CAREER BACKGROUND

Speech Consultant
CommSavvy Services, Honoka`a, HI May 2007 - present

• Independent consultant providing expertise to speech service providers and direct clients alike.  Customer base covers telephony, banking, government, airline, publishing, and customer service sectors throughout North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Strong strategic partnerships with other service providers in the areas of development, IP telephony integration, technology consulting, and communication strategy allow for a full range of service and product offerings.

Manager of Speech Application Delivery
TuVox, Cupertino, CA Apr2006 – Apr 2007

• Managed team of 5 application engineers implementing user experience designs using a variety of toolsets, multiple ASR engines, all VXML versions, 10+ Voice Platform configurations, across both VoIP and TDM technology.
• Facilitated cross-team organizational process improvements in the areas of design documentation, application delivery, and reporting.

Senior VUI Designer / Content Producer
TuVox, Cupertino, Feb 2005 – Apr 2006

• Designed, developed, and performed 3 tuning cycles on a full-scale, ground-breaking application solution for Telecom New Zealand, which now handles millions of calls from its landline, mobile, and broadband customer sectors, leading them to over 170 destinations. The application, profiled in Speech Technology Magazine’s “Deployment Success Stories” (April 2007), features a custom SLM-based call router, a New Zealand English acoustic model, and innovative dialog techniques designed to ease the adoption of speech recognition into the broader New Zealand culture.  more...

• Created VUI designs and/or developed content for applications across a wide range in scale, user population, business sector, and function – including transactional, routing, knowledge base/tutorials, and surveys.

Senior Dialog Designer
MCI Mass Markets, Colorado Springs, CO Jan 2004 – Feb 2005

• Served as a primary designer of voice user interfaces for MCI Consumer and Business Markets Customer Service segment speech recognition applications, including such projects as the MCI nationwide customer service line, utilizing a statistical language model, 60+ sub-applications, and advanced call routing techniques.

• Produced 40+ designs within an eight-week design phase of an overall aggressive project schedule.
• Performed application analysis, voice talent coaching, persona implementation, and usability testing.

SW Systems Engineer / Dialog Designer
MCI (Verizon Business), Colorado Springs, CO Jun 2002 – Jan 2004

• Created complete dialog design specifications, including call flows, detailed dialog-state logic, custom prompts, and accompanying grammars for a variety of speech-enabled applications – from government to retail, as well as financial and insurance verticals.
• Performed application analysis, code development, testing, and tuning; introduced critical processes for the project life-cycle.
• Authored original application reference guides for customers and comprehensive technical product guide of MCI speech solution for sales and account team use.

Technical Writer
MCI (WorldCom), Colorado Springs, CO Aug 1999 – Jun 2002

• Implemented standard documentation projects by writing and editing technical documents, designing graphics, maintaining databases, and creating web content and interfaces for intranet site.
• Developed invaluable automation techniques to enhance resource management organization-wide.
• Served as Database Administrator for project-wide requirements traceability database.

EDUCATION

M.S. Candidate, Colorado Technical University
Colorado Springs, CO 2001-2002
Program: Information Technology Management

B.A. Regis University
Denver, CO 1997
Major: Communication Arts; Minor: Political Science

HONORS AND AWARDS

• Featured speaker at SpeechTek West 2007 in Track E Session, “VUI Design & Usability”, presentation titled “Breaking Through the Mystique of Usability Testing”
• Certified by Nuance in VUI Dialog Design; Internationally ranked No. 1 on Design Principles Exam
• 10-time recipient of TuVox “Team Excellence Award” for contributions to individual projects and deployments
• Recognized with “TuVox Outstanding Achievement Award” for leadership and work excellence in achieving customer satisfaction
  
• Received “TuVox Peer Recognition Award” for efforts above and beyond in support of fellow team members
• 2-time recipient of MCI WorldCom Operations & Technology Division’s “Star Performer” Award