Otis ONE™: IoT Platform Rollout
As Corporate Business and Technical Communications Lead, North America, developed role-based messaging, executive briefs, on-device prompts, and microlearning guides to support the Otis ONE™ rollout to 8,000 field technicians across North America. Otis ONE™ is an IoT-powered platform connecting elevators and escalators to the cloud for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Applied change enablement principles to drive adoption across a distributed field workforce.
Core & Main: ERP and Internal Comms
As Corporate Senior Change Management Communications Specialist, supported a company-wide ERP pilot across OCM, HR, IT, training, and operations, replacing a 40-year-old system. The pilot set a communication planning foundation built to scale across more than 370 branches at full launch. Built the full communications suite — pilot announcements, leader letters, a four-part employee brochure series, a go-live reference dictionary, and a change champion network — to keep every audience informed at every stage.
Also produced four internal newsletters for different audiences, built dashboards to track content performance, and set up a Copilot-based inbox workflow that saved the team 2 hours a day. Delivered Train the Trainer sessions with cross-functional teams to ensure consistent message delivery from the corporate level down to branch managers.
Train the Trainer session — cross-functional team preparing branch managers for the ERP rollout
Ameren: Maximo Application Suite Rollout
One of three communicators on the OCM team · 3,100+ co-workers across Illinois and Missouri · Hard cutover, legacy system retired at go-live
A work and asset management replacement with no fallback. The old system went away on Aug. 17, so everyone was on the new one from day one and the only real question was whether people could do their jobs. That put the work squarely in the Ability and Reinforcement end of ADKAR: find what is stopping someone, clear it, and make the fix stick.
- Closed all 85 OCM-tagged communication tickets from the Aug. 17 go-live by Sept. 11, business day 20 of a six-week hypercare, with most messages approved and sent within one workday.
- Covered 66 of the 85 with communications, 77.6%, sending 54 as their own message and folding 12 into a related update, a SharePoint post, a supervisor note, or a job aid.
- Kept 19 issues, 22.4%, out of broad communication as technical defects, configuration problems, data conversion errors, enhancement requests, or single-user items better solved directly.
- Worked a 45-minute response clock on new issues, from intake to SME investigation, with every draft cleared by the SME and the program lead before release.
- Wrote the style guide, templates, and standard operating procedures for the program, establishing content governance where none existed.
- Prepared leadership agendas and content for the program sponsor, site lead, steering committee, program lead, and change champion meetings, confirming each through the weekly communications update meeting and reviewing it with the program leader and project manager before building materials.
- Wrote the program’s monthly newsletter.
U.S. Department of Energy, CESER
On a six-month consulting engagement with the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, set up content governance and an editorial communication plan working directly with the chief of staff and deputy director. Drafted communication briefs and manager toolkits for 20+ leaders supporting 1,500+ employees.
🔒 Specific program details withheld in accordance with federal confidentiality requirements.
Workforce Transition Communications
Operating model and org design change · Three economic cycles
John Deere Waterloo Works · Led a team of 5 FT staff and 43 contingent workers · $1M+ annual communications budget
Led employee communications across every phase of workforce change at John Deere Waterloo Works — from large-scale layoffs affecting 1,780+ employees across three economic downturns (2014–2016, 2019–2020, and 2022) to salary voluntary separations and compensation restructuring. Each wave required clear, compassionate messaging built under pressure, coordinated with HR and legal, and delivered to a frontline workforce that deserved honesty. In 2021, led communications for the rehire campaign that brought approximately 150 workers back — managing both the reduction and the recovery for the same community of employees.
Crisis & Labor Relations Communications
Served as the business continuity team communications lead at John Deere Waterloo Works during COVID-19 — creating and approving all factory floor communications, return-to-work plans, daily employee updates, executive messaging, and local PR for a 5,000+ employee facility. Also served as sole communications lead during a 34-day UAW strike, the first at the facility in 35 years. There was no institutional knowledge, no prior team to consult, and no playbook. Every message — to employees, to the public, to leadership — was built from the ground up while the situation changed daily.
The 34-day strike is documented in more detail as an interactive timeline, with the communications action taken at each stage.
See the Crisis Timeline →Strategic Communications Leadership: Customer Experience & Product Launch Events
Led integrated communications strategy for two of John Deere's highest-profile moments — the Gold Key 100th Anniversary Centennial delivery (Serial #001, national press) and the live global reveal of the 9RX Series four-track tractor broadcast directly from the Waterloo Works factory floor. Coordinated across manufacturing, engineering, product, marketing, leadership, and media teams. Prepared the factory manager for live on-camera executive presentation. Delivered content across earned, owned, and shared channels simultaneously.
