Now holding considerable expertise in project management and documentation, Elaine A. Taiariol, PMP, MEd, and published author, began her professional journey by earning a Bachelor of Arts in biology from George Mason University in 1980. She subsequently joined Kmart, where she spent 15 years working as a secretary and corporate trainer before obtaining a position as a training manager with NBD Bank. With NBD, she created a project training program, one of the first in the industry, and was able to execute it to great success. The program allowed NBD to train employees across state lines with a single vendor, utilizing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other applications. Roughly 1,700 employees a month, totaling 22,000 employees a year, were trained this way across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Florida. Ms. Taiariol considers this to be among the highlights of her career.
Following her tenure with NBD, which later became First Chicago and then Bank One, Ms. Taiariol joined Compuware and Blue Cross Blue Shield as a training broker in 1995, rising to become the project coordinator of internal training by 2004. During this time, she achieved certification as a project management professional through the Project Management Institute in 2001. From 2004 to 2005, she served as a coordinator and contractor for project management at GM before returning to Blue Cross Blue Shield as a project coordinator and team leader until 2008. That same year, Ms. Taiariol briefly spent time as the project coordinator for the Visteon Corporation and completed a Master of Education in adult education at Central Michigan University with her thesis, “Using a Lessons Learned Database and Constructivist Learning Concepts to Improve Existing and Developing New Plans to Deter Criminal Behavior.”
Ms. Taiariol went on to join the Health Alliance Plan in 2009, where she was the government programs administrator and project manager for Medicare subject matter expertise until 2015. During this time, she also served as a member on a local medical board consisting of local hospitals and medical experts as a Medicare subject matter expert. In 2016, she spent time as the documentation specialist for the Great Lakes Water Authority before becoming the information technology project manager for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department later that same year. Serving as a project manager level three, she and a partner are responsible for documenting the current state of the fleet program for automation and managing preventative maintenance. Ms. Taiariol also completed a project for a customer service portal to give customers more options for paying their bills and is currently working on a new record management program for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
Throughout her career, Ms. Taiariol has continued to grow and learn, continually seeking new information to benefit her professional growth. Since 2020, she has completed countless professional courses through LinkedIn, including on remote work, time management, well-being and productivity, managing virtual teams, stress management, systems thinking, and building resilience. With a strong drive to give back to her community, Ms. Taiariol is additionally a certified catechism teacher and has spent time as a troop leader with the Girls Scouts of the United States of America, where she developed and approved the Night Critter Badge.
When she isn’t working, Ms. Taiariol can be found doing yoga, artistic wood burning, card reading, dog training and growing birdhouse gourds. She was a long-time member of the International Farm and Garden Association, where she served as program director, vice president, and president. As Ms. Taiariol looks toward retirement, she is proud that her book “I Choose to Live,” about what her life has been like following the death of her husband, has been published and released on Amazon. Today, her family includes her two children, a son who is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy and a daughter who is a manager at a veterinary clinic; three grandchildren; her brother; and two dogs.