Success Stories
So you ask… what can A-PLUS do for me? Well this page is dedicated to answering that question with real world results of what the skills, mentoring and connections you could make as a member of A-PLUS can do for your career. Read through these stories and be sure to click the ‘MEMBERSHIP’ link above to start the process of advancing your career with the USPS.
For Silas Burgess III, a college grad, 22-year employee and second generation postal worker and A-PLUS member, getting his recent promotion is almost like coming full circle in his career. Whether he did it consciously or not, he’s been preparing for it – and beyond – the entire time.
Burgess was recently promoted to a Labor Relations Specialist for the New York 1 District, a long way from his early days as a letter carrier at Harlem’s Manhattanville Station, where his father carried mail for 25 years (“they’ll take care of you”, he told his son). It’s an even longer way from his first experience with A-PLUS, who held workshops to prepare USPS candidates to take the 473 Battery Test to gain admission. He was there to prep at the direction of the workshop facilitator – his mom, Shirley Burgess.
After carrying mail several years, Burgess made it into the Associate Supervisor Program (ASP), and was assigned to Hellgate Station in NYC, where he met Manager Halbert Clark, an A-PLUS member and fellow Prince Hall Mason. He later went to FDR Station, which had Functions 1, 2, 3B & 4 in a 24-hour environment, and he learned even more. “Clark taught me everything upon arrival – how to open and close stations, all the administrative work, whatever was needed,” he said. “Once I got to FDR I wanted to know more, and with all those tours and function, I got plenty!”
Already armed with a Bachelors degree, he balanced work and school to get an MBA in 2008. After Amazon arrived at FDR (NYC East Side) in 2010, he was challenged to help establish a similar delivery operation for it on the West Side of NYC and worked with the unions to make it successful. He later joined National Alliance, and also lateraled into a Maintenance Supervisor position at Morgan P&DC, where he found even at the same level, he made more money. “The policy is that I need to make more than my employees, and they were all high craft levels,” he said.
At Morgan he used the power of Labor Relations (LR) to change the culture there, making him a go-to person for management and his fellow Alliance members, and in 2017 earned a detail position in LR. Before long, he learned of A-PLUS’ desire to reactivate its chapters in the Northeast Region, leading him to meet Lou Curry and attending the Eastern Region Conference in Atlantic City in 2019.
At the conference, he participated in Spotlight on You, made connections with like-minded colleagues, and picked up tips on KSAs he found very valuable. He was promoted to his current position later that year, and during the pandemic, he attended many of the zoom sessions, workshops and conferences. “A-PLUS played a major role in me having a blueprint for success, as it gave me the tools to prevail, as well as ensuring others have the same kinds of opportunities,” he says today. “I also saw how I could help employees with their KSAs, and much more, and now we’re determined to make our chapter in NYC just as successful as the others.”
In April 2022, Tikia Felder was promoted to her first EA$ position, Operations Support Specialist at the Baltimore P&DC. And if you think you can predict how she got there, think again; hers is a story of ambition, persistence and patience, all attributes that serve any aspiring USPS employee well.
In 2004, Felder started as a Rural Carrier Associate in Owings Mills, MD, becoming a rural carrier 10 years later. She knew she wanted to do more for her career, and when she posted to her district’s website in 2014 asking about opportunities, she received a response. Two weeks later she was an acting supervisor in Westminster (MD) PO. It started a string of assignments over the next several years in local post offices and plants as supervisor, operations support specialist and Officer-in-Charge. While they didn’t turn into promotions, she stayed the course anyway.
“I knew no matter what, I had to always perform well and come to work,” she says. “I dressed to impress, always for the job I wanted, and was often mistaken for a manager!”
At a career conference in 2015, she met Kimberly Harris, who invited her to join A-PLUS. She later attended the MLK Banquet held by the Washington Metro Chapter and met Dane Coleman, who was then her district manager in Baltimore. Soon after meeting him, she was assigned to the IMF plant near Baltimore and made it her goal to work in the In-Plant Support function. She stayed on her grind, interviewing, volunteering for big plant projects, and meeting important people along the way.
“A-PLUS taught me that networking is a big deal,” she says. “I know I was always being watched, so meeting people and giving a good impression at all times was important to me.”
