Carl Urness had barely completed his duties in the IT Shared Services Department at DOT last summer when he boarded the Vamoose Bus, bound for New York City.  Since August, he has been working as a VISTA Fellow at the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) in the office of the Mayor.  There he is charged with developing and implementing anti-poverty programs for the city’s youth.  Only halfway though his time in NYC, he has many accomplishments under his belt.  One such accomplishment is launching the Work Progress Program, a jobs program for low-income young adults in NYC.  The program provides wage reimbursement to non-profits so they can offer to pay their participants engaged in work assignments.  In addition to overseeing a budget of more than $100,000, Carl is overhauling the data dashboard system that tracks the performance of CEO’s programs.

When asked if his AMP experience has served him in his present position, he responded enthusiastically in the affirmative.  In particular, he credits the AMP program with honing two very important skills. One is Organizational Management. The other is the ability to present to executives. “One of the key things I learned during my summer with M Squared Strategies,” says Carl, “is how to manage up. In a perfect world you can spend hours telling your manager all you know about a subject. I learned to be concise, to convey only the necessary information.  And to do that, you have to know your subject inside out.”

Springtime at M Squared Strategies means putting the finishing touches on the newly designed work rooms, finalizing contracts, and getting ready to welcome the AMPs.  This year’s group promises to be the biggest ever — at least twice as many as last year.

Recruitment for the summer-long Applied Management Professionals (AMP) Program began last October. The applicant pool, graduate students from the nation’s top universities, has grown exponentially as the reputation of our program has risen. We have also expanded our roster of partner schools, adding Harvard, Tufts, New York University, University of Virginia, and University of Maryland to a list that already included some of the top universities in the country — Johns Hopkins University, The George Washington University, University of Texas, Indiana University, and University of California San Diego, to name a few.

The application process is rigorous and includes personal interviews as well as team exercises. Alessandra Colia, Director of the AMP Program, traveled extensively, from Boston to San Diego for face-to-face meetings. For the schools she couldn’t visit personally, she conducted intense conference calls via Skype. “I’m really excited about the quality of all our applicants this year. I can already tell that this summer’s group will deliver at the highest level yet. We’ve had so many qualified applicants that the toughest part will be making the final selection.”

Throughout the recruiting process, Alessandra has had a lot of help from her colleagues at M Squared Strategies, as well as former AMPs. Special thanks go out to Jenny Weng, Justin Heineman, Emi Azumi, Laurel Wemhoff, and all of the 2011 AMP alums for helping us complete a successful recruitment season!

The 2011 AMP Program came to an end in August to rave reviews. The closing reception was a celebration of the AMPs’ accomplishments of all their projects from the summer while marking the beginning of new relationships with our current and future clients. The AMPs were afforded a most memorable and rewarding experience as they were paired with some of the best and brightest Executives in the Federal Government. Moreover, the AMPs were tasked with solving real problems that were plaguing our clients, which they most certainly tackled with the utmost of professionalism and efficient execution. These real-world problem-solving challenges provided a practical and transferrable experience that will inevitably enrich the respective academic pursuits of the AMPs.

The AMPs completed the following client projects:

• VA VLER: Budget Process Design and Onboarding Process Design
• VA ITRM: Orientation Guide and CDCO Process Documentation
• DOT: SOP Development, Asset Management, and Customer Account Management

The 2011 AMPs completed corporate projects for corporate marketing, business development, and corporate giving. More detail on all of their work and the 2011 summer can be found here.

In addition to their projects this summer, the AMPs participated in many other facets of the Program. The training this summer included: Introduction to Process Design, Strategic Planning, Introduction to Project Management, and Working in the Beltway. Their excursions took them from Monticello to the Capitol and all over DC with Happy Hours in between! A special thank you to all our mentors this year that supported our AMPs! Finally, the newest component of the AMP Program brought Government Executives to the table with our AMPs. Over 7 luncheons, AMPs had the opportunity to learn through conversation what it is like to be a Government Executive and how to pursue a career in this field. All of these pieces contributed to a rich and fulfilling summer for all of our AMPs!

