Meet Our Employees

Meet Carrie Reineccius! Release Manager located at our Minnesota office.

Tell us about yourself!

I was born and raised in Hibbing, MN (lived 3 houses from Bob Dylan!). I’ve only spent one year outside of MN, working in Southern CA for a firm based in St. Cloud, MN. I was very happy to return to St Cloud after a year. Yes, I’m a Minnesotan through and through.
I have a BA degree in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and taught for one school year. I unfortunately realized about three months into that year that this wasn’t the right career for me which made the remaining six months very long. I went back to school and completed a BS in Mathematics and then applied that to an actuarial career for 6 years, but I decided I really needed a job with more personality. I switched over to the software development realm and have been in that area for over 25 years (as a programmer, business/system analyst, QA analyst and a project manager). I’ve also completed my MBA degree and PMP certification.

How did you hear about Edmentum and the position?

I began at Edmentum in August of 2012. I learned about the position doing a normal job search on the web but then was able to learn a lot about the company on the website. The fact that it was in the education area was intriguing to me and the folks I interviewed with made me even more interested. I’ve worked in companies of many different sizes and find those that are the size of Edmentum offer a much more fun and fulfilling environment.

What are you and your department responsible for?

My role within Product Management is different from the rest of my team. Unlike our Product Managers who each manage one or more of our products, I do not directly own a product. My role is Release Manager and in that role I oversee each release, making sure our partners from all areas of the company are coming together with their deliverables required for the release. As with any project management role, this involves facilitating communications through various means and doing plenty of status checks. Additionally, I work with the VP of Product Management, Andy Frost, managing the roadmap process and have worked on process improvement projects.

What interests you about the field that you are in?

I live and breathe project management whether it is at work, at my church, or with my family. It’s who I am. I’ve filled that role at several different companies but what makes it special here at Edmentum is that it has brought me back to my original career in education. Although teaching wasn’t for me, I regard education as very important in a person’s life so it’s been interesting and rewarding coming at it from this side.

What is the most enjoyable aspect of your job?

That’s easy, it’s the people! I’ve worked at a lot of companies and although the day to day work can be motivating, it’s the people that make or break it. Since I get to work with folks from so many departments, it adds to the challenge and the enjoyment.

What activities are you interested in outside of work?

My husband and I moved to a new home a year ago and are learning about all the work (and fun) that comes with maintaining a home yourself. We’ve enjoyed meeting all of our neighbors, especially all the dog owners we meet up with in the city park right outside our backyard. We are making our first attempt at a garden; I can’t keep a houseplant alive but our garden is blooming like crazy! Not only flowers but peas, beans and carrots galore. Next year we are hopefully adding rhubarb and raspberries for pie (first I need to learn how to make a pie crust!).

I have an obsession for Winnie the Pooh. I have a collection of Pooh items that occupy several rooms in our home and some of which has been donated to a quaint little Pooh museum in White River, Canada. I’ve been to England to visit the Enchanted Place near Hartfield where Christopher Robin (author’s son) grew up with his Pooh bear. While there, I also discovered what a gorse bush was and I played Poohsticks on the original Poohsticks Bridge. My favorite question to ask folks – what character did Disney add to the Pooh story in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh?

What are your professional goals?

As noted above, I love project managing so that’s what I continue to pursue. My plan in 5-7 years is to ease into partial retirement, likely working part-time for some type of non-profit.