| Contact Information | |
| Name: | Margaret Cowan |
| Email: | mcowan (at) erols (dot) com [email concealed] |
| Location: | Reston, Virginia, United States |
| Resume | |
| Position/Title: | Instructor |
| Resume: |
MARGARET A. (Margie) COWAN 11562 Shadbush Court Reston, VA 20191 703/758-9484 (home) 703/203-2918 (cell) mcowan (at) erols (dot) com [email concealed] (Please contact and I can provide a nicely-formatted version of my resume in Word.) CAREER OBJECTIVE • Seeking challenging full-time senior-level trainer/instructional designer position in the Northern VA/Dulles Corridor -- equally skilled technical writer/editor, and/or human factors analyst. • Ability to travel extensively (50% or better). • Willing to relocate — TX, NC, GA, FL (Am not interested in short/long-term contract assignments or contingency offers.) CLEARANCE (Active) TS/SCI (with full-scope poly) SALARY $132,000 (current base) Negotiable re salary for the right opportunity. EDUCATION BSEd., University of Texas (Austin) AVAILABILITY Two-week notice CAPABILITIES • Accomplished public speaker. • Master software applications quickly. • Extremely proficient with a wide variety of software products. • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. • Self-starter -- ability to work both independently and with minimal supervision. • Proven expertise with MS Office, FrameMaker, Adobe Acrobat, and RoboHelp. • Extremely proficient with Information Mapping concepts for document production. • Abilitiy to work with developers and/or engineers to extract pertinent information necessary for development of documentation and/or online help information. • Knowledge of CMMI processes and procedures. • Knowledge of and familarity with ITIL and SCRUM methodologies • Working knowledge of intellipedia's MediaWiki. (Have "passport" to create/edit wiki pages.) • Wiki expertise ... created several wiki pages for hobby. Instructional Design/Training • Experience using Instructional Design Methodology for courseware preparation (instructor guides, user manuals, student workbooks, audio-visual aids). • Experience developing, administering, and delivering customized technical training, post-training support, demonstrations, and one-on-one training sessions for DoD and private industry. Computer Training • Accomplished classroom trainer and professional speaker, teaching a variety of computer software, for Fairfax County Adult Ed, ranging from beginner to advanced concepts. • Developed and delivered training courses designed for government and private industry. • MOUS (Core) certification in Word and Excel. Technical Writing • Experience writing and editing technical manuals, reports, courseware, and online help for a variety of propriety hardware and software. • Developed courseware, user manuals, and/or online help for various government contracts: DMI, government and commercial security certification and accreditation packages (DITSCAP, NIACAP, NIST, DCID, credit unions, etc.), DODIIS, CODIS, FTS-2000, EMPRES, OSD, Fairfax County Adult Education (computer courses), and 3 CIRC training courses at Wright-Patterson AFB (Dayton, OH) for intelligence analysts. Human Factors • Experience designing and developing effective screen, web, and WAP user interfaces, plus human factors and biomechanical analysis of product interaction. SOFTWARE EXPERTISE • MS Word – Expert – 12+ years • RoboHelp – Intermediate – 04+ years • FrameMaker – Expert – 10+ years • Excel – Expert – 10+ years • PowerPoint – Expert – 10+ years • Access – Intermediate – 04 years • WordPerfect – Expert – 12+ years • PageMaker – Expert – 10 years • Visio – Beginner/Intermediate – 08 years • PhotoShop – Beginner – 06 years • Lotus Notes (user) – Intermediate – 05 years • HTML – Expert – 10 years • Dreamweaver – Intermediate – 07 years • CWE 1.6 and 2.0 – Expert - 04 years • Confluence – Beginner - 1.5 years • Maximo – Beginner - 1.0 years (user exerience ONLY) • JIRA – Intermediate - 1.5 years • Teamplay - Intermediate - 1.5 years • InDesign - Beginner - less than 6 mo. • SharePoint - Beginner - 1 year (user exerience ONLY) • Captivate - Beginner - awaiting arrival of project software REFERENCES • Cathy Widzga, former Manager, Stephens City, VA 540/869-8690 (h) or 540/336-6231 (c) • Greg Cox, former co-worker, Scitor, Reston, VA 703/455-8975 gcox (at) scitor (dot) com [email concealed] • Paul Hinterleitner, former co-worker, Scitor, Reston, VA 202/957-7678 phinterleitner (at) scitor (dot) com [email concealed] • Jody Smith, Incident Manager, Hewlett-Packard, Bethesda, MD 703/376-9194 • Tom Stolte, Coordinator, Fairfax Adult Education, Centerville, VA, 703/227-2245 • Mark Kohler, former co-worker, ETG, Herndon, VA 240/412-9148 • Gwen Macomson, former co-worker (tester), CSC, Chantilly, VA 703/725-2919 (cell) • Becky Shields, former co-worker, Lockheed-Martin, Herndon, VA 703/466-1254 EMPLOYMENT HISTORY Fairfax County Adult Education, Sr. Computer Trainer/Instructor (Part-time),(09/81-pres) • Teaches a variety of contemporary computer classes in the evenings/weekends: Dreamweaver, HTML, QuickBooks, Quicken, PowerPoint, MS Word (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced), etc. • Experience writing and editing training manuals, courseware, and user manuals in the early days of computers (when no courseware/manuals existed) for such courses as: Intro/Intermediate/Advanced DOS, Creating Batch Files, PageMaker, Understanding Layout & Design, HTML I / II / III, Intro to Computers, Intro to Windows, etc. Welkin Associates -- Training Team Lead/Sr. Principal Trainer (01/08-pres.) • Served as the acting team lead for three months for four trainers on