Juanita Rivera-Ortiz

Over 21 years in the financial services and healthcare industries driving results through strategic alignment, collaborative engagement and motivational strategies.

Results Driver - Strategic Alignment

Led and managed enterprise and divisional projects and budgets ($200k - $1B) serving as, Manager, Product/Project Manager, and/or Implementation Lead:

• Developed a Segment-Based Budget Process Roadmap to support the Finance Team in delivering over $1B in operational expense budgets on time (2022)
• Served as the team lead supporting the creation of the Triangle Native American Society's Strategic Plan which enabled the organization to secure over $100k in grant funding and the installation of an Executive Director (2021)
• Led the Dental Transformation to migrate and modernize all dental products, providers, business rules and membership to a single platform to deliver real-time claims processing allowing the organization to centralize and standardize over two (2) dozen functional capabilities using the Agile Methodology (2015-2019)
• Supported the implementation of over 2,000 medical and dental products for the inaugural debut of Health Care Reform in Central New York using the Waterfall methodology(2013-2015)

Performance Driver - Collaborative Engagement

Improved the efficacy and automation of requirements gathering and reporting while simplifying end-to-end target-setting and delivery processes:

• Executed an operational expense showcase to promote accountability in operational expense management to achieve over $50M in savings (2023)
• Leveraged industry benchmarks and financial performance to identify savings targets of over $200M (2022-present)
• Lead teams with a focus on human-centered design, quality and Agile principles to drive strategically aligned results (2019-present)
• Crafted an end-to-end, cross-functional feasibility & impact analysis process to support and standardize annual product build and implementations (2018-2019)

Achievement Coach & Mentor - Motivational Strategies

• Coached and mentored over 50 professionals in communication, leadership, personal and professional development (2006-current)
• Co-developed the pilot Mentoring Matters Program for a cohort of 32 employees for which over 80% of all program goals met or exceeded expectations (2023)
• Coordinated Toastmasters Youth Leadership Programming for over 50 Syracuse Area Youth to develop communication and leadership skills to support "back to school" readiness (2016-2021)
• Led two sections of an undergraduate Accounting Study Skills course, as a graduate assistant for first-year accounting students' success and retention (2001)

• Live Learn Lead Toastmasters, President & Vice-President of Education, 2017-Present
• Blue Cross NC Pro-Bono Programs, 2021-2023
• Board of Education, Jamesville-Dewitt School District, Policy Committee Chair, 2018-2021
• Board of Directors, YWCA of Syracuse & Onondaga County, Vice-Chair & Board Member, 2017-2021

• State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, Master of Business Administration
• Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Minor: Economics

• Behavior-Driven Development (Gherkin), 2019 • Cultural Responsiveness, 2019 • Lean Six Sigma, 2009 • Beyond Leadership, 2009 • IIA Internal Quality Assessment and Validation, 2008

• Live Learn Lead Toastmasters, President & Vice-President of Education, 2017-Present
• Blue Cross NC Pro-Bono Programs, 2021-2023
• Board of Education, Jamesville-Dewitt School District, Policy Committee Chair, 2018-2021
• Board of Directors, YWCA of Syracuse & Onondaga County, Vice-Chair & Board Member, 2017-2021

• State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY, Master of Business Administration
• Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Minor: Economics

• Behavior-Driven Development (Gherkin), 2019 • Cultural Responsiveness, 2019 • Lean Six Sigma, 2009 • Beyond Leadership, 2009 • IIA Internal Quality Assessment and Validation, 2008