Following an assignment at the Baltimore Annex in 2021, she kept applying for jobs, and in January 2022 she was called in for numerous interviews, more than before. She finally got the promotion call that month to start in her current position in February.
“A-PLUS did everything they said they would do: they coached me, mentored me, even provided a shoulder for me to cry on when I needed it,” she recalls. “And at the conferences they always made me feel welcome and comfortable, as it’s very family-oriented.
“They said they cared- and they did!”
If you talk to Wayne Breeze these days, he might tell you he’s in a much better place in his career than he’s ever been. As the Manager of Transportation for Greensboro (NC) P&DC since January 2022, his functional area is now considered a vital part of Operations although it wasn’t always that way.
A 1992 graduate of NC A&T University in Greensboro, he spent the first 13 years of his work life in the insurance industry, while also getting a taste of USPS as a part time Data Conversion Operator (DCO) at the now defunct Remote Encoding Center (REC) for three years in the 1990’s. He entered the Postal Service full time in 2005 at the Greensboro Bulk Mail Center (now Network Distribution Center, or NOC} as a Parcel Post Distribution Clerk, and within a year was promoted to Vehicle Operations Assistant (VOA), a best qualified position overseeing mail arrival and dispatch.
As a VOA, he explored opportunities to advance, leading him to join A-PLUS and get inspired at the meetings and training sessions offered each month by the Triad Chapter. “They showed me what was possible in the company, so I paid attention to the lessons learned, especially with the writing of my KSAs, which needed work,” he says today. “From time to time I’d get discouraged with what seemed to be the lack of opportunities, but A-PLUS had a way of giving me the energy to persevere, because I was ready to become an EAS employee.”
Breeze was promoted to Supervisor, Transportation Operations (STO) in 2015, and again as a Network Specialist in 2017, giving him a well-rounded experience in a function that many other employees knew little about. As he kept advancing and learning, he knew he wanted more, and in March 2020, he was appointed Acting Manager, Transportation. In this position, he became the administrative official for many intrastate and interstate transportation routes in and outside of NC, and credits much of his success to his time spent in A-PLUS.
“A-PLUS helped me tremendously with its mentorship, because it would’ve been easy to stop trying at times,” he said. “They stayed on me to keep going, and now in my 17th year I’m in a better position to help others as I was helped. And it’s good timing too! Being in Network Operations used to feel like we were the stepchildren of the plants, but now we’re considered a vital part of logistics, a far more viable place to be. It’s been an interesting journey and I’m primed to keep things going upward and onward!”
What constitutes a true career journey? While there is no universal blueprint for a USPS journey, as everyone’s is different, Kristina Louis can make a case for a truly unique one that took her through three states, a college degree and multiple positions in various components of the Postal Service. And after 29 years, she’ll even tell you: “I’m just getting started!”
Louis officially began her journey as a Christmas casual in 1993 in Royal Oak (Ml) P&DC, and her strong work ethic started her on a path that included various jobs at stops in numerous locations in the state, including LSM operator; mail processor and flat sorter operator at Detroit P&DC, parcel post clerk at the Priority One Mail Center; customer service rep at USPS Call Center; Computer Forwarding Service (CFS) clerk and Bulk Mail Technician in Pontiac; and time in between to earn a BS degree from Eastern Michigan University. By 2018, she felt the urge to use her experience and intellect to pursue EAS positions, so she focused on a new plan: leaving Michigan.
She turned to eReassign and was selected as a secretary for the Marketing function for the Tennessee District in Nashville, a clerk working among all EAS employees. She was also invited to her first A-PLUS meeting, and met chapter president Antoinette Lewis, who along with the members welcomed her with open arms. “I really liked the environment at A-PLUS, everyone was so supportive and helpful to each other,” she recalls. “I hadn’t seen that in Michigan, and there was no such chapter where I worked. I wanted to be where they were.”
She started applying for jobs, and did get two more “best qualified” positions, but was getting no interviews for the EAS jobs she applied for. She turned back to A-PLUS, became an official member, and got immediate help, with regular reviews and critiques, and it all started comingtogether. In 2022, she submitted seven applications, and was contacted for interviews for five of them,but wasn’t comfortable in that arena. Through A-PLUS she was coached via mock interviews, and it eased some of her anxieties – to the point where near the end of the year, she had to choose between two job offers!
