Provaliant Retirement - Key Consultants
Jay Masci, PMP, CSM
Mr. Masci is a public pension expert with over 22 years of in-depth experience in public retirement systems projects. He has over 33 years of experience with large-scale systems development projects and more than 28 years of Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), oversight, project management, business analysis, strategic planning and executive experience. As the President and founding partner of Provaliant, Mr. Masci is actively involved in the pension community providing presentations at conference and events such as PRISM, CEM and NPEA.
Bob Solheim, PMP, CSM
Mr. Solheim has over 37 years of information systems experience with large-scale systems development projects. He has over 29 years of experience in oversight, project management and executive roles. Mr. Solheim is a Public Retirement System industry expert, with over 24 years of experience providing leadership and management direction as well as business analysis for statewide systems development projects. As Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Provaliant, Mr. Solheim has been an essential part of the success of Provaliant for the past 20 years.
Ray Smith
Mr. Smith has 30+ years of experience in public pension including leading strategic planning with governing boards to project oversight and monitoring of large projects for the replacement of pension administration, financial and investment related technology solutions. He previously served as the Chief Administrative Officer and Director of Special Projects at two large statewide public pension funds being responsible for the administrative, financial and technology operations. During his career, Mr. Smith has consulted with 20 public employee retirement systems.
Kirstin Carlson, PMP, CSM
Ms. Carlson has over 20 years the public pension industry experience having worked over 12 years at the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) and 8 years working as a business consultant for Provaliant Retirement. Since joining Provaliant Ms. Carlson has contributed to several projects including: the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), Montana Public Employee Retirement Administration (MPERA) and Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) assisting with the development of pension replacement RFPs, Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), COSO, and providing oversight for a public pension system replacement project.
Shelly Pardis, PMP, CSM
Ms. Pardis is a Project Manager and Senior Business Consultant with nearly 20 years of in-depth technical and business experience in the public retirement sector. She has project management, project oversight, and business analysis experience in pension line of business implementation projects, major system conversion projects, RFP development and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V). Since joining Provaliant, she has worked on the development of a pension replacement RFP, provided project oversight, and managed IV&V for the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) Horizon project.
Wendy Sanchez, MBA, PMP, CSM
Ms. Sanchez is a PMP/ITIL certified professional with over 15 years of information systems and finance project management experience and an MBA from St. Edward’s University. She has 12 years of pension industry experience as a Project Manager for the Texas Employees’ Retirement System and as a Provaliant consultant managing the Teacher Retirement System of Texas Financial System Replacement and Quality Assurance projects. Ms. Sanchez is currently providing Oversight Project Management services for the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System (LAMPERS) and the Austin Police Retirement System.
Tom Smith, PMP, CSM
Mr. Smith has over 30 years of experience in the information systems field with over 15 of those years being in the public retirement industry. He has held leadership positions at AlliedSignal, Sprint, Argus Health Systems, the USMC, and served as the CTO for both the Public School and Education Employees Retirement Systems of Missouri and the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System. He was elected by his peers to serve as the President of the Public Retirement Information Systems Management Association (PRISM) and has provided strategic leadership for pension systems development projects.
Mary Dunn
Ms. Dunn has over16 years public pension industry experience and 15 years project management experience. As the former Assistant Chief Administration Officer at the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, she brings in-depth pension business knowledge including 15 years of experience in strategic, operational, and organizational planning, leadership coaching and development, and staff training and development. Ms. Dunn is currently working with the Nevada Public Employees Retirement System leading the development effort for a pension replacement RFP and providing oversight for the public pension system replacement project.
Kris Valenta
Mr. Valenta has over 20 years of information systems experience, including 14 years in the public pension industry providing project oversight on large-scale initiatives designed to improve customer experience, enhance service delivery, and modernize operations. His background also includes experience in strategic planning, organizational enablement, and business analysis. Prior to joining Provaliant, Mr. Valenta served as Chief Strategy Officer for the Texas County & District Retirement System (TCDRS) and oversaw the delivery of key organizational initiatives while working with leadership on organizational change and strategic planning.
