Lorena McElwain

Transformational, Purpose-Driven C-Suite Leader who leverages a visionary mindset, innovative strategic thinking, multilingual communications skills, and a data-driven approach to navigate organizational landscapes for immediate and long-term impact. Skilled in advancing strategic vision through diverse stakeholder coalitions.  

Transforming Organizational Culture: Innovated customer-centered transformation initiative

• Aligned safety and health goals to strategic plan
• Reduced workplace injury/illness in meat and poultry plants by 3%
• Cut lost production by 1%
• Realized $1.3 million in cost avoidance
• Achieved 6% all-time low vacancy rate for food inspectors, accounting for 80% of 10,000 employees

Scaling Sustainable Processes and Performance: Pioneered the agency’s civil rights strategic plan

• Reduced costs associated with employee grievances from $730K to $240K
• Increased timeliness of grievance investigations from 77% to 96%, exceeding 90% regulatory goal
• Slashed average accommodations processing time from 60 to 23 days, exceeding policy goal of 30 days in light of increased volume from 40 cases per year to 360 cases per month with no staff increases

Optimizing Governance: Centralized and streamlined business operations functions and governance process for IT investments, capital improvements, and procurement strategy

• Achieved strategic alignment to mission, operating budget, and program performance 
• Standardized budget calls and data for effective budget formulation

Resolving Conflict: Innovated data-driven employee proactive prevention programs, receiving accolades in 2015 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission congressional report as a model agency

• Increased mediation participation from 0% to 90% and success rate from 0% to 80% 
• Reduced disability as basis in employee complaints from 75% to 8% in one year 

Modernizing through Precedents: Improved quantitative and qualitative multilingual data collection methods 

• Defined and measured translation as source of survey error
• Established the world’s first pre-testing guidelines for questionnaire translations 
• Increased data validity for national surveys and the decennial census 

Master of Arts, the University of Texas at El Paso | 1998

Bachelor of Arts, the University of Texas at El Paso | 1995

Certificate in Organizational Cultural Transformation, Wharton School of Management | 2010

Key Executive Leadership Program, American University | 2009

Managing for Results, USDA Graduate School | 2006

Managing Projects in Organizations, George Washington University | 2002