4800 Arkansas Avenue       Washington, DC 20011        202.751.9217         Wash1932@Yahoo.Com

Education

§     Associate of Science, Business Administration in Computer Information Systems, Georgia Perimeter College, December 2015 (coursework completed awaiting degree)

§     Bachelor of Arts, Journalism in Broadcast Journalism, Georgia State University , December 2015

(Coursework completed awaiting degree)

§     Management Information Systems, Memphis State University, 1985-1989

Skills

ü      Ability to lead projects, work independently until completion of project and to act as lead reporter of a beat as assigned-as a result of project management skills of APMP Shipley Proposal Project Management Certification.

ü      Ability to succeed in the news desk role honing in on the skill of making story assignments and generating story ideas as a result of sectional assignment responsibility as a proposal mgmt. leader. 

ü      Resulting from roles in proposal coordination, the candidate have delegation abilities to assign tasks, data access and review capabilities to other responsible staff based on staff capabilities, privy assessment and writer abilities,. 

ü      Due to formal training and experience, candidate is proficient at creating compliance matrices, and maintaining, monitoring and editing drafts, proposals, articles, whitepaper and etc towards compliance standards. 

ü      Excellent skill at writing copy of an array of types including corporate business, journalistic copy, technical, web copy, and proposal copy.

ü      Competence at maintaining, running queries and keeping up to date social media, membership databases, monitoring beacons media and other resources.

ü      Excellent research skills and delegation of research to trainees.

ü      Capability of monitoring news sources including fax, online and other sources and to interact with master control, superiors and management – statusing.

ü      Formally trained in interviewing tactics and other newsgathering methods.

ü      Excellent organization and coordinating skills

ü      Tenure preparing schedules and program rundowns, outlines using staff and resources.

ü      Ability in making presentations via leading proposal strategy meetings, kickoff meetings and participating in daily standup meetings.

ü      Excellent skills as an editor, beat reporter, investigative reporter, and document control.

ü      Ability to shoot video using ENG, EFT, EFG and other professional broadcast technology.

ü      Experience archiving data, past performance and other information.

Accomplishments

§     Coordinated and designed New Logo - Lunarline, Inc, which is currently in use today.  Led the company’s re-branding initiative and coordinated the stationary designs, marketing promo materials, including marketing banners for company participation in government techExpo.  See at www.lunarline.com

§     Authored a series of novels and books to include “Lay My Burden Down,” “Can’t Stop My Hustle,” and “Disguised in the City of Bedlam” as a series, in addition to other softbacks to include “Coffee with my Mother”, “Wounded in War”, “Chains In My Storm,” and “Chains In THE Storm” 

§     Designed the Ecommerce site, maintained it and monitored daily traffic for manuscript marketing, in addition created mobile phone versions of the site that allowed users access to buy on the go. 

§     Maintained two blogs at http://www. terryashford.wordpress.com

§     Authored many news articles, which includes hard news, soft news stories and features as part of daily role.

§     Spearheaded and designed the initial Lunarline Diacap.com website, for the Department of Defense (DoD) training module that catered to its cybersecurity initiative, while managing the site’s SEO marketing campaigns.  The current training website includes some of the initial work, and has since skyrocketed to become the Lunarline School of Cybersecurity – www.lunarline.com

§     At Sprint-Nextel, responsible for the BTSA Online, which was a tool used by BTSA helpdesk support representatives to maintain government networking accounts – spearheaded the project, created, designed, wrote copy and edited policies and procedures

§     Top Sales Award – at least 4 consecutive months – MCI Communications, Memphis TN

Certifications| Affiliations

§     American Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Proposal Manager (PM)

§     American Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Proposal Writer (PW) Certification

§     Shipley Certification Proposal Manager, 2011

§     Shipley Certification Proposal Writer, 2011

§     Certification as Microsoft Office Professional

§     The Foundation Center – Grant Writing and Budgeting, 2015

 

 

 

Employment

Select Computing Inc (SCi)/ (May 2016 – Present) Proposal Development Manager

As proposal manager, I write copy, edit content, lead review team meetings, attend bid/no bid meetings, and complete compliant, winning proposals.

