Bernice Maldonado has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic guidance and executing on organizational change management, communications, and project management to utility, public sector, technology, banking, financial, life sciences, and non-profit organizations. She has led regional, US-based, and global transformation efforts and initiatives.

Bernice’s background features a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement, organizational alignment, business readiness, and proactive communication as the key to improved readiness and adoption of change. She has worked as a Change Management lead for multiple operational excellence and digital transformation efforts; served as an internal consultant on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs; managed enterprise-wide integrated communications efforts; and executed performance improvement projects.

PROJECT EXPERIENCE:

• WA Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises (OMWBE)
• King County Hazardous Waste Program
• Tacoma Public Utilities
• Oregon Department of Transportation
• Southern California Edison
• Cisco
• Toyota
• Thermo Fisher
• Verna Myers Group

EXPERTISE:

• DE&I Program Evaluation & Development
• Strategic Consulting & Coaching
• Organizational Change Management
• Stakeholder Management
• User Experience and Alignment
• Visual Communications
• Technology Adoption Programs
• Project and Program Management
• Performance Improvement Programs

SAMPLE PROJECTS:

For the Washington State Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises (OMWBE) Bernice served as OCM communications lead for a project rolling out Access Equity, a statewide tool to help agencies better engage with, and track and report contracting spend with minority- and women-owned businesses.

At Southern California Edison, Bernice provided change management consultation, advice, and guidance for emergency and wildfire prevention, mitigation, and response activities. The work included implementation of change management strategies and tactics that integrated both compliance and operations activities, while guiding communications, active engagement, and resistance management with internal and external stakeholders including state and federal officials, community organizations, emergency responders, and customers. The effort required just-in-time and time-sensitive communications and training of various stakeholder groups including field personnel, business readiness, customer service, vendors, and public-facing partners to ensure they were ready, prepared, and able to support technology enhancements and changes to their wildfire safety and risk mitigation measures in reducing the risk of future wildfires.

Additionally, Bernice does intersectional research on socioeconomic inequity and social mobility of first-generation professionals, or professionals from working-class backgrounds. She advises organizations on DE&I strategies, conducts evaluations of DE&I programs, and creates practical interventions to drive change for optimizing diverse perspectives and talent contributions.

EDUCATION:

Bernice holds a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from University of California Irvine (UCI), and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of California Riverside (UCR). She is a certified change practitioner in the Prosci® ADKAR methodology of Organizational Change Management, and a member of the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP), Association for Talent Development, and International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). Bernice is also trained in the Hubbard & Hubbard, Inc. DROI ® Performance Analysis Methodology to analyze the impact of diversity initiatives in financial cost/benefit terms.