In February 2023, she starts her new job as Criminal Investigator Support Specialist, EAS-15 in the U.S. Postal Inspection Service – in Chicago, IL! “Without the help and support from A-PLUS, I wouldn’t have gotten this promotion,” she says. “I’m confident all the skills A-PLUS prepared me for my journey in the Inspection Service. I just can’t say enough about them – without A-PLUS I just wouldn’t have that confidence!”
Long-time Triad (NC) Chapter member Dr. Rachel Ivory, Ph.D., a HQ Logistics Training Analyst EAS-25 domiciled in Southern California, recently shared news that elicited joy and kudos across the A-PLUS landscape: she’s been awarded an executive assignment as Special Assistant for the Logistics Ground Initiative. a mix of logistics surface projects based on the Delivering for America plan that expands the ground network. When looking at her career one might surmise that she had enough in her prodigious toolbox to succeed without much help from anyone else. However, a closer look would reveal that A-PLUS played a vital and timely role in her ascent through the years.
After moving around the country and beyond for many years, she settled in Roanoke, VA to raise a family, continue her education and enjoy some stability; she was hired in 1988 at the local plant, while also serving as an Army Reservist (her husband Brian, also a Reservist, joined USPS in 1994 at the plant). In 2002 she was promoted to Claims andInquiry Clerk and in 2010 she became a Training Technician and Driver Safety Instructor (DSI), performing virtually all the training roles at the plant for many years. Once her son graduated, she knew it was time to make moves; she just had to figure out how.
Enter A-PLUS: She’d heard of it and wanted to learn more. She reached out and learned its Eastern Region Conference was scheduled for October 2011 and signed up for Spotlight on You, its most popular session that puts participants in front of a panel of executives and top managers so they can sell themselves to the panel – and to everyone else in the room. “She closed the session, and she was dynamic!” recalls Howard Patterson. Eastern Region VP.
Not long after returning home from the conference, she was promoted to Administrative Assistant to the HR Manager, who predicted correctly that she “wouldn’t be in that position very long”. He was right, as a short time later she took her years of experience as a Training Tech, and her masters degree, and detailed as the Manager, Learning, Development & Diversity (MLOD) for the Appalachian District, prompting her to move to Charleston, WV. She oversaw all training functions in the district until 2014 when Brian was promoted to an MDO job in Bakersfield, CA, close to where they both lived previously, so they relocated to the west coast.
Once in California, the whirlwind of achievements continued: she detailed as Labor Relations(lR) Specialist, was hired as Field Recruiter; detailed as LR Manager; promoted to HQ Engagement Ambassador, one of three selected from hundreds of applicants {“I covered all of California, plus Hawaii, Guam, Rota, and Saipan – I traveled 44 weeks per year for five years!”); and received her doctorate degree in Public Policy and Administration. In 2021, the USPS restructuring efforts landed her in the Logistics function. She was appointed to her executive assignment in December 2022.
Through it all, she never left her A-PLUS roots and participates in as much as she can. “It’s the networking, mentoring and learning that makes it valuable,” she says. “You go to conferences and meetings and meet people from all over the country- that’s priceless. It’s more about connecting with others for guidance, putting yourself out there, and that all helps develop you as a leader. That’s what A-PLUS gives you, and so my mindset is always: what are you going to do with it? And who are you going to bring with you?”
Dr. Ivory is living proof that she was ready for the journey, and A-PLUS is always there for her if/when needed.
Angie Hicks-Spruill, Manager, Employee Development (ED), North Carolina District, is an A-PLUS Lifer, meaning she’s in it to the very end. In her nearly 30 years in the Postal Service, it’s made that much of an impact to her.
Since starting in Detroit in 1993 as an LSM operator (remember those machines?), she’s made her way around the Postal Service by volunteering to do what others didn’t. Angie took assignments like CFC worker, helping with the QWL (Quality of Work Life) teams and various details. She wanted to learn and develop. as long as there was no public speaking involved – she was deathly afraid of doing that. Her career took a turn upwards when she was selected for a detail In HR/Personnel, as she would spend the next eight years in that department, all on detail.