Railhead project. Team designed, developed, and implemented a variety of end-user training – instructor led, distance learning, etc. • Applied instructional systems design (ISD) theories, ADDIE model, Information Mapping concepts, and adult learning principles to training decisions to ensure that course materials met training goals. • Created a variety of user guides, student guides, and quick reference materials in support of the training effort for the proprietary software application. • Created skill assessments to ensure that course materials provided the necessary knowledge to meet training goals/objectives and provide metrics to management. • Interfaced with management, customer(s), developers, and subject matter experts (SME) to provide input for course content and ensure relevancy of course materials. • Collaborated with four team members to create an NCTC Portal User Guide, NCTC Portal Student Guide, and Quick Reference Guide(s) for custom training. Wrote the wiki section of these documents and compiled the work of all five authors into the final product(s) – one voice, look/feel, formatting, etc. (Each document approx. 350 pages.) • Attended 3-day HP OpenView Service Desk 4.5 training in Bethesda, MD with direction that the training team would design the Service Desk training materials and, initially, train the Help Desk personnel. The ITIL group would then maintain the documents and conduct further training, as needed. • Created User Guide and training materials for customized HP OpenView Service Desk 4.5 tool, when it was selected as the project help desk tool over Remedy. (Available as an unclassified writing sample for an interview.) • Developed a Style Guide for the training team that gained customer's visibility and became an "ad hoc" project standard. Went beyond DI, DIA, CIA, and ODNI Style Guides to define fonts, indenting, formatting for all elements of the various types of training documentation. (Available as an unclassified writing sample for an interview, plus Training Plans, Quick-Reference Guides, etc.) • Completed “Security 101” training at the DIAC in January 2008, which also included training on proper classification of documents. • Completed INFOSEC training in April 2008 as a project-wide requirement. • Worked with NCTC Information Management Office (IMO) to present several “Classification Training 101” brown bag sessions for project personnel. • Obtained IMO approval on “Classification Basics” section for the Style Guide. • Worked with IMO re proper classification of project documentation and to resolve documentation classification issues. • Suggested (and collaborated with another team member on) an intellipedia wiki page, using MediaWiki, as a quick-access repository for the training team’s materials. Designed to be a “quick win” during the redesign of the customer’s main training web page. [Additionally, have developed several personal wiki pages … http://genealogy.wikia.com/wiki/William_Cowan_(1750-1809)] • Created a Word Templates User Guide, courseware, and related training materials for two training sessions for the customer on template usage, issues with their customized templates, and how to use templates correctly. • Worked with developers to resolve issues that the customer was having with their customized templates. • Developed a set of project Documentation Standards, documentation process, documentation template, and custom MSWord controls to ensure consistency of program standards. • Wrote project's Master Training Plan and release-specific Training Plan(s). • Helped Training Team to develop a standardized directory structure for locating team documentation. • Established a formal peer review and management review process and specific directory location for management review of such deliverables. • Established a configuration management system and documentation library for the training team documentation. • Reviewed team deliverable submissions for grammar, formatting, and consistency prior to control gates. • Created reports, presentations, and other team and customer artifacts. • Participated in daily standups and various documentation review meetings with the customer. • Project just received Adobe Creative Suite 3 and team beginning to learn Captivate, InDesign, etc. for use as project production tools over MS Office. Connected Work Place Solutions (CWPS) -- Sr. Technical Writer/Editor (10/07-01/08) • Hired for 90-day technical writing position to document a proprietary procurement database application. • Consulted with SMEs who built the database and senior users of the system. (Left for full-time employment with benefits.) BAE Systems -- Sr. Lead Technical Writer/Editor (11/06-10/07) • Performed editing and formatting of documentation in support of a Logistics Operations Support (LOGS) effort that included the planning, implementation, and support of COTS software applications such as Maximo, HighJump and Cheetah, as well as legacy support for LotusNotes, MSAccess, and Oracle databases. • Provided tech edit and formatting to documentation deliverables written by project developers, testers, and managers on both the LOGS project and a proprietary hardware project. • Reviewed deliverable submissions for grammar, formatting, and consistency. • Assisted with creating reports, presentations, and other team and end-customer artifacts. • Developed a set of project Documentation Standards, documentation process, documentation template, and custom MSWord controls to ensure consistency of program standards. • Helped establish a standardized directory structure for both the high and low side systems. • Used Adobe Acrobat to .PDF