• Editing, writing copy and interviewing SMEs

• Version Control

• File Management and Document Control

• Reviewer Comment

• Review Debrief Presentation Slides

• Review Processes, pink, red and gold

CSRA/Elite Proposal Contract (Feb 2016 – Feb 2016)

Proposal Coordinator

As proposal coordinator, I was a Privia delegate with assignment powers to the proposal workspace. I assigned workspace access to files and folders using giving writer, author, volume lead and section chief permissions to unclassified files of the multibillion dollar proposal but not before obtaining vetted authorization from Volume leads on each access request.  Other task included:

• Privia Access POC

• Version Control

• File Management and Document Control

• Reviewer Comment Depository

• Review Debrief Presentation Slides within minutes at close of pink team review

• Interface between writing staff, authors, volume leads and privia system administration that were located in separate buildings

• Created spreadsheets that tracked line by line comments of reviews

• Version control of documents through Privia access delegation

• Assisted with author privileges, rights review comments

• Review recovery included scanned reviewer comments of hardcopy, and made them accessible to section chiefs, lead writers, volume leads. 

• Coordinated graphics that included scheduling artist meetings with authors sections and teams and logging graphics

22^nd Century Technologies, Inc.  (May 2014 – July 2014)

Proposal Manager/Technical Proposal Writer

Evaluated proposal opportunities; managed all aspects of proposal preparation,

Managed, coordinated and schedule revision and submission, Interviewed SMEs

Generated copy as a technical writer on subject matters in support of the RFP specifications in L, C, M requirements.

Wrote specific section plans for program management, staffing, key personnel, conflict of interest, resumes, and quality plans along with executive summaries.

As proposal manager, I created and oversaw proposal schedule and deadlines of writers, subject matter experts, and other contributors and edited their content according to specs and deadlines to meet review deadline requirements.

Managed all volumes, including technical volume, cost volume, management volumes, while coordinating the layout, production.

Edited final content,  mapped RFP requirements to Sections L, C and M to deliver compliant winnable RFP responses. 

Leggs & More, LLC Inc. (October  2013 – April 2014)

Technical Proposal Writer/Proposal Manager – Independent Contractor

o      In charge of the business proposal process, strategize, write and coordinate business proposals pertaining to facility management, property investments and property management.

o      Assist the head of the company develop content and manage boilerplate information for reusability.

o      Act as the content manager, coordinated production of content with executive officer, to include reusable content for than proposal sections including risks, staffing, key personnel, communication plans, management plans, quality and monitoring plan.

o      Researched and gathered content for sections to include the project and past performance, corporate background, management, staffing and technical processes; Played an essential role in streamlining the processes and determined holes in content. Recommended solutions to gapping holes in content and provided researched solutions.

o      Manage content for two proposals on contract basis with opportunity to extend opportunities,

o      Created and maintained a database of content, wrote and updated content to meet niche and specs of each RFP opportunity.

o      Evaluated proposal opportunities; managed all aspects of proposal preparation,

o      Managed, coordinated and schedule revision and submission, Interviewed SMEs

o      Developed final deliverable timeline for two-three proposal pro-bono project.

TriCor Industries, Inc  (September 2011 – October 2011)

Technical Writer, New Carrolton MD

§     Participated in pipeline meetings for opportunities within rfp/rfi/rfq stage, Managed, coordinated and schedule revision and submission

§     Generated new content and edited content, maintained and updated content library

§     Evaluated proposal opportunities; managed all aspects of proposal preparation

§     Responsible for desktop publishing of proposals, business plans, technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal.

ProSource Inc (August 2011 – September 2011)

Technical Writer | Proposal Director, Washington DC

§     Identifies relevant boilerplate material to populate RFP/TO response template in accordance with RFP/TO compliance matrix sections and page counts

§     Develops and communicates version control throughout RFP/TO response lifecycle; ensures proposal artifacts are secured at all times

§     Responsible for desktop publishing of proposals, business plans, technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal.

Dell Services Division Federal Government    (July 2010 – July 2011)

Senior Technical Writer, Fairfax VA

§     Populate RFP/TO response template in accordance with RFP/TO compliance matrix sections and page counts

§     Develops and communicates version control throughout RFP/TO response lifecycle; ensures proposal artifacts are secured at all times0020

§     Managed sectional aspects of proposal preparation, i.e. key personnel, staffing, technical, quality plans; Maintained and updated content library

§     Responsible for desktop publishing of proposal sections, past performances, key personnel sections and resumes. 