During Angle’s first year in HR, where she was assigned as a postal examiner. she was invited to her first A-PLUS meeting, and it made a lasting impression on her that remains to this day. *As soon as I arrived, the members there were so warm and welcoming, I felt the sky was the limit. I couldn’t believe it! I had to call my mom and I told her, “these people in A-PLUS don’t even know me, and they care about my career!” She ultimately went to many workshops, especially KSA writing, and “as long as I was willing to learn. there was always someone there willing to coach and mentor me,” she recalls.
In 2006, after much coaching on her KSAs, she applied for a position at the HR Shared Services Center In North Carolina, and was hired for a career ladder position there, meaning she’d move from EAS-16 to EAS-18 in two years. She also became a co-founder of the Triad Chapter. the new A-PLUS chapter based in Greensboro. and ultimately also co-founded a local Toastmasters Club, which she used to overcome her fear of public speaking. Angie also became active in NAPS (National Association of Postal Supervisors) and routinely served In leadership positions in those organizations as well as in different volunteer capacities at work. Her career was truly well-rounded.
By 2016, Angie was promoted to supervisor at HRSSC (EAS-21) while also working various assignments related to training and diversity, and earned her Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Green Belt on a training-related project. She realized that this was a passion of hers and explored ways to move her career in that direction. When the ED Manager job was posted in 2022, Angie felt ready to take that step towards a position that she was passionate about. She used her A-PLUS wisdom and connections to prepare her eCareer Profile. spoke to fellow members and others in the ED field, conducted mock interviews with mentors, and was coached on everything happening in the function at the time. She was eventually hired and assumed the position in September 2022.
“I just love what A-PLUS stands for,” says Hicks-Spruill. “It has been a blessing, as every conference or convention I’ve attended, I came back feeling rejuvenated, energized, with a burst of energy and a bright outlook about all possibilities. I’m in it for life!”
Bianca Simmons, level 18 Postmaster in Pelham, NC, has had an interesting and somewhat adventurous career at USPS. Coming on board in 2016 after years in the tech industry, she started as a PSE in Greensboro Post Office, and her first career appointment was as the secretary for the District Finance Manager two years later.
That position exposed her to virtually every function in the district, since they all had to provide info to her manager at some point. One function she saw daily was the Information Technology (IT) function, as she worked with numerous applications for inputting reports and data regularly. And from her years working as a contractor before USPS, she saw some glaring weaknesses in the district’s webpage and shared her thoughts with the IT manager. To her surprise, he accepted her feedback and even allowed her to help his department improve some functionalities of the site.
Her acumen with the applications got the attention of the Operations Support department, which offered her a detail as an Ops Specialist in 2019. The following year, she was promoted to that same position, while still helping the IT department out when she had ‘down time’, including putting the images of the leadership team on the site. “The DM thanked me personally for that,” she says.
She had to leave the district office when USPS restructured, and she landed in Virginia as the level 18 Postmaster in Spencer, about an hour away from home in NC. While there, she found a network of helpful clerks, postmasters and other employees who “had each other’s backs” and learned her job quickly. However, she always kept her eye on jobs in IT, but in applying had been told to “only use examples from your time in the field.” The technical requirements of the jobs she was attracted to made it difficult to fit her PO experience in, but she did as she was told. Alas, she got very little attention.
However, she did get the attention of A-PLUS member Cynthia Coles, another PM in VA, who saw Bianca’s potential and talents and sponsored her as a member in her chapter, Triad in Greensboro. Once Triad found her, things started happening.
“Before A-PLUS I just couldn’t crack the code,” she said. “A-PLUS helped with everything, they made me focus, make my points on the application clearer, and basically told me what the rules were. I needed that because I wasn’t following them.” In addition, Triad put her in touch with Debra Clayton, Triangle Chapter member and recent retiree from the Information Technology Service Center (ITSC) in Raleigh, which posted many of the tech-type jobs Bianca was applying for. Debra provided invaluable guidance and opened her network of IT professionals to her, which reinforced to Bianca that she was on the right track.
Bianca attended the regional conference in Virginia Beach, after having been on several interviews for IT-type positions that she was now more confident applying for. About a week after the conference, she got the call: she was promoted to the level 21 Network Architect position – working from home three days a week!
