 - 09.2019
Senior Program Manager
McGraw-Hill Education Inc.
08.2006 - 12.2015
Mathematics Teacher
Colorado Public Schools
08.2003 - 07.2006
Master of Arts - Education Administration
University of Phoenix
Bachelor of Science - Mathematics
Metropolitan State University of Denver
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