Christine J Young

Collins Aerospace

March 2018 - present

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Manager, Operational Support

April 2021 - present

 

Lead Operational Support in Engineering & Technology, driving organizational success by seamlessly integrating knowledge, learning, and continuous improvement. Empower business units through strategic project management, expert change management and communications, effective knowledge sharing, and tailored training solutions. Ensure smooth alignment of processes, tools, systems, and culture to enhance performance and foster innovation. Manage complex integration projects, advance people and culture initiatives, and deliver actionable insights through data and operational analysis, bridging the gap between strategy and execution to help teams thrive.

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• Leadership and Talent Management: Recruit, onboard, train, and evaluate employees, fostering career growth and advancement opportunities.

• Executive Communications: Partner with the VP of Engineering & Technology to craft strategic communications for a 6,000-strong workforce, influencing organizational decision-making.

• Project Management: Lead multiple cross-functional, large-scale integration and transformation projects, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and adherence to deadlines and budgets.

• Organizational and Training Development: Create processes, resources, and training frameworks to support talent reviews, empower leaders to help employees advocate for their careers, design actionable career pathways, and guide leaders in mastering coaching, mentoring, and sponsoring to foster growth.

• Change Management: Implemented formal processes to improve integration team culture, manage return-to-office transitions, and facilitate large-scale organizational restructuring.​

 

Workplace Culture Leader

May 2020 - present

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Lead the Mission Systems Council, partnering with HR, senior leaders, and employee groups to align organizational strategies with business objectives, enhance workplace culture, and implement impactful policies.

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• Leadership & Training Initiatives: Design and deliver training, resources, and coaching to empower leaders in fostering effective teams. Topics include psychological safety, bias awareness, inclusive communication, equitable hiring, and team engagement.

• Program Development & Impact: Develop and expand initiatives such as the Ambassador Program and Leader Learning Series, equipping employees and leaders with the tools to create a more engaged, collaborative, and high-performing workforce.

Key accomplishments include:

• Partnered with Talent Management to enhance hiring practices, ensuring equitable access to opportunities.

• Supported ERG leaders in executing initiatives that drive workplace culture and employee engagement across Mission Systems.

• Co-developed and facilitated a bi-monthly Leader Learning Series, equipping leaders with actionable strategies on effective leadership, psychological safety, and inclusive communication.

• Analyzed Pulse Survey data on belonging, presenting insights and policy recommendations to improve workplace culture.

• Designed and delivered a disability inclusion webinar, providing guidance on accessible hiring practices and career advancement for employees with disabilities.

• Facilitated Unconscious Bias training for teams and leadership, integrating awareness into decision-making and team dynamics.

• Created a structured new hire onboarding communication, introducing resources and engagement opportunities within all nine ERGs.

• Founded and led a professional development book club, fostering growth through quarterly discussions on leadership, workplace culture, and career development.

• Established and organized monthly "I Want to Grow" career development events, featuring employees sharing career journeys, skill-building insights, and mentorship advice to inspire internal mobility.

• Attended the 2022 Out & Equal Conference and 2024 Disability:IN Conference, gaining expertise to drive accessibility, talent development, and inclusive workplace strategies.

 

Senior Change Manager & Communications Specialist

March 2018 - April 2021

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Managed the people side of change by crafting and executing change management plans; developing communication strategies, mitigating resistance, assessing training requirements, coaching leaders, establishing change champion networks, and formulating sustainment plans across all stages of the Prosci ADKAR model.

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• Built a change management template and coached project teams through creating their own change management and communication plans.

• Created new monthly newsletters to increase department transparency and communication around staffing changes, new processes, and updates on integration updates as the company navigated through two mergers, a national pandemic, and moving to remote work.

• Spearheaded the creation of a SharePoint intranet site for our strategic business unit and managed content to ensure accuracy and completeness.

• Establishing best practices and training resources for my strategic business unit as we move from Google to Microsoft Office 365.

• Drafted and sent highly effective communications to ensure a smooth transition and continued business support as we sold off a segment of our business.

• Developed a successful change management plan to add Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to engineering tools and guide engineers through updating and testing user-created tools and scripts to ensure tools continued to work after the URL change.

• Facilitated alignment and collaboration across the Agile Release Train (ART) as the Release Train Engineer (RTE), improving workflows and strategy, resolving roadblocks, mediating conflicts, coaching Scrum Masters, and leading quarterly two-day Program Increment (PI) events.​

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Agile Release Train Engineer (RTE)

June 2020 - June 2021

 

Facilitated alignment and encouraged collaboration across the Agile Release Train (ART) to improve flow of value and strategy, help remove roadblocks, mediate conflict on teams and between teams and lead quarterly two-day Program Increment (PI) events. Accomplished this by training new employees on the Agile mindset and principles, as well as our department's Agile process, providing servant leadership coaching to Scrum Masters in weekly Scrum of Scrum meetings and Scrum Master syncs each sprint and facilitated ART synchronization meetings.