§     Responsible for layout, template management, and desktop publishing of 1^st drafts of business plans, technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal.

Homeland Security Construction Co. (*February 2010 – July 2010)

Proposal Manager/Technical Writer (*February 2010 – July 2010), Hyattsville MD

o      Coordinates activities of operations organizations, including (but not limited to) Marketing, Contracts, Legal & Compliance and Pricing

o      Responsible for layout, template management, and desktop publishing technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal, key personnel as well as staffing plans that included resumes, senior personnel biographies and subcontractor profiles.

Healthcare Resolution Services, Inc  (* November 2009 – January 2010)

Proposal Manager/Technical Writer (Healthcare IT and Technical Staffing Industry), Upper Marlboro MD

o      Directs day-to-day proposal management activities for small to medium opportunities, including development of work plans, schedules and milestones

o      Interfaces with Client Sales Director and Solution Architect to ensure consistency and accuracy of messages across proposal, used Sales force and participated in bid/no bid meetings and daily sales update meetings.

o      Maintained business development pipeline.

o      Managed Salesforce, facilitated daily pipeline meetings, and coordinated team collaboration and task order management.

o      Creates Request For Proposal (RFP)/Task Order (TO) outline, including page allocation, based on weight of evaluation criteria and develops and maintains compliance matrix against RFP/TO requirements

o      Responsible for Task Order layout, template management for large Army Task Order and desktop publishing technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal, key personnel as well as staffing plans that included resumes, senior personnel biographies and subcontractor profiles

Management Technology Inc  (* July 2009 – November 2009)

Tech Writer (Information Technology Services Industry), Temple Hills MD

o      Supported all phases of the proposal process including content management, opportunity assessment, bid/no bid decision, response design/development, response quality assurance, proposal delivery, win/loss analysis and proposal reporting.

o      Conducts RFP analysis and dissection. Fully qualifies client requests - coordinate strategy meetings to ascertain sales team win strategies to wrap and develop proposal content, captured and develop new proposal response content and graphics.

o      Evaluated opportunities via seaport-e, SBAlliant, GSA, AFMASS, NavyMato contract vehicles and worked with sales and sales leadership to respond to commercial and federal integrator RFPs/RFIs.

o      Responsible for desktop publishing technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal, key personnel as well as staffing plans that included resumes, senior personnel biographies and subcontractor profiles

ICMA-RC (April 2008 – July 2009)

Technical Writer (Financial Services Industry), Washington DC

o      Respond to RFPs within defined 401(a), 401(k), 403(b) and 457 defined contribution industries

o      Manage RFPs, RFIs and RFDs for all potential and existing clients, created and manage database of response templates

o      Work closely with the sales team in analyzing all RFPs, attended strategy meetings and help develop bid strategy and concise approach; Led RFP kickoff, solution, and status meetings

o      Responsible for layout, templates and desktop publishing of proposals in the financial services industry to include 401k, 403b, college savings tax plans and etc. 

o      Desktop published technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal, key personnel as well as staffing plans that included resumes, senior personnel biographies and subcontractor profiles

 

SPECIFIC JOBS BY DIRECT MEDIA STAFF WRITING RELEVANCE

The Gazette Newspapers (*2002) (Media)

Staff Writer/Beat Reporter Prince Georges County, Landover MD

o      Wrote hard news, features, beat-related community news on the assigned beat. 

o      Coordinated photo-ops, interviewed subjects, met strict deadlines.

o      Participated in layout of beat newspaper, edited and participated in weekly storyboarding of activities

o      In covering the beat, attended Mayor’s meetings, breakfasts, press meetings, and community gathering

o      Accomplishments: Was the beat reporter who covered the red-carpet roll-out of the Bladensburg Water Port, and the construction of the Bladensburg School

o      Wrote several stories on the cleaning of the Anacostia River, Colmar Manor community news and Artists in Hyattsvillle, Prince George’s County

The Afro-American Newspapers (* 2001) (Media)

Staff Writer/General Assignment Reporter, Washington DC

o      Wrote news, features, community news.  Was responsible for sectional news briefs.

o      Acted as editor in her absence, and was responsible for layout and design, photo selections and etc.

o      Wrote hard news general assignment stories on the education, technology, department of aging and the elderly and etc.

o      Wrote feature stories on Whitney Houston, Fashion on Howard’s University Campus, and music reviews

o      Responsible for Layout and Desktop Publishing of publication using Aldus PageMaker.

