Laura Melohn

Current

Lead Communications Specialist at American Chemical Society

Past

Senior Program Administrator at American Chemical Society
Program Administrator at American Chemical Society

Education

The University of Akron
College of St. Benedict

Recommended

4 people have recommended Laura

Connections

49 connections

Industry

Non-Profit Organization Management

Laura Melohn’s Summary

• Skilled communicator and technical liaison, effectively bridging the gap between the technical areas and business users. “Speak the language” of both groups and breakdown complex issues into understandable parts.

• Anticipate and resolve problems before they occur. Recognize the long-term impacts of decisions and not just their short-term gains.

• Extensive experience training and educating others at all different levels of expertise. Utilize different techniques depending on the specific needs of the individual and their learning style.

• Highly organized and efficient, managing concurrent projects and tasks to successfully meet all deadlines.

• Maintain composure and retain high customer satisfaction in difficult situations.

Laura Melohn’s Specialties:

Technical Support, Customer Service, Project Management, Quality Management & Productivity, Technical Documentation & Training, Vendor Partnerships, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Dreamweaver, HTML, Stellant Content Management System

Laura Melohn’s Experience

Lead Communications Specialist

American Chemical Society

(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

March 2009 — Present (9 months)

• Manage implementation and customization of the Program and Abstract Creation System, the new abstract submittal system for American Chemical Society Meetings.

• Identify and prioritize custom functionality related to the abstract system.

• Manage roll out of new system to users including issues related to changing systems, training users, creating user guides, troubleshooting any issues that arise, and maintaining an invitation only group for users in the in house social network for association members and nonmembers.

• Manage Technical Associate who administers the old abstract submittal system (OASYS) and now the new abstract submittal systems (PACS) by teaching both systems to the Associate as well as oversee timelines related to abstract collection and program creation tasks for the national meeting.

• Manage activities of the department following the retirement of the Assistant Director, including working directly with members to provide information, support, and problem solving, or determine the correct person in the association to address their needs.

• Serve as liaison to an American Chemical Society committee by assisting in communications, issue resolution, and organization of committee tasks and information.

• Coordinate several events at national meetings including committee meetings, workshops and strategic planning sessions by assisting in the planning of the event, contacting, coordinating, and overseeing contractors and other staff to assist with the event, and attending the events.

• Create and oversee web content for the department and the committees and groups it supports.

• Serve as member of the division Social Networking Marketing Team which created recommendations and implementation plans for the use of our in house social network for association members and nonmembers.

• Work with member committees and groups to create and maintain groups on the in house social network for association members and nonmembers.
Senior Program Administrator

American Chemical Society

(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

January 2008 — March 2009 (1 year 3 months)

• Handle all of the technical logistics for the bi-annual national meetings of the American Chemical Society, which consist of over 800 sessions, 7,500 abstracts and 11,000 attendees.
• Database administrator and primary technical support for the OASYS system (Online Abstract Submittal System).
• Provide training and documentation for all users of OASYS.
• Chair of the Global Cross-Functional Team for the department. Developed inventory of international activity and completed recommendations to increase international involvement within the organization.
• Utilize the Stellant Content Management System to update and re-design department website.
• Maintain the Chemluminary database for volunteer awards using Microsoft Access.
Program Administrator

American Chemical Society

(Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

January 2007 — January 2008 (1 year 1 month)

Laura Melohn’s Education

The University of Akron

MS , Polymer Science , 1999 — 2001

Master's Research: Kinetic studies of chemical Reactions using DESIRE Dynamic Simulations. Wrote BASIC computer programs to predict reaction outcomes by modeling the reaction using differential equations that describe the reaction.

Completed Technology Course: Management Decisions in the Polymer Industry, Joint Class College of Polymer Science and Business School. Focused on management issues related to technology.

Activities and Societies:

American Chemical Society
College of St. Benedict

BA , Chemistry , 1995 — 1999

Minor in Literature

Activities and Societies:

VISTO member--Coordinator of Adult Literacy Program, Science Saturdays--Coordinated hands-on science and math experiments for grade and middle school-aged Girl Scouts.