Meet Shannon Heizenrader, VP of Programs

Shannon Heizenrader, PMI Portland’s Vice President of Programs, enjoys data. And research. After seven months in her role on the Board of Directors, she continues to use that interest to keep her vision for the Chapter moving forward: using data and customer (member) input to drive improvements in our programming.

When she originally joined PMI about 12 years ago, she recognized the business climate was changing and was drawn to project management. To learn more, she enrolled in PSU’s Center for Executive and Professional Education (CEPE) project management certification program. (CEPE is a sponsor of PMI Portland.)

Shannon had not been very active in the Chapter until, as for many professionals, the great recession caused her to rethink life plans. “I saw very talented people getting let go during the recession. And I decided to put my career change on hold,” she said.

After 20+ years in marketing communications (much of that time with Providence Health & Services), Shannon saw her chance to pursue the change she’d contemplated earlier.

“There were changes in my marketing and communications team when the work was centralized to Renton, Washington.,” Shannon said. She was laid off in 2016 while completing her MBA.

Though she acknowledges the timing of unemployment was scary, “I saw opportunity. I was drawn to project management as a career,” she explains. “I had made it the focus of my MBA concentration.

Shannon now works for the Avamere family of companies, serving the senior community as a Project Manager for Strategic Initiatives. In that role, she again gets to apply her passion for learning, research and data, facilitating programs straddling three companies under one corporate banner.

“I work with executives and healthcare professionals to investigate and introduce innovative projects that could vastly improve client care. In one project, we worked with IBM to study trends around how people move in care settings,” she says. “For example, using technology, we were able to learn if any of our clients was using the bathroom more frequently during the night (which could be an indicator of a urinary infection).

Over time, that data will be aggregated to see patterns and variances, and improvements can be implemented around nursing care and patient follow-up. “The potential is there for supplementing – not replacing – skilled nursing through research and data.”

Shannon says projects like these, combined with taking on challenges such as developing and implementing formalized project processes for the organization, keeps her role interesting.

As for PMI, Shannon said she hadn’t originally considered a VP role until she was approached before last year’s election. “It seemed like the right thing to do. I sat as a volunteer at the registration table for two years. I contributed as Assistant Director of Registration, and I’d heard members discussing what they hoped to get from our meetings.

“I want to keep giving back, and I can do that by helping to make the Chapter meetings the best they can be.”

Currently, Shannon is leading the Board in conducting a deep dive into results from both our local PMI member survey as well as those gained from the global PMI organization. Her key goal is to quantify decision-making around the Chapter’s program and service offerings.

When she’s not spending hours leading the PMI Programs Portfolio or working to improve healthcare, Shannon enjoys baking, testing new, healthy Mediterranean-influenced meals, and watching Bella the Beagle run the house.

If you are interested in joining Shannon in building up PMI Portland’s programming, contact her at vp_programs@pmi-portland.org