Black Engineering and Technology Magazine (* 2001) (Media)

Staff Writer/General Assignment Reporter, Washington DC

o      As a freelance writer and created feature stories as assigned.

o      Wrote several stories, one to be exact, was females roles in technology entitled “Queen of Geeks.”

The Fairfax Journal (* 2000) (Media)

Editorial Assistant, Fairfax VA

o      Edited tables television and TV guide section

o      Coordinated layout and design of TV Guide Grid

o      Proofread and copyedited for grammar and syntax; mapped stories to style guide and forwarded to layout production team.

The Southern Voice Newspapers (* 2001) (Media)

Staff Writer/General Assignment Reporter, Atlanta GA

o      As a freelance writer and created feature stories as assigned.

o      Interviewed writers, wrote articles and  book reviews

The Atlanta Daily World Newspaper (* 1997) (Media)

Reporter Intern, Atlanta GA

o      Covered news stories as assigned

o      Completed layout and design of the newspaper

o      Interviewed subjects as assigned to assist reporter on duty

o      Proofread and copyedited sections, as assigned by news editor

The Signal Newspaper of Georgia State University (1996-1998) (Media)

Assistant Editor, Opinions and Commentary, Atlanta GA

o      Wrote opinion columns for Op-Ed section of the newspaper

o      Edited copy written by student writers on topics published in the Op-Ed section

o      Desktop published Opinions Section of the paper including  layout and design using Aldus Pagemaker, and Adobe Freehand

The Signal Newspaper of Georgia State University (1996-1998) (Media)

Staff Writer/Student Reporter, Atlanta

o      As a student reporter, wrote news pertaining to the concrete campus

o      Interviewed artists, stars, and politicians that attended the campus

o      Wrote feature articles published in the newspaper’s book reviews, movie reviews, and music reviews.

 

SPECIFIC JOBS TELECOM, HELPDESK AND OTHER RELEVANCE

Aptela Telecom – VOIP Services   (Telecom & Broadband Services Industry) (*2006)

Telecom Implementation Specialist, Tysons VA

o      Was first tier tech support helpdesk assisting VOIP Business Customers

o      Created mal Voice Overs, for business VOIP PBX type systems

o      Trained business clients, and coached through initial telecom system setup.  

o      Provided technical support and problem resolution to subscribers and assisted with updates of the standard operating procedure manuals. 

Sprint-Nextel   (Telecom & Broadband Services Industry) (*2005)

Business Technical Support Specialist (BTSA) – FBI and other government Telecom Accounts, Falls Church VA

o      Troubleshoot communication network problems on FBI and other government accounts

o      Opened and closed trouble tickets within contract timeframes in compliance with standard operating procedures

o      Maintained 1^st and 2^nd tier helpdesk, diagnosed network issues, call routing, t1/t2/t3 line issues,  and distributed reports to management that outlined dates, times, types of problems to report back to the contract officer

o      Accomplishment: Spearheaded and created the BTSA ONLINE, which was an intranet web reference tool for BTSA Floor Representatives.   The idea was implemented and rolled out to more than 200 BTSA floor representatives as one floor resources while receiving, and working through trouble calls.   The BTSA ONLINE was a knowledge base that assisted reps with accessible information

o      Performed creative duties outside of technical role:

Designed and layout of the BTSA Online

Created new content, and edited previously written content and  best practices to post onto BTSA online

Analyzed processes, SOPs and departmental practices and rewrote them into understandable verbiage 

Designed the tool on the very basic level, using MS Frontpage, HTML, CSS and XML to deliver immediate accessible knowledge internally as a call center tutorial site

Copy-wrote content that was aimed to keep floor up-to-date on latest changes to SOPs, Trouble issues, and updates

Created copy

Updated BTSA ONLINE daily

Responsible for news blasts, which were broadcast messages to the entire floor, about industry, system client and updated the floor as needed to adhere to last minute changes

MCI Communications (1994-1997) (internet MCI (iMCI) integrated software Technical Support)

Software Support Specialist/Tier 1, Atlanta GA

o      Researched, resolved, and responded to questions and problems received via telephone calls regarding software installation and compatible operating systems. 

o      Walked callers through installation process, application setup, software navigation and etc.

o      Documented customer information and detailed problem descriptions in software ticketing system.

o      Escalated network issues and problems to tier II in accordance with Service Level Agreements and program policy while provided support according to company standards.

