Kimberly Bauer, PMP

Company Overview: Known as the ACT, a standardized test designed to assess high school students’ academic achievement and college readiness

Directed a diverse cross-functional team of program managers, systems analysts, and content developers to deploy and integrate ACT’s products, services, and SaaS solutions into clients’ operations through onboarding, adoption, implementation, and renewal.

• Led USDA Rural Development job profiling initiative, aligning roles with WorkKeys Assessments to establish benchmarks for hiring, training, and advancement, enabling a successful fellowship program launch.

• Designed and implemented a labor plan aligning talent with organizational goals, improving retention, performance, and achieving key business objectives.

• Led customer journey initiatives, acting as the voice of the customer for product roadmap development and prioritization.

• Represented Proposal Development and Product Implementation on ACT’s Quality Ambassador Network, supporting QMS establishment and ISO certification, driving partner growth and productivity.

• Member of Production Incident Response Team, representing the customer to resolve service disruptions, perform root cause analysis, and implement preventive measures.

• Earned Bronze Brandon Hall Award for implementing Salesforce purchase and renewal processes, enhancing sales tracking and enabling renewals, upselling, and cross-selling.

• Recognized for leading an organizational change initiative impacting 80+ employees, consolidating functions to streamline operations, boost efficiency, and enhance collaboration.

• Cultivated a culture of innovation by promoting creative thinking and encouraging employees to take calculated risks in pursuit of solutions.

Led a team of Customer Success Managers dedicated to helping customers achieve their desired outcomes while using ACT’s products and services. The team prioritized building strong customer relationships by delivering tailored experiences and ensuring customers maximize the value drawn from ACT's offerings.

• Developed high-performing teams by providing mentorship, guidance, and opportunities for professional growth.

• Enhanced team collaboration through regular communication, goal setting, and performance evaluations.

• Promoted customer-centric practices at ACT by enhancing support accessibility, communication, and self-service options, improving customer engagement.

• Developed a partner program with a rural area education agency to expand access to ACT assessments for over 13,000 students, providing ACT real-time educator and student feedback that informed product improvements.

• Managed the requirements definition and implementation of Salesforce-based customer success management tool for SaaS solutions that track customer engagement from onboarding, training, implementation, professional development, and renewals.

• Incorporated a customer health assessment into customer success management tool to proactively identify at-risk clients and implement targeted interventions, improving retention rates and overall customer satisfaction

Company Overview: Educational and publishing services subsidiary of the international corporation Pearson plc

Led a team of program managers in supporting multiple State Departments of Education to successful launch of statewide online testing for Pearson Assessment Services contracts, each valued at $400M+ in revenue.

• Reduced testing interruptions by 60% in the first year by implementing online testing field readiness plans that included district surveys, risk ratings and response plans, in-state regional training, infrastructure trials, and on-demand technical troubleshooting and test monitoring.

• Facilitated cross-project status meetings to ensure on-time delivery of contractual obligations, identifying risks and opportunities that resulted in an 80% reduction in customer escapes, significantly improving customer satisfaction and trust.

Standardized program management procedures, processes, and work instructions for large-scale assessments, improving efficiency across Pearson’s global enterprise while ensuring coverage of all privacy, security, and regulatory standards were met.

• Led the development of the Pearson Process Library for Program Management and implemented a critical milestone tracking system using MS Project, enabling leadership to identify potential schedule risks up to 30 days earlier than manual processes, improving decision-making, and reducing project delays.

• Managed the risk and issue tracking system that linked risk probability, priority, schedule progress, and deliverable completion against baseline metrics, resulting in an 80% improvement in the ability to assess and provide executive-level reports on enterprise project health.

• Coached and mentored program managers in requirements documentation, risk assessments, schedule development, and retrospectives, leading to an 80% increase in the adoption of project management methodologies across the global enterprise and improving project efficiency and outcomes.