Some AMPs have continued work with M Squared beyond the allotted summer Program period. M Squared is fortunate to have Jenny Weng currently working as a full time employee as part of our marketing efforts as well as continuing support for VLER. It is because of the commendable work that Jenny and her team did that the VLER client has requested ongoing work from her and two other AMPs. Mark Buckley has also continued on at ITRM with the M Squared staff working on budget processes for Rom Mascetti. It is because of the dedication of the AMPs and their commitment to their clients that they have been recognized and asked to extend their time with us – thank you for all your hard work!

AMPs at the Department of Transportation

The AMPs at the Department of Transportation recently wrapped up a successful summer. This summer the AMPs supported work in three areas: Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Development, Asset Management, and Customer Account Management (CAM). Each AMP was given a challenging project and quickly rose to the occasion in a very technical, changing, and sometimes-chaotic IT department.

Greg Feldman and Elena Foukes helped the technical writing team get SOPs in place to meet contractual obligations. Greg and Elena’s hard work on over 40 SOPs in a 9-week period was not the only impressive thing they did; they also helped the team meet a tight August 31 deadline on Disaster Recovery SOPs.

Carl Urness assisted the Asset Management team by also writing SOPs. Carl was in a unique position, however, since many were produced from scratch. Carl took to the initiative to become a subject matter expert, learning each of the Asset Management processes, which proved to be a significant advantage as he wrote the SOPs. He also performed a gap analysis that resulted in recommendations for managing inventory and improving both internal and external communications within the department.

Stacey Pollack supported the CAM team by working on several communications efforts and a model fact sheet template. She also took the lead on a software-packaging project. Her outgoing nature and people skills proved to be an asset in helping her acquire some much needed and hard to get information from clients for this project. Through her work, Stacey provided the CAM team with tools to facilitate their work as well as identified informational gaps with cost and timesaving potential.
The AMPs certainly demonstrated M Squared’s excellent tradition of service. The prime contractor, ActioNet, and the government praised the AMPs for both their professionalism and quality of work, and consequently mentioned their desire to continue the AMP program at the DOT again next summer. Congratulations to the DOT AMPs for a job well done! You made your “DOT Mama” (and a host of others) proud!

– Erin Farr, 2011 DOT AMPP Team Lead

AMPs at the Department of Veterans Affairs

I had the pleasure of working with an excellent group of graduate students this summer. Alexandra Reames, Courtney Gleason, Ethan Palmer, and Rachel Brody all exceeded expectations and became subject matter experts in the contractor onboarding process and the budget formulation process for the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) Initiative. Their exceptional ability to provide thorough analysis and recommendations were noted by the client, points of contact, and several participants at the VLER Integrated Project Team (IPT) meeting in Altoona, PA. Because of their commitment and dedication, the client and other stakeholders all voiced their interest in having the AMPs continue the work of implementing their recommendations past the original AMPP period of performance.

– Jenny Weng, 2011 VA AMPP Team Lead

This summer the Applied Management Professionals (AMP) Program has grown and flourished in more ways than one. Our ten AMPs from four universities are working hard on six projects in three different offices! In addition to their client delivery, they are developing three corporate projects for marketing, business development, and corporate giving. Squeezing in some time for trainings, excursions, and networking happy hours has not been easy, as these AMPs are staying quite busy! With only a few weeks left, it feels like this the summer has flown by. Please join us for their closing reception on August 8 to celebrate a summer of accomplishments!

AMPs at the VA: Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) Team

An AMP in our 2009 program, Jenny Weng has returned to M Squared this summer to serve as AMP Team Lead for the VLER team at the VA. One group is busy interviewing staff and contractors as part of their efforts to research, analyze, and create a process map of the current contractor onboarding process. The team will ultimately provide recommendations to improve the onboarding process by addressing two main challenges: time and communication. Meanwhile, another group of AMPs is interviewing program managers to research and analyze the VLER budget process. They will provide both short- and long-term recommendations to overcome challenges in standardizing and streamlining the budget process.

