LaVonne Norrils

I started my telecommunications career 30 years ago when I moved to St. Louis, Missouri from Ohio. I was looking for a data entry position through contracting agencies, and when I got hired at MCI WorldCom, I discovered during training that I performed better as an engineer than as a data entry person. I talked to the supervisor and told her I would get bored with just doing data entry, and she promoted me out of training to a LEC coordinator. Within 3 weeks, I learned everything I needed to know and was promoted again to first-level escalations. From there, my career took off - I went from engineering to project coordination, then project management, and finally vendor and contract management. I've always built processes and written SOPs and governance documentation. At MCI WorldCom, I wrote a LEC manual that Verizon still uses today, even though it was proprietary information and I had to give up all rights. I had brain surgery in 2023 - a craniotomy to remove a mass the size of a grapefruit from my frontal lobe. Most people don't come out speaking or walking after brain surgery, but I did. I left the IT telecommunications industry for about 2 years during recovery and worked as a consultant in corporate structure and strategy. Now I'm back looking at SAP migration, conversion positions, and project management opportunities so I can fund my business, Vitreon Infrastructure Group. My business helps small to medium enterprises become governance ready so they can be funding ready. I built an assessment to identify where businesses are and help them get prepared, because SMEs are the least likely to get approved by the SBA due to lack of governance. I'm a natural researcher and problem solver - I love problem resolution and risk mitigation. I'm really resourceful and read and research everything, even things most people wouldn't think to research.