Nicole Burke

Experience

• 

  The World Company

  May 2007 - Oct 2010

  Journalist

  • Page Designer: Designed visual look and layout of entire newspaper, ensuring all art elements were highlighted and showcased in a way to provide readers with the most stimulating, interactive, and meaningful experience.• Photographer: Captured visual accompaniments to supplement and enhance textural elements, including live action and portraits.• News Reporter: Chased down, reported, and wrote stories about meaningful news events, keeping readers informed and interested in the world around them.• Copy Editor: Focused on attention to detail through review and edit of all stories, ensuring grammar and style were used appropriately to convey intended message. Show less

• 

  Ascend Learning

  Oct 2010 - Jun 2024

  • Drive strategic and tactical operations for the research, development, and design department to achieve critical milestones for business partners.• Strategize and develop policies, standards, and systems for delivery of organizational objectives. • Develop departmental expectations around performance, goals, KPIs, and metrics.• Present regularly to key cross functional stakeholders and executives, including preparation and facilitation of program meetings and the creation of KPI reports.• Own and manage special organizational projects focused on wide-reaching innovation initiatives.• Assist in managing daily tasks of 70 employees spanning five different business groups.• Maintain oversight of $3 million departmental budget and $12 million capital development budget. Show less • Strategize workflow and processes, identifying and designing efficiency improvements. • Develop process initiatives to improve product development efforts, increasing speed to market.• Thoroughly understand business strategies and align program priorities in direct support of organizational objectives.• Identify, manage, and mitigate Portfolio/Strategic risks that may impact the planned cost and benefits to the business.• Manage 3rd party vendor relationships, including contract negotiations.• Provide input to product design and create measurement analytics strategies. Show less • Manage a program portfolio of $5M that includes budgeting, forecasting, invoicing, and generating project estimates based on scope and resource gathering practices.• Facilitate monthly presentations to executive leadership to report on project health and present mitigation plans for unresolved issues.• Oversee a program with a yearly roadmap of 50+ projects, ensuring business alignment and strategy are accomplished.• Develop standards, tools, templates, and processes to make work as repeatable as possible, while still allowing for flexibility, in an effort to improve program efficiency and results.• Develop seamless integration of all corporate teams, leading to incident-free implementations of projects.• Lead small team of Project Coordinators through project assignments, mentorship, and technical and professional development. Show less • Collaborate with executive leadership and project stakeholders to review project scope, goals, and deliverables, and maintain project direction.• Facilitate project meetings to gather scope requirements, perform detailed project planning, and report status.• Develop and maintain implementation plans to ensure tasks are communicated and completed according to the project timeline.• Develop a start-to-finish project plan, including regimented deadlines/milestones, dependencies and required time/resources for internal and customer facing projects.• Manage 20+ projects simultaneously, with timelines ranging from 6 months to 2 years and budgets ranging from $20K to $500K. Show less • Maintain and edit content material for organization’s various education-based products.• Ensure material meets specifications, focusing on product quality and on-time delivery. • Coordinate cross-functionally to create, test, and release products, prevent incidents, and troubleshoot issues.• Manage the development process for assessments, ensuring required procedures are complete.• Maintain department procedure documentation, while training newly hired Test Developers and providing continuing education to existing Test Developers. Show less

  • Senior Director of Content Production and Delivery at Ascend Learning

    Dec 2022 - Jun 2024

  • Director of Project Management and Operations at Ascend Learning

    Sept 2018 - Dec 2022

  • Program Manager

    Feb 2015 - Sept 2018

  • Project Manager

    Feb 2013 - Feb 2015

  • Test Developer/Trainer

    Oct 2010 - Feb 2013