Laura Danielle has spent 27 years at the USPS,the last 14 of them in a support function for Tennessee District. After entering as a clerk at the Chattanooga Remote Encoding Center (REC) and moving to the plant as a clerk, she transitioned to Complaints & Inquiry Clerk in 2008 and later to Contract Technician for Finance, working in Nashville. She was also attending school for Paralegal Studies, as she had her eye on the USPS Law Department, and applying for a spot there when the time was right. An on-again, off-again member of Nashville Chapter, she finished school this year and was ready to make her move.
First stop: Milwaukee for the A-PLUS National Convention. “I got serious this year, and I knew I was ready to advance,” she says. “I needed to take some action, so the convention was perfect timing.” She participated in Spotlight on You, and got some great feedback on her eCareer and HERO Profiles while networking with members and others. She found that when she voiced what she wanted to do, there were people willing to help her achieve her targets. A job she wanted became vacant during the convention and she asked for help with her eCareer; she got it and the process to promotion was on.
“Without A-PLUS and Carl helping me with my KSAs, reviewing and redlining them, taking me under their wing. preparing me for the journey,” says Laura, “I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did, with my application, interview, everything.” And how far did she go? “l got promoted to a level 15 Legal Administrative Assistant for the U.S. Law Department, in the Centralized Distribution Office based in Atlanta. I moved from Nashville and I was so ready for it!”
She’s been in the job since August 15. “I feel like it was made for me,” she says, “I work with a great team, they’re very helpful and accepting. I fit in right away.” She recently attended the Southern Region Conference in her new city, canceling plans for a conflicting event to be with her black and gold family. “I’ve got much love for A-PLUS, this is where I needed to be.”
Patrice Johnson has been in the Postal Service for 26.5 years so she knows a thing or two about details and promotions. She also knows about being mobile and relocating; she’s been in at least seven or eight districts in her career, and she’s about to return to one of them for the most recent promotion she earned: an MDO job, one that she’s always wanted, in Atlanta, GA.
Patrice spent her early years in Chicago, entering USPS as a mailhandler in 1996 and Chief Union steward for the Mailhandlers Union, before transferring to Houston in 2012. She also received her Masters of Science in Counseling & Human Resources from National Louis University, Chicago in 2011. She is also a certified sexual assault crisis counselor- for rape victims. She interned as a Cook County Probation officer in Chicago, IL. After receiving her master’s degree she worked part time as a counselor with Ex- Felons – providing therapy for them and their families as a part of their mandated probation requirement.
She was afforded many details while working in Houston. In 2016, the year after joining the local chapter, she got her first promotion as an SDO. She spent the next several years on several details in numerous districts – Atlanta, Florida, New Orleans, Macon, GA and Alabama. In March 2019 she was awarded her first Manager’s position as a level 19 MDO in Florida. In July 2020 she was awarded Manager, Business Mail Entry in Alabama, before losing her position due to the organizational reduction-in-force (RIF); it led her to accept a job as Sr. Employee Development Specialist, level 19, in Louisiana District in 2021.
Meanwhile, she was picking up valuable career tips in A-PLUS. “I went to the convention in Philly in 2017, and in a workshop learned about the new program coming out called HERO,” she says. “They said it would be the next big thing, so when it came out the next year, I completed it right away and got selected to participate in a district program. It turned out I had a First-Class HERO Profile even before they were calling it that!”
Fast forward to the national convention in Milwaukee earlier this year, when she participated in Spotlight on You, and upon hearing of her goal to be a plant manager, she was pulled aside by one of the panelists, Eastern Region VP Howard Patterson. “He said for me to get more consideration, I should change the format of my application in certain areas, like my job descriptions,” she recalls. “Once I did, I started getting interviews for some of the higher-level jobs I was applying for. It didn’t seem like much, but it helped.”
And today? “I’m about to start my new position at North Metro (GA) P&DC as a level 24 Lead MDO!”
Sharon Douglas is a postal employee of 30+ years who spent most of her career as a clerk at Roswell {GA) Post Office. She spent many of those years longing for the chance to do something different, to apply her skills in a different function – basically, to expand her horizons away from Roswell. However, she found it tough to find opportunities outside of her office for various reasons, or to find support to point her in the right direction- any direction – to try something new.