MCI Communications (1992-1994) (MCI Telecom Service /Call Center)

Telecom Services/Call Center Representative, Memphis TN

o      Researched, resolve, and respond to questions and problems received via telephone calls. 

o      Documented customer information and detailed problem descriptions in Remedy ticketing system. 

o      Escalated problems in accordance with Service Level Agreements and program policy & provided support according to company standards.

Federal Express Corporation (1987-1989) (Customer Services Department)

Technical Word Processor II, Memphis TN

o      Gathered statistical data, analyzed, edited tables and other technical copy that included memos, illustrations and graphics. Responsible for call center data entry of hourly employees, received and distributed payroll to all call center employees.

o      Delivered essential customer service documents including weekly & monthly statistical call center reports of over 200 customer service representatives.  Worked with call center management, and analyzed call center hourly call center statistics. Recorded ACD call manned time, login, logout, on-duty times, schedule adherence and call work time.  Forwarded consistent problem areas to management.

o      Proofread and copyedited any and all literature for grammar and syntax; maintained files, illustrations, and coordinated layout and design of standard operating procedures manuals.

 

NON-RELEVANT EXPERIENCE – PUBLISHING & COMMUNICATION JOBS

Strong Men Cry, Inc /The Writer Co, Inc. (May 2012 – December 2013) & (May 2014 - April 2015) (July 2016-Present)

Publishing Officer/ Publications Coordinator/ Author, Washington DC

§     Served in multiple roles, as head of the company.  As publisher, coordinated production of projects with publishing house, to include more than five manuscripts of novels, non-fiction and poetry. As publication coordinator, I coordinated layout and design of the documents, mapped them according to publishing house standards, style guides, margin specifications.  I also coordinated graphics with graphic artists, photography and maintained graphic files, in addition to learning the role of graphic artist using photo shop, illustrator and etc, as backup to graphic artist role. Oversaw and coordinated graphics team, completed marketing and branding of products, publications and other marketing materials.

§     Manage content for website at www.terryashford.com, maintain database of content, write and monitor traffic, statistics and manage campaigns to impact product and author visibility to online niche communities.

§     Manuscript management, version control, revisions, submission as well as final proof of project before completion. Published novels, non-fiction and other types include “Lay My Burden Down,” “Can’t Stop My Hustle,” “Disguised in the City of Bedlam,” “Coffee With My Mother,” and “Chains in my Storm”. Determined styles and layout of images that appear on covers and other publications, on product packaging and approved items, managed budgets, supervised design employees and presented finished work to publishing agent. 

§     Responsible for desktop publishing of all creative projects, proposals, business plans, technical, management and staffing volumes of the proposal.

Lunarline, Inc (* Jan 2007 –2008)

Communications Specialist/Tech Writer (IT, Information Assurance Industry), Washington DC

o      Lead departments of Communications, Marketing and Public Relations; Analyze and interpret technical information in order to compose SOPs on Dept of Commerce and Dept of Defense Contracts.

o      Wrote copy, edit and develop web-content for real-time publishing to www.diacaptraining.com and www.lunarline.com. ; Created communication style guide, and maintained standard proposal formats and draft fact sheets

o      Directed and coordinated the Logo redesign process, stationary publishing, website revamping; Drafted and edited SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), HR Policies and SOW's (statements of work) and publish to intranet; Editor of internal newsletter, The LunarLight; Monitored newswires and publish industry news.

o      Responsible for layout, design and desktop publishing of the company newspaper and training website

Federal Express Corporation (1989-1992) (Publications &Publishing Services Department)

Technical Word Processor III/Composition Specialist, Memphis TN

o      Coded copy using xml, html and other composition coding to program digital composition systems such as wang and digital equipment computers. 

o      Edited tables using programming languages that linked composition and copy to digitally stored illustrations and graphics to deliver essential airline manuals according to APA style and manuscript guidelines; Coded text using composition programming languages like XICS and CSV.

o      Proofread and copyedited for grammar and syntax; maintained graphic files, illustrations, and coordinated layout and design of 400 plus page manuals.

 

SAMPLES CAN BE PROVIDED UPON REQUEST