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BeraTek Industries

Marketing Manager

August 2017 - February 2018

 

Led the Marketing department in all aspects of branding and marketing for two separate brands; a B2B brand offering eight different services and a B2C brand with ten unique consumer products. Analyzed competitors, conducted user research, and reported on performance metrics. Collaborated with engineering to align vision and product strategy and build or improve products based on customer feedback. Designed and implemented the content strategy and all marketing campaigns (paid advertising, influencer outreach programs, email marketing, and social media engagement)

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• Hired a Content Marketing Intern and managed the 3-member Marketing department

• Project managed the launch of the Storage Theory brand and website

• Spearheaded the product strategy and roadmap for the launch of three new products

• Coordinated product ideation and brainstorming sessions that led to dozens of viable product ideas

• Designed and documented the product lifecycle process from idea to production

• Published articles in storage newsletters and magazines, as well as our company blog

• Managed the Amazon listings and drafted content for all products

 

 

Junior League of Cedar Rapids

Vice President of Communications

June 2016 - May 2017

 

The Junior League of Cedar Rapids (JLCR) is an organization of women whose mission is to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration, and training. JLCR's focus area is supporting kids aging out of foster care. In my role as Vice President of Communications, I sat on the Board of Directors to set policy and procedures for membership, developed the five-year strategic plan, created goals and managed the budget for the Communications committees. I also served as an advisor for all committees to ensure project and fundraising marketing and communications were consistent with the overall brand.

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Key Projects:

• Foster Care Speaker Series: Coordinated media relations for this three-part series on foster care advocacy in Iowa, including Iowa State Representative Renee Schulte, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, and a panel of current foster parents and foster kids who have aged out of the foster care system.

• A Day On The Hill Annual Event: Drafted agenda and talking points for JLCR members to advocate on Capitol Hill in Des Moines, Iowa, met with lobbyists, made asks of legislators in session.

• Ladies TItan Tire Challenge Pro Golf Tournament: Served as the Media and Marketing Chair for Ladies Titan Tire Challenge, an LPGA Future's Tour professional golf tournament, holding press conferences, writing press releases, negotiating in-kind sponsorships and advertising, creating social media plan, taking photos at the tournament events, and working with the press at the tournament.

• Bridging the G.A.P. Foster Care Campaign: Launched the new Bridging the G.A.P. (Guide. Advocate. Provide.) campaign to promote the new foster care focus area, community projects, and fundraising events; worked with a graphic designer to create a logo, created an infographic to share facts on foster care and JLCR programs, wrote press releases, and wrote newspaper articles.

• Report to the Community: Published the annual Report to the Community annual report outlining JLCR projects and financial reporting for donors, members, and community partners.

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Betsy Boo's Boutique

Vice President of Marketing & Sales

April 2016 - March 2017

 

Betsy Boo’s Boutique is a rapidly-growing online women’s fashion retailer. In my role as Vice President of Marketing and Sales, I was responsible for all marketing and sales growth. I continually examined the full lifecycle process to determine what went well and what could be improved upon to increase company efficiency, expand new customer base, and boost sales.

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• Project managed the implementation of a new point-of-sale system to more effectively track inventory, reduce shipping errors, and improve customer service

• Streamlined the inventory receiving process so all team members can track when items have been ordered, shipped, and received from vendors and are available for sale, helping to resolve issues with inventory and customer service

• Conducted regular competitive analysis to find our competitive edge

• Implemented Google Analytics to drill down into customer data and their buying preferences, as well as track marketing campaigns and affiliates

• Designed social media and email marketing A/B testing to test optimal messaging, frequency, and timing

• Redesigned the email marketing funnel process and content

• Built relationships with influencers to create a strong affiliate marketing program

• Revamped the return policy to encourage new customers to give Betsy Boo’s Boutique a try with limited risk and to gather user data from return forms

• Established a review program to boost customer confidence and build trust and credibility with potential new customers.

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Verizon

January 1998 - December 2015

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Presale Project Manager

December 2003 - December 2015

 

Managed a customer base of over $2 billion in annual revenue, assisting the business to win, maintain, and grow corporate clients by maximizing productivity and minimizing revenue impacts in the review of all pricing proposals, contracts, and Request for Proposal (RFP) opportunities. Project managed custom contracts and developed IT-supported solutions; defining requirements, identifying solutions, creating documentation, leading internal deal negotiations, and ensuring terms were implemented. Represented Finance throughout the contract process (Presale and Postsale phase). Analyzed trends for enhanced billing support and/or product capability.

 

• Helped my sales team reach #1 in sales across the nation

• Negotiated and won the bid for a $40M maintenance service contract 

• Designed a new process for Bell Canada contracts

• Provided expertise as the Professional Services subject matter expert

• Created product guidelines and training documentation to reduce repeated errors 

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Senior Contract Analyst

January 1998 - December 2003

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Worked with sales teams to support large, million-dollar corporate customers, providing monthly usage reports and calculating monthly credits/debits. Increased efficiency by creating specialized reports and Access queries. Led the team as a point of contact on billing issues and contract interpretation. Wrote training documentation and taught new hire classes. Provided feedback for user acceptance testing during software developments.

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• Increased efficiency by 91 hours a month with the creation of specialized reports and Access queries

• Led the team as a point of contact on contract interpretation

• Wrote training documentation and taught new hire classes

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Freelance

Writer/Blogger

May 2004 - August 2012

 

Worked as a freelance writer and blogger on several of my own blogs, plus guest blogging on Blissdom and several other partner blogs. Wrote posts on parenting -(including step-parenting, raising tweens and teens, and managing large families), nighttime television, civil rights, and political op-eds.

From 1/2008 to 3/2009, worked for B5Media as a freelance writer providing expertise on raising tweens and teenagers on the Weary Parent blog.
 

• Developed a content strategy plan and identified the target audience and goals. 

• Researched, wrote, & promoted articles using SEO practices; consistent and engaging content, targeted keywords, effective photos, and links.

• Generated buzz using social media, Facebook and Twitter, increasing engagement by 30%.

• Built and maintained relationships with corporations for product reviews and giveaways.

• Worked with Ford Motor Company on Teen Safe Driver program.