Professional Work
Desiree Cervantes
Organizational Operations and Transformation Leader
Email | LinkedIn | Modesto, CA
Mission-driven organizational development leader with 15+ years of experience translating strategy into practical systems, stronger governance, and lasting change. Expertise in nonprofit operations, enterprise implementation, digital transformation, communications, design, and organizational infrastructure supporting 350+ employees.
My work lives at the intersections.
Creative and operational.
Strategy and execution.
Structure and imagination.
I help organizations make complexity easier to see, understand, and change - then build the systems, tools, and processes required to move the work forward. That might mean leading an enterprise implementation, establishing a governance framework, redesigning a service process, creating a knowledge system, facilitating organizational change, or turning a complicated strategy into a clear and actionable plan.
The medium changes. The way I think doesn’t.
My background does not fit neatly inside one professional category — and that is one of its greatest strengths. I understand the operational realities of implementation and the creative work of making change understandable. I can move between executive strategy and technical detail, organizational policy and human experience, process design and visual communication.
This allows me to see connections that are often missed when strategy, operations, technology, communications, and design are treated as separate functions.
The intersections are the work.
Areas of Leadership
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Translating organizational priorities into implementation plans, governance structures, workflows, and measurable action.
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Leading complex technology initiatives and building the operational infrastructure required for successful adoption.
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Coordinating people, timelines, vendors, decisions, communications, training, and organizational readiness across complex initiatives.
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Developing policy systems, accountability structures, compliance frameworks, and sustainable approaches to organizational risk.
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Examining how work actually happens and creating clearer, more efficient, and more usable processes.
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Making complex information understandable through communications, documentation, training, SharePoint environments, and centralized knowledge systems.
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Transforming ideas, missions, and organizational identities into meaningful visual systems, campaigns, websites, and communication tools.
Selected Projects
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Electronic Health Record Implementation
Project manager for an 18-month phased electronic health record implementation spanning multiple service lines. Coordinate the project timeline, vendor deliverables, communications, testing, training readiness, and operational transition in partnership with the EHR Administrator and organizational leadership.
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Enterprise Policy Governance
Designed and implemented an agency-wide policy governance and lifecycle-management system, including a policy-on-policies framework, centralized review and approval controls, policy audits, leadership training, and supporting systems in Smartsheet and SharePoint.
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HIPAA Privacy and Security Infrastructure
Developed a comprehensive HIPAA privacy and security policy suite and coordinated mitigation planning to address identified gaps, strengthen organizational controls, and document corrective action.
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Enterprise Service Management
Implemented Zendesk as the agency’s first effective centralized ticketing system, replacing separate underperforming platforms and establishing shared service-management infrastructure for IT and Facilities, with Finance and Human Resources onboarding. Analyzed more than 4,000 tickets to identify service patterns, cycle times, recurring issues, and opportunities for operational improvement.
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Remote-Work and Microsoft 365 Transformation
Helped lead the digital infrastructure and communications supporting the rapid transition to remote work, including Microsoft 365 adoption, policies, employee agreements, resource portals, HIPAA-compliant virtual-service access, training, and help-desk processes.
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Organizational Knowledge Systems
Developed SharePoint intranets, employee resource centers, documentation environments, and centralized knowledge systems supporting an organization of more than 350 employees.
creative portfolio
Branding, Website Design, Campaigns, and Visual Systems
For nonprofit organizations, social-impact initiatives, and small businesses.
P.S. Design is my first love
Current Role
I currently serve as Organizational Development Manager at Center for Human Services, where I lead agency-wide initiatives affecting more than 350 employees.
My work includes enterprise implementation, organizational infrastructure, policy governance, compliance, process improvement, service management, knowledge systems, strategic communications, and change leadership.
Before moving into organizational development, I served as Design and Innovation Manager and Brand and Design Manager, leading digital transformation, service-system implementation, creative direction, communications, and organizational design initiatives.
Experience
at-a-glance
15+ years of nonprofit operations and organizational leadership
Agency-wide initiatives supporting 350+ employees
Cross-functional and direct leadership of teams of up to 12
Regional program leadership spanning 18 Central Valley counties
Enterprise technology and digital-transformation implementation
Vendor selection, contracts, procurement, and scopes of work
Governance, policy, compliance, and risk-management infrastructure
Strategic communications, creative direction, and brand development
Facilitation, training, documentation, and change management