DEBRA J. GONSKI
10 STONEGATE DRIVE
SILVER SPRING MD 20905
DGONSKI@VERIZON.NET
301-275-0794
SUMMARY
Results oriented IT professional with over 10 years of experience in High Education. Hard working
and committed individual who works well with others to achieve common objectives. Achieves
consensus on implementation methods. Demonstrates ability to acquire technical knowledge and
skills rapidly. Innovative problem solver, able to see the business and technical sides of issues.
Proven leadership and incident resolution abilities. Exceptional communication and research skills.
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 content management system for the website www.american.edu: PaperThin’s
CommonSpot and Adobe Coldfusion on Windows/IIS.
Installing software updates to the applications and making configuration changes as needed.
Authorizing access to applications and creating security models.
Troubleshooting issues with the applications and resolving security conflicts.
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.
Professional
Presentations
American
University's
Colleague Student
Finance SelfService
Disaster Strikes!
How Do We Get
Our ERP Back
Online?
War of the
Constituencies:
Migrating to a New
Institutional Portal.
Evolution: Moving
to a New Server.
Strategically
Moving to Datatel
Portal.
Managing Change
in an Ever Changing
Landscape.
Integrating Data
from LiquidMatrix
to Datatel and Back
Again.
Double Action
Marketing Power:
The Combined
Impact of
Communications
Management and
Active Admissions.
Breaking the Silos:
A Collaborative
Approach to Active
Admissions.
Exchanging Data:
The Beta Client
Story- Part 2.
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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.
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 accounts on separate boxes.
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 for conversion of housing modules to upgraded UniData
based software to SB+ (System Builder).
Wrote procedures for installing and managing upgrades to application and user documentation.
Wrote RFP for and integrated imaging system, evaluated proposals, and made final selection.
Budget Analyst
Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, Maryland
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1996 - 1997
Kensington, MD
Developed and implemented project plan to convert financial modules from a legacy DOS based
application to a vendor supported UniData database application running on UNIX.
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
EDUCATION
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 a Research
Assistant/Graduate Assistant where I:
 Analyzed admissions data and generated statistics on applicants.
 Researched and evaluated financing methods for environmental projects.
Bachelor of Science
Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Technical Skills
Colleague
WebAdvisor
SAValet
Ellucian Portal
SharePoint
CommonSpot
ColdFusion
UniData
AIX & Solaris
Windows Server
Windows IIS
Training
CommonSpot
Fundamentals and
Administration
Colleague
Administrator
1991 - 1993 Communications
Washington, DC Management for
Communicated results of research in written documents and discussions.
Performed research using multiple database tools, on-line sources and personal interactions.
Master of Public Management
University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs, College Park, MD
General Skills
Leadership
Communication
Research
Analysis
Collaboration
Organization
1990
GPA 3.5/4.0
Majored in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy. Graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Cooperative
Education program. My two co-op assignments had a technology and research focus. In 1989, I worked as an
IT Evaluator for the US GAO’s Boston Regional Office where I:
 Investigated security violations on the Internet, their causes, and related privacy issues.
 Investigated computer acquisition policy and procedures at NASA.
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 where I:
 Reviewed books on the history of computers for publication in the Center’s newsletter.
 Created a database to catalogue the holdings of the Center.
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