DEBRA J. GONSKI
10 STONEGATE DRIVE
SILVER SPRING MD 20905
DGONSKI@VERIZON.NET
301-275-0794
EXPERIENCE
Senior Application Administrator
American University
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Administering the ERP: Ellucian’s Product Suite of Colleague on Sun Solaris and Microsoft Windows.
Administering the content management systems for the myAU.american.edu portal: Ellucian Portal and
Microsoft SharePoint and SQL.
Administering the functional portal: ColdFusion 10 on Linux with Apache front end and Axis web
services.
Administering the content management system for the website www.american.edu: PaperThin’s
CommonSpot and Adobe Coldfusion on Windows/IIS.
Researching settings and methods to improve performance based upon findings from load tests.
Installing software updates to applications and making configuration changes.
Authorizing access to applications, creating security models and resolving security conflicts.
Troubleshooting issues with the applications, software infrastructure and resolving the issues.
Maintaining applications to include currency and feature enhancements.
Managing projects and the on-boarding of new applications: planning, implementation, support and
stability of applications and their infrastructures.
Directing team efforts, setting achievable deadlines, prioritizing tasks, developing test plans, managing
testing, and project status reports.
Directing technical effort on larger projects to include: migration to new major versions of the
applications, operating systems and databases.
Collaborating with project managers, users, system engineers and developers to achieve objectives.
Presenting ideas and projects to internal and external audiences: IT management, AU management, and
professional organizations.
Co-chair of the Ellucian User Group IT Subcommittee and AU's Content Provider Committee.
Managing change as a member of the Change Advisory Board and a change agent.
Answering requests from internal auditors on open audit items with an IT component.
Documenting procedures, project progress and incident resolutions.
Database Administrator
Loyola University of Maryland
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January 2008 – Present
Washington, DC
June 2001 – January 2008
Baltimore, MD
Administered the ERP: the Ellucian applications (Colleague, Benefactor, WebAdvisor), Envision
development tool kit, and the underlying UniData database.
Managed programs/projects by building teams of programmers, system engineers and users.
Directed team efforts, set reasonable deadlines, prioritized tasks, developed test plans, managed
feedback and formulated project review agendas.
Directed technical effort on larger projects: migrating to Colleague Versions 17 and 18 on new
production servers and upgrades to the AIX operating system and the UniData database.
Researched software changes, installed software updates, tested with power users, identified impacted
groups, assessed risk, developed contingency or rollback plans before production install.
Disseminated and gathered information in meetings with core group of power users and IT Management
in regular meetings and written communications.
Performed data copies from production to test and development using Unix and UniData commands.
Reviewed, edited and approved vendors' statements of work for new projects and enhancements.
Set up and maintained both application and database level security.
Identified and resolved user problems with data issues and the application.
Wrote procedures for installing software upgrades, doing data refreshes, and user documentation.
General Skills
Results
oriented IT
professional
Experienced in
Higher
Education
Hard working
and energetic
Works well
with others to
achieve
common
objectives.
Rapidly
acquires
technical
knowledge and
skills
Innovative
problem solver
Intellectually
curious
Grasps the
business and
technical sides
of issues
Proven
leadership and
incident
resolution
abilities
Exceptional
communicator
CCS Administrator
Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, Maryland
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Administered the ERP: the CCS application, development tools, underlying UniData database, and Sun
Solaris UNIX operating system.
Set up and maintained application level security and printers using various software tools.
Directed the in-house programming team efforts; prioritized tasks; explained users’ needs; reviewed
final products to include both reports and programs.
Tested upgrades and maintained both test and production servers.
Identified and resolved problems with CCS applications and UniData database.
Provided feedback on testing, new features, and bug fixes to programming staff and vendors.
Analyzed business requirements and proposed corrections to and enhancements of the application.
Developed and implemented project plan to upgrade the housing modules to SB+ (System Builder).
Wrote procedures for installing and managing upgrades to the application as well as user
documentation.
Wrote RFP for and integrated imaging system, evaluated proposals, and made final selection.
Worked as a Budget Analyst from 1996 – 1997 where I analyzed financial statements, budget
submissions and strategic plan documents.
Legal Research Associate
Court Express/Research Information Services
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1997 - 2001
Kensington, MD
1991 - 1993
Washington, DC
Communicated results of research in written documents and discussions.
Performed research using multiple database tools, on-line sources and personal interactions.
PRESENTATIONS
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American University’s Colleague Finance Self-Service, Ellucian Live 2014
AU’s Colleague Student Finance Self-Service from A to Z, PADUG 2013
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: How to think Creatively When You are Under the Gun to Produce and
Everyone Says “No” to the Vendor Solution, Ellucian Live 2013
Disaster Strikes! How Do We Get Our ERP Back Online?, Ellucian Live 2013 and Datatel User Group 2012
War of the Constituencies: Migrating to a New Institutional Portal, Datatel User Group 2012 and
Educause Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference 2012
Evolution: Moving to a New Server, Datatel User Group 2011
Strategically Moving to Datatel Portal, Datatel User Group 2011
Managing Change in an Ever Changing Landscape, Datatel User Group 2006
Integrating Data from LiquidMatrix to Datatel and Back Again, Datatel User Group 2006
Double Action Marketing Power: The Combined Impact of Communications Management and Active
Admissions, Datatel User Group 2006
Breaking the Silos - A Collaborative Approach to Active Admissions, Datatel User Group 2006
Exchanging Data: The Beta Client Story- Part 2, Datatel User Group 2003
EDUCATION
Master of Public Management
University of Maryland, School of Public Policy, College Park, MD
1995
GPA 3.5/4.0
Specialization in Public Sector Financial Management and Environmental Policy. Masters Project: financing a
wastewater treatment facility for Taneytown, Maryland. From 1994 through 1996, I worked as both a
Research Assistant and Graduate Assistant
Bachelor of Science
Northeastern University, Boston, MA
1990
GPA 3.5/4.0
Majored in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy. Graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Cooperative
Education program. I had two co-op assignments with a technology and research focus. In 1989, I worked as an
IT Evaluator for the US GAO’s Boston Regional Office and in 1988, I worked as a Research Assistant for the Center
for the History of Electrical Engineering at the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers in NYC.
Technical Skills
Colleague
WebAdvisor
Ellucian Portal
SharePoint
CommonSpot
ColdFusion
Tomcat
UniData
AIX & Solaris
Windows Server
Windows
IIS
Informer
Technical
Training
CommonSpot
Fundamentals
and
Administration
Colleague
Administrator
Communications
Management for
Financial Aid
Ellucian
Technical
Training Week
System Security
for Computers
Rule Writing for
Registration
Interviewing to
Obtain Essential
Data
Change and
Project
Management
Leading with
Impact and
Leadership
Customer
Relationships in
a Changing
World