She did,however, find out about A-PLUS, and joined the Atlanta Chapter in 2015. After attending meetings and seeing others succeed, she decided to attend the National Convention in Indianapolis in April 2018 and participated in her first Spotlight on You session. And while the session did not produce an immediate job offer, it impacted her in other ways.
“Doing the Spotlight on You gave me the confidence to step out of the shadows, and to introduce myself to people I wanted to work with,” she says. “I started to show up more often where I can be seen as someone who is serious about her career.”
Later that year, at the Southern Region conference, she did the Spotlight on You again, this time in front of the HR Manager, who decided then that he wanted her on his team – and soon after she got her first detail opportunity as an Acting Training Technician, level 7. Two years later she became an official Training Tech in Atlanta. Her role in that function gave her exposure, opportunities to meet others, and assignments to stretch her skills and abilities to handle almost any tasks. It led her to a promotion in March 2022 to her current job as a level 17 Business Services Network Rep in Atlanta.
“I’m very thankful for A-PLUS,” says Sharon. “The many trainings, conferences and networking opportunities have proven to be invaluable. I’d be remiss if I did not give special thanks to Carl Walton, A-PLUSEastern Region President.
“To Carl … You’ve been a fantastic mentor; an integral part of my elevation. You have inspired and motivated me during difficult times, when I needed words of encouragement and support the most. Thank you for your guidance, wordsof wisdom and kindness. I value your insight and input, even to this day. Thanks for offering a non-judgmental listening ear and for your patience, useful advice, and positive attitude. I admire your dedication to A-PLUSand your commitment to helping others to be the best that they canbe, and I look forward to seeing where you will help to lead this great organization.”
It’s always a fun story to hear about the journey some people take to advance their careers, and even more so when A-PLUS influenced it. When it happens with two sisters, and nearly simultaneously, then the fun quotient goes to a different level. Case in point: therecently promoted sisters, Latrice Holmes and De’Metria Holmes.
After years in the Energy business, Latrice joined USPS in 2014 in Columbus, OH as a mailhandler assistant (MHA) at the plant and was promoted to a Supervisor Distribution Operations in 2017. Always the ambitious type, she sought and was selected for detail opportunities in Columbus as an Attendance Control Officer (ACO) in 2020, and later that year in Columbus P&DC and Detroit P&DC as a Network Specialist. As an ACO shejoined the Cincinnati/DaytonChapter, and soon after arriving invited her sister De’Metria to join. De’Metria was a PSE in Louisville P&DC and became a member with hersister in Ohio.
“A-PLUS showed me how much excellence there is in the organization, and I was impressed to see it all together at one time, and how it had members reaching back to elevate others,” said Latrice. “I’d chartered a similar chapter while working in Energy before USPS, so it resonated with me. Plus, I knew that even though I was having fun on these details, I was stillalevel 17 – that had to change. I needed a job that gave me a greater challenge and a higher level!”
Latrice attended the A-PLUS national convention in Milwaukee in May 2022 and was hooked. She networked, participated in Spotlight on You, and shared her career goals with many of the executives and other attendees there. Within a few short months, Latrice was promoted to Manager, Distribution Operations (MOO), level 19 at South Bend (IN) P&DC.
“In Milwaukee I found my tribe and it is awesome!” says Latrice excitedly. “I was networking with like minded individuals, met members who I had only engaged with via Zoom chapter meetings, and reconnected with other members that I trained and worked with cross-functionally. I have done the work and A-PLUSis an outstanding organization for mentoring and coaching for advancement.”
De’Metria had joined USPS in November 2019, and by March 2022 was an acting supervisor at Louisville P&DC. In part from her sister’s encouragement,she began leveraging her A-PLUSmembership to network with other members to enhance her eCareer profile. In doingso, the members she spoke to encouraged her to keep applying, and to not be satisfied with being a good craft employee.
Demetria and Latrice agreed to attend the Eastern Region Conference in September. Before going to Virginia Beach, and after submitting several applications, Demetria got the word: she was promoted to Supervisor, Distribution Operations(SDO) at the Southern Maryland P&DC!
“A-PLUS is anawesome organization to be a part of,” she says. “You get to meet so many good people who want to make a change, and who want to show you that the opportunities at USPS are endless.”