Ethan Palmer is currently a Master of Public Administration candidate at the Trachtenberg School of George Washington University, where he is concentrating in Public-Private Policy and Management and Federal Policy, Politics, and Management. Prior to graduate school, Ethan attended Brandeis University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Politics and French and Francophone Studies. Ethan has interned for Congressman Chris Murphy and with the Institute for Policy Studies and was a graduate assistant for the Trachtenberg School this past year.

Rachel Brody is currently a Master of Public Administration candidate with a concentration in Program Evaluation at the Trachtenberg School of the George Washington University. She works as the managing editor of the academic journal, Policy Perspectives. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008 with a double major in Spanish and Political Science, she served as an adviser with the National College Advising Corps helping under-served youth plan and apply to college. Most recently, she worked as a graduate fellow at the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Alexandra Reames just completed her first year at the University of California San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) with a focus on development and economics within Latin America. Prior to IR/PS, Alex worked at the International Rescue Committee assisting refugees to find employment in San Diego. This included resume development and interview coaching. She completed her undergraduate degree in Global Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she played club volleyball and won a national championship. She also interned at Segue Career Path Mentors, a nonprofit in Ventura, where she specialized in grant writing.

Courtney Gleason is an Arlington native who is currently working on her Master of Business Administration at Virginia Tech (VT) with a concentration in Organizational Management and Strategy. A loyal hokie, she also received her Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from VT. At school she is active in student organizations and loves to travel whenever she has the opportunity.

AMPs at the VA: Information Technology Resource Management (ITRM) Team

Our own Nina Babel is serving as AMP Team Lead for the ITRM team at the VA. The AMPs have been working hard to create a new hire guide consisting of department overviews, organizational charts, and logic models that explain the office’s mission and responsibilities. They are also documenting the service level agreement process for the Office of Information and Technology’s (OI&T) data support provider to capture the current process and provide recommendations for improvements.

Aryn Ehlow is a Master of Public Policy candidate at The George Washington University focusing on program evaluation and foreign policy. Before pursuing her masters, she spent three years at Cone Inc., an international communications firm located in Boston, where she assisted in the development and management of national marketing campaigns for clients such as Barbour, Ben & Jerry’s, and Nestle Waters North America. Originally from California, Aryn moved to the East Coast to attend Boston University where she received her bachelor’s degree in international and public relations.

Mark Buckley is a 2011 graduate of the Master of Public Administration program at The George Washington University (GWU). During his studies, Mark completed internships in the policy division of the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Prior to moving to Washington, DC to attend GWU, Mark spent several years working in the administration at Columbia University in New York. Mark is also a 2003 graduate of Boston College with a degree in History.

AMPs at the DOT: Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Team

An AMP in our 2010 program, Erin Farr has returned to M Squared this summer to serve as DOT AMP Team Lead. The AMP team at the DOT supports work in four areas within the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) IT Support Services (ITSS) office: Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Development, Customer Account Management, Asset Management, and Change Management. Highlights of their efforts include work on or completion of nearly 20 SOP’s, asset order filling support, asset database and order form management, communications support, distribution list management, asset verification, and software CI management.

Carl Urness was born and raised in Spokane, WA. In 2010 he graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts double degree in International Studies and Geography. Some highlights of his experience as an undergraduate include researching the business side of non-profits in Thailand and writing about cultural geography in the book Seattle Geographies. On the rare occasions when he can take a break from studying Public Financial Administration at Indiana University he enjoys a good round of disc-golf. Carl is looking forward to a summer in Washington, DC.

Stacey Pollack is currently a student at Indiana University, working to complete her Master of Public Affairs in International Policy Analysis. Prior to graduate school, she worked in program implementation and budget management for a non-profit organization on an international exchange program, where she had the opportunity to interact with high profile leaders from around the globe. In 2007, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Barnard College, Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in Russian Regional Studies. Additionally, she is fluent in Russian and Hebrew, and has also studied Uzbek and Spanish.

Greg Feldman has just completed his first year in the Master of Public Administration Program at The George Washington University. Greg enjoys policy analysis, program evaluation, and leadership. Before joining the AMP Program, he was a government affairs intern for the American Bakers Association and unfortunately he did not get free baked goods every day. Prior to attending The George Washington University, Greg received his B.A. in both political science and economics along with a minor in business from the University of Florida. This is Greg’s first venture living outside of Florida, and he already misses the ability to wear sandals all year.

