Edwin Victor Franco

My first long-running work environment was my family's restaurant in Pilsen. This is where I developed the habits that still define how I work: showing up consistently, staying calm under pressure, handling repetitive but important tasks, and keeping operations moving even when the environment was fast and unpredictable.

• Supported kitchen operations, food prep, cleaning, sanitation, and front-of-house service flow.
• Learned the practical side of customer service, small business operations, and teamwork under real pressure.
• Built early comfort with multitasking, time-sensitive work, and hands-on problem solving.
• Developed a strong baseline for reliability, follow-through, and attention to detail that carried into every role since.

At Alivio Medical Center I grew quickly from front-desk clerical work into a trusted administrative role in a busy community health environment.

• Handled patient-facing clerical work, scheduling, and front-office coordination.
• Promoted to Lead Receptionist; created a receptionist guidelines booklet for training and policy consistency.
• Managed petty cash, coverage scheduling, and training coordination for new staff.
• Transitioned to Administrative Assistant supporting the Midwifery department—managing schedules for midwives, OB/GYN doctors, a surgeon, and a social worker.

Heartland Alliance advances the human rights and responds to the human needs of endangered populations—particularly the poor, the isolated, and the displaced—through the provision of comprehensive and respectful services and the promotion of permanent solutions leading to a more just global society.

• Supported and reported to the CEO, Medical Director, Senior Director of Primary Care, Director of Support Services, Director of HIV Services, HIHC Managing Director, and Director of Grants Management.
• Performed various administrative duties ranging from clerical assistance to statistical reporting and analysis.
• Responsible for assisting the Community Health Center Board (agendas, minutes, presentations, catering, organized communication with other non-board members, etc.).
• Helped in the oversight of overall office/health center work flow (inventory, coordinating meetings and space, etc.).
• Tracked, managed, and reported on patient demographics for necessary grant and funding applications and government requirements, as well as internal monthly reporting.
• Acted as liaison for staff and HR/Payroll.
• Managed inventory and office supplies.
• Made travel arrangements for program staff, when necessary.
• Assisted in management-level projects: interviewing/hiring process, strategic application of protocols and policies, collaboration with other Heartland Alliance programs for the development of large-scale projects.

At Casa Central, I stepped fully into a human resources role—owning recruitment and onboarding processes across multiple social service programs. This was where I started building the operational systems thinking that would define my later career.

• Recruited qualified staff across multiple programs and streamlined the full hiring process.
• Created recruitment and hiring databases for tracking candidates and improving workflow consistency.
• Coordinated all new hire processes end-to-end: interviews, paperwork, orientations, and onboarding.
• Ensured employee file compliance with organizational and regulatory standards.
• Collaborated on employee retention strategy and contributed to program review committee efforts.
• Delivered orientations and supported in-house training for new and existing staff.

EAA was the turning point in my career. I was brought in to support HR, but the organization needed someone who could digitize workflows and translate operational needs into working systems. I built the HRIS from scratch—the first real systems work of my career.

• Coded and implemented the organization's first HRIS database using MS Access and SQL for client and employee management.
• Developed the Human Resources department's core documentation, policies, and operational foundation.
• Supported HR operations, onboarding, compliance processes, and internal coordination.
• Began replacing paper-heavy workflows with structured digital processes.

Promoted to HR Director, I took full ownership of the department I had helped build. This role blended people operations with systems strategy—covering recruitment, policy creation, regulatory compliance, technology rollouts, and cross-functional management work.

• Managed all recruitment, training, orientation, workers' compensation, and unemployment processes.
• Developed organizational policies and implemented consistent office procedures across departments.
• Created the homecare training program and supported compliance for a regulated care environment.
• Led the Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) implementation project.
• Negotiated vendor contracts with Sprint/T-Mobile and E-Pay, reducing costs and improving service reliability.
• Researched and reported on ACA impact and compliance requirements for organizational leadership.
• Contributed to management team strategy and cross-departmental operational planning.

After leaving EAA, I stepped into a leadership role at my family's business. This was hands-on management work—covering employee oversight, inventory, food operations, compliance, and daily business continuity.

• Assisted in running the business day-to-day, including scheduling, supervision, and operational coordination.
• Managed inventory, stocking, purchasing, and vendor relationships.
• Oversaw employee management, coverage, and workplace expectations.
• Handled check cashing operations and front-of-house customer service.
• Maintained food preparation quality, sanitation standards, and inspection readiness.

Driving for Lyft has run in parallel with my technical, product, and operational work. It kept me sharp on reliability, communication, situational judgment, and managing service quality in unpredictable real-world conditions.

• Provided safe and professional transportation in a high-volume, customer-facing environment.
• Managed independent scheduling, route logistics, and time management without direct supervision.
• Maintained professional communication and adaptability across thousands of rider interactions.
• Sustained consistent service quality while supporting other responsibilities and building projects in parallel.

After returning to EAA, I became the person the organization depended on to keep systems working, modernize workflows, and support day-to-day operational needs. The role blended HR generalist work, IT and quality assurance specialist duties, compliance, system design, and process strategy.

• Maintained and continued developing the organization's custom HRIS and internal employee/client databases with sustainable data architecture.
• Designed and implemented database objects, user security, and reporting frameworks.
• Managed IT infrastructure: networks, VPNs, remote access, VoIP/PBX systems, VMware, cloud platforms, backups, and continuity planning.
• Saved the organization significant costs by diagnosing and resolving a critical phone system issue that would have required full replacement.
• Built internal tools that cut major project timelines and reduced manual workload by roughly 65%.
• Reduced document processing costs by roughly 80% through paper-to-paperless workflow conversion.
• Coordinated EVV workforce app deployment and vendor negotiations.
• Managed onboarding/offboarding, credential provisioning, user accounts, and internal support.
• Established QA standards, conducted internal audits, and maintained compliance reporting for regulatory requirements.
• Helped maintain 90–98% operational continuity during COVID through digital process redesign.
• Served as technical translator between operational staff, supervisors, management, and regulatory bodies.

Spellgather is where my operations, product, and technical experience come together. I designed and built a full-stack web platform from the ground up—handling architecture, real-time workflows, user-facing features, and systems design as a solo builder shipping real product.

• Built the full product architecture, user flows, data structures, and real-time feature behavior.
• Designed systems for community-driven product development, including collection management, local discovery, and trade coordination.
• Worked across frontend, backend, database design, and workflow automation.
• Applied practical debugging, iteration, and execution discipline to ship and maintain a live platform.
• Currently expanding the ecosystem with Scribex, a purpose-built embedded companion device using ESP32 hardware and e-ink UI.