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Beyond the Chaos™ is blessed with an excellent team that helps us serve and support our clients at exceptional levels. Each of these driven women brings a plethora of knowledge and a wide range of experiences. But, more importantly, they are dedicated to crushing chaos. They go above and beyond, overdelivering the whole time. Destroying inefficiencies, creating processes, and simplifying procedures is their jam.

See why they work here.

Andrea Stevens
I’ve been told I’m a ‘born project manager’, and I love it. For most of my career, I worked at huge corporations in a variety of roles (mostly IT), but I have to say that the past few years with Beyond the Chaos have been some of my most satisfying. Working with many different small businesses has been challenging and very rewarding because I can see real improvements in their workflow and lower frustration levels. I can’t wait to see what industry my next client might be!
Caralee Grimes
I’m excited to learn new things every day, helping clients streamline their businesses and improve the efficiency of their teams. I am given the freedom to challenge myself and provide creative ideas that positively impact our clients’ successes.

Meet our Chaos Killers:

Andrea Stevens

Consultant/Project Manager

Making things work smoothly in chaotic environments is exactly what Andrea thrives on. She leverages her extensive corporate experience as a project manager, developer, tester, and business/systems analyst to understand how a variety of teams work. “A picture is worth a thousand words” is her motto, as she finds depicting processes incredibly valuable when working toward calmness and stability within a team or an organization. A recent empty-nester after six children, she and her husband live in an 1890 Minnesota farmhouse, enjoy watching their grandkids grow (too fast), and draw straws to see who gets to use their John Deere tractor for yardwork (or anything else they can think of).

Caralee Grimes

Project Manager

Caralee thrives on bringing focus and process consistency to projects, developing order and leadership to the team. With a background in engineering and over 15 years in manufacturing, she provides analytical process improvement and efficiency to solve complex problems and meet team goals. Caralee is an energetic, collaborative project manager, leading the team with an unwavering job focus and work ethic. Caralee enjoys time with her five adult children and their families. She loves the outdoors, travel, and time by the water.

Danielle Japczyk

Project Manager/Operations Manager

Danielle works with the Chaos Killers as our Operations Manager but also lends her considerable skill to our clients as a Project Manager. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her two daughters. Danielle earned her bachelor's degree from Illinois State University and a master’s degree from Keller Graduate School of Management. Danielle took a break from corporate America when her first daughter was born and is now excited to be jumping back in, bringing her unique skill set of managing chaos in all forms with her. In her free time, she enjoys adventures with her kids, spending time with family, and playing tennis.

Lynette Lamarque Wilson

Consultant/Project Manager

Creating designs and ideas may be more glamorous, but Lynette prefers finding logical and efficient ways to make those ideas actually happen. Planning the right actions to take at the right time with the right resources is absolutely her happy place. She has extensive experience in administration and operations, particularly for healthcare and non-profit organizations. While she was born and raised in Texas, she has lived in South Louisiana for the past 15 years. Lynette holds an MBA (with a specialization in Project Management), and a variety of other project management and administrative credentials. She enjoys taking classes, particularly for technology-related certifications, working in her garden, cooking, camping, and hiking.

Brooke Lawer

Consultant

Through her unique combination of corporate, agency, and start-up experience, Brooke demonstrates a best practice approach together with a disruptor mindset. Brooke has started three of her own businesses and held roles at some of the world’s leading companies, including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Diageo, and the Women’s Tennis Association. The variety in her career has given Brooke the ability to deliver on high-level objectives while anticipating issues and finding practical, realistic solutions. Using her skills in strategic analysis, communications, crisis management, process mapping, executive coaching, and marketing, Brooke drives results and continual improvement. Brooke lives just north of New York City, has visited all continents except for Antarctica, and lets her dog sleep on the bed (and the couch).

Katie Betkowski

Consultant

Katie is an experienced advertising, communications, and marketing professional who brings 15 years of agency experience to the Beyond the Chaos team. She is a natural problem solver who is able to bring together disparate pieces of information to create a cohesive view and quickly understand where opportunities exist. She has successfully led clients and agency teams through initiatives both large and small and is excited to leverage her strategic and operational experience to help small business leaders build a strong foundation for growth. Katie lives in northwest Indiana, just south of Chicago, and enjoys spending time with her family anywhere near a body of water.

Rafaela Bach

Virtual Assistant

Rafaela Bach has always thrived on organization and getting things done. So, when she found project management she immediately fell in love with it. She was born in Curitiba, Brazil, and moved to Texas in 2012. She has a brother and an adorable Yorkshire named Daisy. After research and practice in her high school years, she is looking forward to growing her knowledge of project management as a virtual assistant at Beyond the Chaos.

Susan Jacobsen

Consultant/Project Manager

Susan is a skilled business and IT project manager and management consultant with over 20 years of experience. She has been a strategic advisor to CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and senior executive teams with Fortune 500 companies and non-profits. She is an expert in process and procedure design, product life cycle management, portfolio management, operations, productivity improvement, and comprehensive strategic planning.

Meet the leader of Beyond the Chaos

Get to know the Fractional CEO and Chaos Eradicating Officer, Susan Fennema.

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