Elena Foukes is a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego studying Pacific and International Affairs, with a focus on Intentional Economics and China. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from Loyola University Chicago. In addition, she has studied in Rome, Italy and Beijing, China. She is very excited to be working for M Squared Strategies this summer in order to get hands on experience in the consulting field. Elena is a native of Detroit, Michigan and enjoys ice-skating and art.

M Squared is preparing for our 2011 Applied Management Professionals Program (AMPP), which is scheduled to run mid-June through mid-August. Application deadlines are approaching, and we will begin interviewing candidates next month. We look forward to working with another valuable group of graduate students in this third season of our summer program. With June just around the corner, now is the time to begin thinking about how you can support our AMP Program. For information about opportunities to get involved or to offer suggestions as how to make this our best summer yet, please contact Alessandra Colia, Program Coordinator.

Another summer has come and gone, and with it, another successful Applied Management Professional (AMP) Program has concluded. This year, the AMP Program doubled in size as we introduced eight (8) AMPs from four (4) different universities, and two (2) Project Managers (PMs) to the world of government consulting. Not only did the program see significant growth in the number of participants, but we also added an additional client and took on eight (8) projects between the two Departments. Our clients at the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Transportation (DOT) were very pleased with the efforts and work products of our AMPs, which led to an extension with DOT to continue building upon the foundation that was developed by our program.

In addition to client delivery, the AMPs also produced a comprehensive report detailing which organizations of the Federal Departments M Squared should focus their business development efforts on to obtain work in the desired areas of Natural Resources / Energy, Environment, Health, and Transportation. This information will provide greater clarity and focus as we work to develop our pipeline for growth.

Keeping with Kendall’s vision of exposing our AMPs to different facets of consulting, the company provided the participants with training in a number of different subjects: Business Process Reengineering, Project Management, Strategic Planning, Government Contracting / Career Training, and Federal Employment Training.

But, the AMP Program was not all work – we also played. This year we went on three (3) excursions: a lunch cruise along the monuments, the Spy Museum, and a tour of Monticello followed by a trip to the winery next door. There were definitely good times this summer for the AMPs, but more importantly, they left with a better sense of what consulting life is all about.

A Project Manager Reflects

by Candice Wang, 2010 AMPP Project Manager

Kerry and Vicky are two of the most dedicated individuals I have ever worked with. They excelled in their assignment at DOE and I am grateful to have the opportunity to play a part in their growth and success. Since their first day at DOE, Vicky and Kerry were committed to creating valuable deliverables for our client, even when our assignment was not fully defined. Because of their unwavering dedication and diligence, our team was able to successfully produce valuable analysis and recommendations for our client.

From a Mentor’s Perspective…

by Mark Antoniewicz, 2010 AMPP Mentor

This summer I mentored Kaitlin Welborn as she participated in the M Squared AMP Program. Kaitlin recently finished her first year in the Masters of Public Administration Program at the George Washington University (GW) here in Washington D.C. Initially after meeting Kaitlin, who is an engaging and energetic young woman, I felt as though I might learn as much from her as she would from me. This turned out to be true. I was very interested in hearing about her experience in the Masters degree she is pursuing at GW, a program that I have looked into attending myself. As much as she told me all about the program and the type of school work that she has been doing, I told her about my nearly 5 years of professional work and life in Washington. She was intrigued about my work in the legislative branch and now in the federal government consulting world. In June we both participated and learned a great deal in Business Process Reengineering and Project Management Corporate Trainings that we took along with the other AMPs. During break time at these sessions, I learned another thing about Kaitlin; she loves sports, and I was blown away by her knowledge on World Cup soccer. What I most liked about being an AMPP mentor was that it felt great being able to share my knowledge and experience with someone who will utilize it in the future. And, in return, she shared her graduate school experience and knowledge with me. In the end, I was very impressed with what I learned and the work that the AMP group provided to M Squared and our clients. I look forward to being involved with next year’s AMP class and being a AMP mentor again.