Ida EdwardsHiggins

I've been working since I was young and have built experience across many different areas including customer service, receptionist work, data entry, sales, pharmacy technician, and technical support. I took a break from work to focus on my health and to care for my grandmother after my uncle passed away. She came to live with me, my husband, and my son in August 2019, and I provided full caregiving including checking vitals, distributing medication, helping with showers and dressing, and providing all her meals and healthcare needs until she passed. Currently, I work as a virtual assistant and office manager in the healthcare/caregiver industry. My responsibilities include managing payroll and timekeeping for all employees, maintaining accurate client and employee files, checking in with clients to ensure their needs are met, ordering office supplies, managing the owner's schedule and appointments, and ensuring bookkeeping is up to date. We serve Medicaid recipient clients on fixed incomes, and I go above and beyond to help them, even providing items like tissue and paper towels from our own office supplies when they need extra support. I'm a Missouri-licensed pharmacy technician, certified since January 2007, and I keep my license active and renewed each year. I worked for Express Scripts using this license and absolutely loved it. I've also worked for Keefe Commissary Network helping inmates place orders and manage their accounts, for DirecTV as an independent contractor setting up services, and for Convergis doing technical support via email and chat for companies like Warner Brothers, Comcast, and Spectrum Charter. In these roles, I often excelled quickly and had people reporting to me in quality assurance positions. I believe in treating team members as equals rather than subordinates, which has always worked better for me and my teams. One of my proudest achievements was in a temp-to-hire sales position where I was supposed to work 90 days temporarily, but they hired me permanently in less than 30 days after I generated over $100,000 in sales in just one month. I've consistently received customer compliments and high quality assurance scores throughout my career, earning incentives like hockey tickets, football and basketball games, restaurant vouchers, and gas cards. Since June 20, 2025, I've served as secretary and content creator on the board of Empower Her Remote, a nonprofit organization that helps women find remote work opportunities regardless of their circumstances, whether they have children with special needs, health issues, or other reasons for needing to work from home.