Gold Key Program, John Deere
As Community Relations Manager, managed the Gold Key program at John Deere's Waterloo Works, a premium VIP experience that lets customers who have ordered a new tractor visit the factory, follow their machine through the full assembly process, and turn a gold key to start it for the first time. The goal was to make it feel less like a factory tour and more like the farmer's version of Disney.
- Improved the factory visitor experience with video screens, visitor maps, and interactive displays, earning a 98% Net Promoter Score.
A Gold Key tour group on the assembly line — this tractor was built for Farm Rescue
Gold Key visitors at John Deere Waterloo Works — names removed
Dennis Carnahan's Visit
Dennis Carnahan came with his son Ben to watch their tractor get built. His visit captured exactly what the program was built for: honoring the families who power American agriculture and giving them a moment they would carry with them.
Dennis Carnahan and son Ben at the Gold Key welcome wall — John Deere Waterloo Works
Be the One: A Yearlong Employee Series
John Deere Waterloo Works · 5,000 employees across five sites · Every shift, every location
The company had just made people goals part of how everyone was measured, so how you treated a coworker or a customer counted as much as what you produced. The cab drop was the best moment on the factory tour, but the crew who built those cabs worked in another building, off the tour route, and nobody had written about them. So I did, and it became a series.
- Ran a full year across every shift and every location.
- Built each feature the same way: a photograph, the employee’s story in their own words, and a thank you that was meant. No prize, no points, and no leaderboard.
- Most of the people featured worked production and had never been asked to talk about their work.
- Partway through the year, employees started nominating each other, and the series stopped being something communications assigned.
- Featured the crews nobody was covering, including cab assembly off the tour route, end-of-line inspection, a third-shift tool maker, and the safety team.
- Published through town halls, digital signage, and SharePoint so employees without a desk or a company email still saw it.
Employee & Community Storytelling Program
John Deere Waterloo Works · Community Relations Manager · Primary media liaison for KWWL and the Waterloo Courier
As Community Relations Manager, served as the communications lead, on-camera spokesperson, and media liaison for John Deere's most visible public storytelling during the Tractors at 100 centennial. Scripted, filmed, and directed "The Legend Runs On" employee video campaign, placing employee longevity features across broadcast and print for more than a decade. Coordinated ongoing community coverage with KWWL anchor Ron Steele, including a United Way segment where he drove a tractor on the factory floor.
- Scripted, filmed, and directed the Tractors at 100 centennial video campaign. Placed employee longevity features on Gaylord Converse (52 years), Dick Brannon, Roger Poock, and a generational trio whose combined 150 years of service anchored the centennial narrative.
- Managed broadcast media relations for the Gold Key customer program, United Way campaign coverage, and the 2018 centennial finale, including on-camera interviews with KWWL and KCRG.
- Managed the Northeast Iowa Food Bank partnership through direct reports, including Community Organizers Mindy Schmidt and Nicole Porath, who facilitated large-scale meal packaging drives across Waterloo and the Cedar Valley. John Deere donated $1.5 million to the Food Bank; Waterloo employees raised $1 million or more annually for United Way.
As Seen In
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Radio Iowa →
Kelly Henderson quoted by name as John Deere's project manager and event co-organizer for the centennial celebration. Broadcast statewide.
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KWWL Channel 7 →
John Deere's $1.5 million donation to the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. Multi-year broadcast relationship with anchor Ron Steele spanning Gold Key, United Way, and the centennial finale.
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Waterloo Courier
Gaylord Converse feature named Top 10 Most-Read Good News Story of 2019. Employee longevity and centennial coverage across 10+ years.
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John Deere MachineFinder Blog →
Published May 2018. The Ryan Howard and Gaylord Converse stories featured on John Deere's official equipment marketplace blog, distributed to millions of dealer and customer subscribers.
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John Deere YouTube
Three videos from the campaign below. 43,000+ views on the Facebook launch of the main centennial film.
The Legend Runs On — Video Campaign
Gaylord Converse — 52 years with John Deere. His Courier profile was named a Top 10 Most-Read Good News Story of 2019.
Ryan Howard — 2nd-generation John Deere employee. His parents combined for 40 years; his brother and sister-in-law also work at the plant. Family stories like this anchored the multi-generational centennial narrative.
Watch on YouTubeIn-Factory Town Halls and Production Meetings
Planned and produced 60 in-person sessions in a single week, repeated every quarter: town halls held directly on the factory floor to reach every shift, every crew, every building. Production employees couldn't step away to a convention center, and 3,500 of them worked the floor, so the meeting came to them. Managed scripts, talking points, content, and logistics to keep the message consistent from the first session to the last.
John Deere tractors built at Waterloo Works, loaded for delivery — the product these employees showed up to do every day · Photo: Kelly Henderson