Valerie Burkett, PMP
Ms. Burkett has over 18 years of public pension industry experience and over 29 years of project management experience. As the former Program Manager for the Technology Services Division (TSD) of the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) she brings in-depth pension application development and business knowledge including planning and managing all software development initiatives for business, technology and security enhancements, production support and other TSD initiatives. Since joining Provaliant, Ms. Burkett has worked at the Nevada Public Employees Retirement System (NVPERS) managing the Data Management and Employer Outreach projects.
Laura Delisle
With over 11 years of experience in the public pension and healthcare industry, Ms. Delisle brings a wealth of expertise. She dedicated 9 years to the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), followed by 2 years as a Scrum Master at WebMD. Adding to her public sector proficiency, she spent 4 years as a Project Manager at the Oregon Department of Transportation. Notably, she contributed 2 years as a Scrum Master at Purple Communications.
Currently, Ms. Delisle holds a prominent position at Provaliant, serving as the lead Project Manager for the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) benefit system replacement project. Achieving certifications as a PMP® and Agile methodology professional, she exemplifies her commitment to excellence and innovative project management practices.”
Crystal Vanscoy
Ms. Vanscoy has over 27 years of public pension and benefits experience, having worked with Teacher’s Retirement System of Texas (TRS) as well as the Ohio Medicare and Medicaid systems. Prior to joining Provaliant Ms. Vanscoy served in roles as a Senior Business Analyst and Quality Assurance. For the past 7 years she has been working as a Senior Project Coordinator in a Pension Administration System Agile development project.
Craig Badger
Mr. Badger, a seasoned Senior Program Manager, brings an extensive wealth of expertise to Provaliant, boasting more than three decades of experience spanning IT, public pension, and healthcare industries. Over the course of his distinguished career, Mr. Badger has held pivotal positions at renowned organizations such as DXC, Tata, Sagitec, Covansys, and Oracle (formerly PeopleSoft). Mr. Badger’s pension expertise encompasses Project Management roles with the School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, the Virginia Public Retirement System, and the Indiana Retirement System. Complementing this, he boasts over eight years of leadership experience in executing Health and Human Services implementations. Notably, Mr. Badger holds the esteemed certification of a PMP® professional and holds an MBA from Franklin University in Columbus, OH.
Meskel Assefa
Ms. Assefa is a Project Manager and Agile Scrum Master with over 15 years of hands-on experience. With a career spanning 22 plus years in public pension industry and an additional 3 years in the private sector, that included roles as a Program Manager, Project Manager, Scrum Master, and Business Analyst.
Her extensive pension experience includes working for a pension administration solution vendor, where she played a pivotal role in developing and implementing solutions for multiple public pension organizations over the course of 7 years. Ms. Assefa also contributed significantly as an employee at the Arizona State Retirement, where she was the Project Manager/Scrum Master for a 3-year project to bring pension payroll disbursement application, reconciliation, and tax processes in-house.
Ms. Assefa showcases her academic foundation, in addition to her wealth of professional expertise, by her certifications as a PMI Project Management Professional (PMP®), Certified Scrum Master (CSM®), Certified Business Analyst (CBAP®), and IT Service Management (ITIL®), as well as holding a Bachelor of Business Management and Computer Business Information Systems.
Tom Lewis
Mr. Lewis is a Project Manager with over 10 years of in-depth technical and business experience in the public retirement sector. He has more than 35 years of public sector experience serving in project management, data project management and business analysis and data analysis. Mr. Lewis has extensive experience with several methodologies including Agile, hybrid and waterfall.
Currently, Mr. Lewis holds a prominent position at Provaliant, serving as the Data Project Manager for the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) benefit system replacement project.
Beth Hart
Ms. Hart has over forty years of experience consulting in a broad range of government initiatives including technology, public pension and unemployment insurance, private business, and interagency collaborative programs. She has consulted in many U.S. states, federal programs and internationally. Her consulting experience includes Change Management, Organization Development, Community Development, Training Development and Delivery, Program Evaluation and Sustainability, Resistance Management and Conflict Resolution utilizing her skills in facilitation, coaching, and mentoring.
Ms. Hart holds a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis in organization development. Her academic training also includes certifications such as 2021 Prosci® Methodology Application Program Graduate, 2017 Prosci® Certified Change Practitioner and 1992 Organization Development Consulting Skills Certificate – Kaiser Permanente.