the Word documentation files. QVine -- Sr. Technical Writer (08/04-11/06) • Wrote and/or maintained documentation for two web-based Agile methodology projects in support of an Asset Management system, developed by customizing Maximo and designed to provide legacy support for Lotus Notes, MS Access, and Oracle databases. • Wrote, edited, formatted, and maintained a variety of project documentation -- user manuals, training manual, online help files, User Interface Design Document, etc. • Used RoboHelp to develop online help files for proprietary software project. • Verified software functionality against use cases and formal written requirements. • Developed a set of project documentation standards, documentation template, and custom MSWord controls to ensure consistency of program standards... • Reviewed deliverable submissions for grammar, formatting, and consistency. • Developed a FrameMaker Training Manual and curriculum for in-house training of project personnel on the software (i) as the project documentation tool (ii) for long documents and (iii) how to convert existing Word documents to FrameMaker. • Used Adobe Acrobat to .PDF the documentation files for inclusion on the project website. • Participated in Engineering Review Board meetings. • Participated in CMMI Level 3 reviews. • Worked with the Configuration Management Specialist to develop the initial Project Management Plan and structured directory hierarchy for project files. (Helped to maintain the directory hierarchy and ensure its replication with the implementation of CVS onto the project.) • Participated in configuration management and control of the User Interface Design Document standards. • Assisted the development and requirements teams with contributions to the project control gates. • Acted as the project librarian and maintained the official project documentation. • Wrote Discrepancy Reports against the software to document application errors, GUI irregularities, functionality and/or usability issues, etc. Lockheed Martin -- Technical Writer / Sr. Trainer (03/03-08/04) • While in the new hire holding tank (while awaiting clearance), assisted with the new hire orientation process and volunteered as the Buddy Coordinator. • Developed the New Hire Overview and New Hire Handbook and helped with maintenance of these documents even after being assigned to a temporary offsite. • On the temporary offsite (May - Aug, 2003), tasked with writing and/or reformatting User Guide, Installation Guide, and Admin Guide for an AeroText project. • Assisted with user interface design issues for the web-based information retrieval portal project. • Participated in monthly Lockheed Martin hiring events and Excel PSG. • After receiving clearance (September 2003), assigned to the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) project. • Taught courses in HR101, LAWSON, and CPAD (Centralized Personnel Action Database) personnel actions. • Worked with customer's HRIS personnel to maintain the HRIS courses. • Used TAS to: (i) schedule students for formal HRIS, Lawson, and/or CPAD training at the customer site and (ii) record and maintain both student/course training records. • Performed student course critiques and evaluations. • Tasked with development, delivery, and maintenance of HRIS courseware. • Converted Word documents to FrameMaker for ease of handling the large courseware documents. • Trained team members on the use of FrameMaker and Adobe Acrobat in documentation production and maintenance. • Developed and/or or revised training curriculum as needed / requested by the customer due to changes (Federal or agency) in various HRIS regulations and/or software enhancements affecting employment issues. • As necessary, updated and maintained the course competency tests to reflect changes in course content. In this regard, used advanced FrameMaker features to update the answer file and simultaneously update the test document without having to separately update/maintain two documents - thus, eliminated the potential for error(s) as had occurred previously with manual updates of the documents. On-Site/Aerotek Contractor -- Technical Writer (09/02-03/03) • Worked as a contractor/temp for SAIC, documenting proprietary hardware teardown, installation, operation, and maintenance manuals. • Tasked with converting existing hardware Word documentation to FrameMaker. • Designed FrameMaker template, style guide, and usage conventions for hardware documentation. • Documentation effort included two types of writing efforts — (i) original writing efforts or (ii) editing and formatting engineer’s documentation to conform with the hardware documentation template. • Worked with production crew and graphics department to obtain engineering drawings and digital images to document various hardware components. • Used Adobe Acrobat to .PDF the documentation files for inclusion on the corporate website as well as a product CD that shipped with the hardware. Xacta -- Technical Writer (03/02-09/02) • Used FrameMaker to write user manuals, admin manuals, and install manuals for Xacta's three (3) products, as well as creating versions for both the government and commercial variations of each product. • Edited a variety of existing documents and adapted the format for a consistent corporate appearance in documentation. • Consulted with developers and other technical personnel for verification of the accuracy of the manuals' information. • Coordinated with developers and content team members to develop product release notes and technical tips. • Started a documentation library when affected by the second round of cuts. European Health Concepts -- Sales (07/01-02/02) • Made nightly 1-hour dinner presentations to over 50s age-group regarding potential health benefits of magnetic therapy. (Two presentations per evening.) • Worked on commission Ztango -- Technical Writer (10/00-07/01) • Designed company style guide used with requirements documents, design documents, user manuals, training materials, and web & WAP standards. • Developed both design and user interface for web and WAP-based application: HTML stylesheets, icons used, graphics used for buttons and navigation. • Developed documentation for various WAP demos used by sales and marketing staff for potential wireless (WAP) communications product offerings. • Edited a variety of existing web and WAP documents and adapted the format for a consistent corporate documentation appearance. • Worked closely with data analyst, DBA, and developers to document the tables and relationships within the various modules of the applications. Then developed appendices for the tables and graphically illustrated the entity relationships in the documentation. • Worked with system architects to establish user interface standards; develop consistency in drawings used in marketing, documentation, and software development. • Developed familiarity with WML and some java scripting. • Worked with several WAP emulators to develop WAP applications documentation and user interface standards. • Converted final documentation to .PDF files for use on the internal intranet. • Established a documentation library of final documents. Worked with system administrator to establish location(s) on the network to house the final documentation and associated .PDF files for easy access across departments. BabeeTenda -- Self-Employed (03/97-10/00) • Present weekly baby product safety shows, describing hazards found in many common baby products. Continually researching baby product safety issues. • Developed new sales tools/materials for dissemination among other distributors. • Member of American Society of Testing & Materials (ASTM). Part-time (09/95-03/97) • Attended Safe Kids coalition meetings. Monthly speaker at New Moms re car seats. • Completed 40-hour Car Seat Technician training (2/99) and 40-hour Car Seat Instructor training (11/99). Participates in Car Seat training courses bi-monthly. • Participated in car seat checkpoints (approximately once a week). • Proficient user of MS Access to track leads, perform mailings, etc. • Proficient user of QuickBooks Pro to track business financials, sales, sales tax, etc. Mastered advanced techniques to deal with special needs of my business. Cordant -- Training Project Leader (05/96-03/97) • Edited team training and reference documentation for clarity, consistency, and accuracy against the system. • Designed computer based training for various segments of EMPRES training. • Developed style guides for user, instructional, and technical documentation. • Developed style guide for computer based training modules. • Developed conversion process for documents from WP5.1 to MS Word 6.0. • Developed online help for several modules of POS proposal effort and testing. (Received week-long training course on CBT Express.) • Self-taught on HTML design and redesigned company home page. • Performed annual employee reviews. Tracked budget for project. • Hired/fired outside contractors for writing assignments on the EMPRES project. • Worked with Project Manager and Executive Vice President re EMPRES project. • Attended weekly management meetings and project review meetings. Synetics -- Training Analyst (12/94-05/96) • Wrote/edited team training and reference documentation for clarity, consistency, and accuracy against the system. • Designed online help system for the CODIS project (DNA matching for the FBI). • Developed style guides for user, instructional, and technical documentation. • Developed style guide for online help modules. • Received week-long training on RoboHelp and developed initial online help module using RoboHelp. Advance -- Training Team Lead (03/93-12/94) • Managed 7-member documentation and training team providing support to the DISANet migration and transition from 3COM and 3+Open to LAN Manager 2.2 and Windows. • Prepared monthly status report ... input to monthly project report to Government. • Developed and taught a one-day overview of LAN Manager for site administrators, operations personnel, and help desk staff. • Designed, developed, and implemented separate three-hour Introduction to Windows and Windows Workgroups to OSD personnel at the Pentagon. • Arranged for a subject matter expert to teach two (2) one-week basic LAN Manager classes. • Coordinated efforts for developing and implementing a one-day Windows overview. • Wrote and developed an Introduction to Windows User's Guide. (Later updated it to reflect the changes in cc:Mail 2.0). • Provided direction and guidance to technical writer and network trainer in the development of an Operations Guide for the new network as well as undertaking the development of a Technical Manual for the new network. • Reviewed various commercially available courseware options and made a recommendation for purchase of COTS courseware versus employee-developed curriculum. • Responsible for creating LAN versions (or new, more efficient versions) of many Corporate forms, expense reports, interim performance appraisal, annual performance appraisal, etc. • Instrumental in designing a Corporate resume format and teaching admin staff how to use/create resumes with WordPerfect styles. • Assisted in the development of Corporate formats for Project Work Plans, Proposals, and other documentation and writing efforts. |
