Richard M Burgess
134 Richard St
West Hartford, CT 06119
home: 860-570-0742
cell: 860-462-6545
Leader of People and Projects: Analytical and creative leader with excellent communication skills. Valuable as a "fresh pair of eyes" to assess situations at multiple levels in large and complex organizations, lead brainstorming, identify options, organize disparate information, combine it into a broader paradigm, and apply it to creative and effective solutions.
Management and Leadership Skills: Manage projects involving multiple work groups from different disciplines; build teams by actively listening, translating concerns and language. Lead groups through crises.
* Lead PC and mainframe database projects for diverse environments.
* Plan and lead all parish activities and ministries, including worship, education, youth programs, community outreach, and pastoral care.
* On-Call Chaplain at a major hospital and Level I Trauma Center:
- Coordinate pastoral care for patients and families in crisis.
- Support families and staff during deaths and traumas.
Communications Skills: Extensive experience in reflective empathic listening and responding with appropriate questions and/or suggestions. Do this at multiple levels, from giving presentations to both large and small groups to writing documentation, manuals, and procedures. Particularly skilled at translating and communicating complex data and ideas.
* Counsel medical staff in Yale-New Haven Hospital on family systems, ethics, and spiritual issues, resulting in an added human dimension to the expected technically oriented patient care.
* Preacher: weekly translation of historical and theological concepts into language understandable by all with application to contemporary, daily life.
Technical Skills: Extensive technical and end-user computer experience. Develop, test and implement vendor and in-house software into complex business environments involving both PC's and mainframes. Advise middle and upper management on hardware, software, and PC vendor issues resulting in their ability to make confident and informed decisions regarding computer technology.
* PC Software: Windows, DOS, OS/2, Word, WordPerfect, Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, Access, Paradox, PowerPoint, Corel Presentations, OS/2 LAN Server, Microsoft Mail, IBM Bridging Products, Novell Netware, OS/2 Database Manager, DBase III+.
* Mainframe Software: COBOL, Assembler, DB2, CICS, VSAM, Focus, EASYTRIEVE, SQL, OS/JCL, TSO/ISPF, VM/CMS.
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ACHIEVEMENTS:
* Incorporated e-mail sites into CIGNA's corporate-wide network of over 350 servers and 12,000 users:
- Led redesign and implementation, in one weekend, of the e-mail network for a building complex of 72 servers and 3500 users when existing capacity was exceeded, thus enabling the division to complete a massive relocation on time.
- Coordinated design and implementation of a custom e-mail site using dial-up technology, which connected a Puerto Rico office to the larger mainland network.
- Rewrote Microsoft e-mail manuals to fit CIGNA's needs which resulted in faster training of administrators and reduced end-user confusion.
* Chaired a committee to start a soup kitchen and food pantry to serve a 50,000 person community which resulted in feeding homeless and unemployed citizens year-round.
* Managed design, programming, development, and training of a networked Macintosh database which enable the CT Department of Education to manage their "Birth to Three" program.
* Designed a PC database for CT Department of Education which enabled tracking of nutritional content of meals in school lunch programs.
* Designed and implemented a PC database which tracked employee data entry performance in a CIGNA claim office.
* Created a new mainframe temporary storage system for a benefits database which enabled easier maintenance and more reliable recovery from production breakdowns.
COMMUNITY LEADER FOR MANY ORGANIZATIONS:
* West Haven Clergy Association: Interfaith association of local ministers.
* WHEAT (West Haven Emergency Assistance Taskforce): food pantry and social services referrals for a city of 50,000.
* Founder and Chair of ACTION, a social outreach development committee for WHEAT.
* Founder and Executive Director of Project HOPE (Helping Other People Everyway), a soup kitchen and food pantry for West Haven.
* Consultant to Elder Horizons, a gerontology program at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
WORK HISTORY:
1998 - 2004 First Lutheran Church West Haven, CT Pastor
1999 - 2003 Yale-New Haven Hospital New Haven, CT Chaplain
1992 - 1994 Burgess Data Enterprises Windsor, CT Database Design Consultant
1985 - 1992 CIGNA Systems Bloomfield, CT Technical Consultant
1980 - 1985 Hartford Insurance Group Hartford, CT Programmer Analyst
1978 - 1980 Iowa National Mutual Ins Co Cedar Rapids, IA Research Underwriter
EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
1998 Lutheran Theological Seminary Gettysburg, PA Master of Divinity
1983 Casualty Actuary Society Passed three exams: Calculus & General Mathematics; Probability & Statistics; and Numerical Methods & Operations Research
1977 Augustana College Sioux Falls, SD BA in Mathematics and Music