Key Projects

Portfolio Forecasting and Decision Support

Challenge

Portfolio decisions depended on information held in separate financial reports, local workbooks, and planning conversations. A current balance could appear sufficient until future salary commitments, contract periods, planned spending, and changing assumptions were taken into account.

What I Did

• I designed forward forecast models connecting available funding, expenditures, salary commitments, project timelines, and adjustable planning assumptions.

• I built management reports and a rate and pricing tool that applied the same financial assumptions across portfolios and planning scenarios.

Impact

Portfolio reviews no longer stopped at current balances. They included projected commitments and timing, bringing potential shortfalls into the discussion earlier. Budget, staffing, project pacing, and future commitments were reviewed against the same forecast instead of separate estimates.

Operational Intelligence and Workflow Improvement

Challenge

Information needed to run the portfolio was spread across enterprise systems, reports, spreadsheets, local trackers, and email. Each source answered part of the question, but managers still had to reconstruct ownership, deadlines, dependencies, and current status before reviewing the work.

What I Did

• I mapped the information and handoffs connecting finance, HR, contracting, procurement, facilities, and project delivery.

• I identified duplicate tracking, missing handoffs, and terms that different teams were using inconsistently.

• I built standardized management reports, forecasting tools, and a centralized operations tracker using Oracle PeopleSoft, ServiceNow, Smartsheet, Microsoft Office, and Google Workspace.

• I established common status definitions and recurring reviews. Every tracked action had an owner, a next step, and a path for resolving dependencies or escalating delays.

Impact

Recurring reviews started from a shared tracker instead of reconstructed email threads and separate status reports. Stalled work, missing handoffs, and decisions requiring intervention appeared on the same management view. Common status definitions also reduced conflicting accounts of where work stood.

Integrated Contract and Workforce Planning

Challenge

More than 20 contracts and grants supported work across 80+ personnel. Contract end dates, sponsor decisions, available funding, salary commitments, and personnel actions were closely connected, but the decisions were often handled through separate processes.

What I Did

• I mapped contract dates, renewal requirements, funding scenarios, salary commitments, staffing dependencies, and decision points.

• I coordinated planning with principal investigators, project managers, research administrators, finance, HR, payroll, and contracting partners.

• I converted the analysis into renewal actions, personnel timelines, and contingency plans.

Impact

Renewal and personnel timelines were reviewed together instead of through separate processes. The review identified decisions that could not wait and showed how a late sponsor or contracting action would affect staffing and project delivery. Teams had time to prepare renewal or contingency steps before contract end dates limited their options.

Governance and Operating Controls

Challenge

A decentralized organization with multiple teams, funding sources, and sites used different practices for budgeting, salary allocations, approvals, documentation, reporting, and closeouts. Important standards often depended on local practice or individual knowledge.

What I Did

I wrote an effort distribution policy defining how salary allocations are determined, documented, approved, reviewed, and changed. I developed a budget controls framework covering approval authority, monitoring, supporting documentation, management review, and escalation. I then incorporated open exceptions and operating risks into a recurring management process.

Impact

Approvals and exceptions followed the same documented process across teams. Allocation changes had a recorded basis and review point, while unresolved items moved into recurring management review. This reduced dependence on individual memory and made management and audit review more straightforward.

Accelerated Project Closeout

Challenge

Several projects were approaching their end dates with financial, contractual, personnel, procurement, or reporting work still open. The remaining actions were divided among different teams, making it difficult to determine what could delay closure.

What I Did

• I reviewed remaining funds, open commitments, deliverables, personnel effort, subawards, sponsor reports, and closeout deadlines.

• I converted the remaining work into one closeout plan with an owner and due date for every action.

• I held recurring reviews with principal investigators, project managers, research administrators, finance, contracting, and procurement staff.

Impact

Each open item had an owner, due date, and escalation path. Items remained on the agenda until they were resolved, and reviews focused on blockers instead of collecting status updates. Teams could see which financial, contractual, personnel, procurement, or reporting actions still stood between each project and closure.

Multi-Site Operations and Service Delivery

Challenge

California PATH operates across seven office, laboratory, field, and support sites. Each location has different requirements involving space, specialized equipment, access, safety, vendors, research schedules, and available funding. Requests arrived through several channels and competed for the same staff, funding, and vendor capacity.

What I Did

• I manage facilities, research assets, access, safety, procurement, vendor work, and capital project coordination across the seven sites.

• I document requests, costs, urgency, dependencies, approvals, and next steps, then coordinate the campus offices, contractors, vendors, and research teams involved in delivery.

Impact

Site requests were compared using cost, urgency, safety, and program need. Managers could distinguish immediate operating or safety requirements from work that could wait. Approvals, purchases, vendor schedules, and campus support were then sequenced around the selected priorities.