About

Biography:

Zac Jarrard consults in project management and the gamification field. Zac strongly feels gamification principles and the power of play apply to all types of industries. Zac puts in 100% effort every day to ensure Jarrard Consulting is a passionate and enthusiastic leader exemplifying these practices.

In 2010, Zac began his career as a tutor and spent the past ten years tutoring hundreds of high school and college students in math, statistics, writing, and economics. In 2018, the Academic Success Center honored Zac with a Lifetime in Tutoring Achievement Award for his tutoring and service contributions to Park University.

For the last three years, Zac served as a project manager for waterfall and agile projects. This role included creating a new agile team, exceeding customer expectations, and delivering project results. Zac built a project management special interest group to share project management knowledge and encourage collaboration across the organization. Zac served as an innovation mentor guiding teams who were designing new and cutting-edge products.

In addition, Zac is a fearless gaming leader. He shared his gaming interests with higher education and won an innovation grant to create a new graduate public administration course using Minecraft. Since 2017, Zac has traveled the country sharing his experiences with Minecraft and training professionals on how to use gamification in the workplace.

Zac is a summa cum laude graduate with a Master of Science in Information Systems and Business Analytics, a second MBA with an emphasis in Project Management, and an MPA with an emphasis in Public Management, and dual major in Political Science and Economics. Zac is a member of Alpha Chi, Alpha Sigma Lambda, Delta Mu Delta, and Pi Sigma Alpha. As a member of the Business and Investment club in college, Zac ran a successful letter campaign to meet Warren Buffett. Other interests include activities as an Eagle Scout and Wood Badge trained adult leader. In 2015, the Park University Student Senate bestowed the Servant Leader of the Year Award to Zac for his service contributions.

Other credentials include:

• Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, ASQ
• Professional in Business Analysis, PMI
• Agile Certified Practitioner, PMI
• Project Management Professional, PMI
• Minecraft: Education Edition Global Mentor
• Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence, ASQ
• Certified Six Sigma Green Belt, ASQ
• Certified Quality Process Analyst, ASQ
• Certified Quality Improvement Associate, ASQ
• Volunteer Management Institute, Nonprofit Connect

His volunteer activities include serving as Chair for the Kansas City Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), mentoring college students and young professionals through the Kansas City Project Management Institute, and serving as a judge with the ASQ International Team Excellence Award. Past volunteer activities include serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster, Quartermaster for National Youth Leadership Training, founding the Business and Investment club, and the Alexa Programming club.

Zac currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri and continues to pursue presentations and publication opportunities. Refer to the bibliography page for a complete list of past presentations and publications.