Elton Wade Carter
Project Manager- | Newburgh, NY 12550 |-| linkedin.com/in/eltonwadecarter
Professional Summary
Highly organized and proactive project management professional, with five years of experience working with key stakeholders on multiple projects simultaneously, across the educational technology and digital media industries. Demonstrated proficiency in executing and tracking multiple projects simultaneously; raising and resolving blockers, issues, and risk; and broad cross-functional collaboration with stakeholders, project team, and third-party vendors. Responsible self-starter, who eliminates problems, ensures deliverables are tracking, and helps drive project success.
Areas of Expertise
Cross-Functional Team Collaboration | Continuous Improvement | Risk & Issue Management | Status and Milestone Tracking | Strong Multitasking | Technical Savvy | Anticipating and Removing Blockers | Taking Ownership | Project Documentation | Resilience, Adaptability, Flexibility | Presentation Skills | Complex Schedule Tracking and Team Coordination | Cross-Functional Team Coordination | Attention to Detail | Self-Motivation
Professional Experience
Senior Project Manager, Media | Macmillan Learning, New York, NY Apr 2019 – Apr 2024
Macmillan Learning is a leader in educational technology, developing innovative learning solutions.
Led strategic development and implementation of 100+ digital multimedia courseware products for higher education and high school markets. Collaborated with cross-functional teams to enhance product offerings, satisfying sales and marketing team initiatives and obligations. Managed comprehensive project schedules, maintained stringent quality control, and addressed platform-specific issues to maximize market impact and customer success.
Key Achievements/Contributions:
Implemented at least 20 courses per year of market-leading digital courseware, significantly impacting sales reach and customer engagement.
Revamped process for updates to course-related digital resource web pages, decreasing update times from hours to mere minutes, and reducing errors to virtually 0.
Piloted project to replatform hundreds of high school courses, resolving workflow challenges and staffing limitations, meeting critical sales timelines, and enabling significant cost savings through platform consolidation.
Optimized ebook production for Macmillan Learning’s statistics courses by implementing an automated database that decreased implementation times by two-weeks and costs by hundreds of dollars per title (total cost savings of ca. $10K), as well as enabling efficient management of data sets by the internal team, through CSV uploads.
Content Operations Specialist | Barnes & Noble NOOK, New York, NY Sept 2010 – Apr 2019
Barnes & Noble NOOK is the leading retailer of digital media.
Led eBook content operations to ensure timely processing and putting on sale 200 to 400 unique titles each day, including titles designated for website and cross-platform marketing promotion, to ensure customer engagement and sales goals. Partnered with business analysis and product development teams to develop and implement first-of-its-kind children’s digital picture book format and reading platform, putting on sale 10K+ titles. Facilitated cross-departmental communication and trained new staff on digital tools and processes to ensure seamless product launches and updates.
Key Achievements/Contributions:
Launched NOOK Kids interactive picture book program, integrating and putting on sale over 10K+ titles, and subsequently leading the transition from NOOK Kids to an updated open-epub standard and replatforming 10k+ titles.
Resolved ebook formatting inconsistency issues in reflowable digital ebooks on Nook readers by devising a batch CSS adjustment process, a process run on thousands of titles daily, maintaining publisher relationships and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Developed and maintained critical documentation on NOOK kids platform and program, as well as on digital file production and quality assurance processes.
Led and trained a dozen new staff members on process and digital tools for eBook content operations and file quality assurance.
Other Professional Experiences
eBook Client Services Coordinator | Jouve/Publishing Dimensions, New York, NY
Managed ebook production services for major US trade and mass market book publishers through a global network of facilities (primarily Lyons, France, and Madagascar), on-boarding and invoicing clients, and negotiating their change requests to the production line.
Content Producer and Researcher | Umagic.com, New York, NY
Advised company leadership (President, COO) on strategic best practices in online customer service and advertising for establishment of the exercise, diet, and nutrition verticals of online start-up.
Produced content for Umagic.com Diet & Nutrition website.
Editorial Assistant | Bantam Books (a division of Random House), New York, NY
Working with VP/Executive level editors, evaluated manuscript submissions of popular fiction (thriller and mystery novels), and provided concise feedback on quality of writing and market competition, and recommendations on next steps.
Wrote flap and back-cover copy for soon-to-be published titles under the Bantam Books imprint.
Employed FileMakerPro for creation and update of back-of-book ads for paperback books.
Technical Skills and Enterprise Software Applications
Google Apps Script | JIRA | Smartsheet | Microsoft Office Suite: PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook | Microsoft Teams | Slack | Zoom | Confluence | Amazon Web Services | Google Apps Script | Google Doc | Google Sheets | Google Slides
Professional Certifications
Google Project Management: Professional Certificate, Coursera (expected completion August 2024)
IBM Introduction to Project Management, Coursera (awarded May 2024)
Google Foundations of Project Management, Coursera (awarded May 2024
Education
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Creative Writing, Fiction, Columbia University, New York, NY
Bachelor of Arts (AB) English Literature, cum laude, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Outside Interests
Author of the novels K.C and Can You Take Me Out to Patience Road? Formerly represented by Claudia Menza of the Menza-Barron Agency.
