Employee Spotlight: All Things Shannon and Certification

If you have been an RMAI member at any point during the last eight years, you have most likely interacted with Director of Certification and Education, Shannon Parod.  In addition to being a friendly face for staff and members to see, Shannon wears many hats and has her hands in everything, including certification, education, human resources, and accounting.

Shannon came to RMAI after living in Carlsbad, CA and feeling ready to move back home to Sacramento. Her fiancé Bill owns a sushi restaurant which she helped with, but she was ready to find a career that she loved. She started at RMAI as a Professional Development Manager and ran education and certification before taking over HR, accounting, and office responsibilities in 2015.

Shannon’s main job these days is the RMAI’s Receivables Management Certification Program, which she loves. She gets to talk about the program to members and potential members, go through the application and renewal processes, explain audits, and conduct overall outreach. She enjoys explaining to people the difference between individual and business certification and being able to “clear the air” on what exactly certification is.

“I get a rewarding feeling from helping people through the process,” said Shannon.

When she started at RMAI, the certification program was on version 2.0 and now it has advanced to version 10.0. “I’ve really enjoyed learning the program,” said Shannon. “I love talking to people about the program and reaching out to help people better understand it and its value for them.”

Shannon also said she has a great working relationship with RMAI’s General Counsel David Reid. David was on the task force that helped develop the policy for the Receivables Management Certification Program, so he is a helpful resource for her when she has any questions on certification standards. “It’s nice to be able to bounce ideas off of him,” said Shannon. “He does a great job of explaining the different business certification standards.”

Shannon serves as a staff liaison for the Education Committee where she works with committee members to plan the educational webinars and education programs for RMAI’s in-person events. She also serves as staff liaison on the Certification Council and many of its committees including the Education Requirements Committee, Audit Committee and Administration and Budget Committee.

“It is a pretty fun process,” said Shannon. “I wish I personally knew more about what topics interest our members, but that is why we have our committee members as well as our education consultant, Rozanne Andersen, so we can continue to offer new and timely webinar topics.”

She is a staff liaison for the Legislative Fund Committee where she facilitates meetings, outreach initiatives, and donation tracking. Shannon writes the reports for all four of her assigned committees and the RMAI Board of Directors’ meetings. She appreciates having a good relationship with the committee chairs who work hard to help her in her job.

While for a normal person, this seems like an insane amount of work, Shannon said she thrives with her busy schedule. “I utilize Memberzone, association management software, for certification reminders and tracking,” said Shannon. “I also have reminders on Outlook to look at my reminders and weekly reports on top of that to make sure nothing was missed.” She has lists and flagged items in her inbox, and nothing ever gets deleted.

Her dedication to her job does not go unnoticed. “Shannon has been a valuable team member during her long tenure,” said Executive Director Jan Stieger. “She is an important resource for new staff, and when the rest of us just can’t remember something, someone always says ‘ask Shannon’.”

In her personal life, Shannon and her fiancé are big foodies and just bought a house. She loves Korean dramas and K-pop music, and helping her daughter navigate being on the volleyball team and freshman year of high school. Her 16-year-old dachshund Stella fills the other part of her life.

Shannon said that she is excited about the future of RMAI and her journey with the organization. “There have been a lot of opportunities for growth,” she said. “What I really love about us is we can bounce ideas off everyone. We make improvements every year.”

Being able to embrace change and try new things are important aspects of the organization to Shannon. “We have so much room for creativity here,” she said. “I enjoy coming to work still, eight years later.”