August 2026 Breakfast Meeting

Typical Agenda:

7:15 AM: Zoom Meeting Open for Discussion and Networking
7:30 AM: Welcome/introductions/announcements
7:35 AM Featured Presentation
8:30 AM: Adjourn

Presentation Title: From Vision to Delivery: Inside a Local Government IT PMO Speakers: Donna Sanchez and Sara Ainsworth

Donna Sanchez, PMP, PMI-ACP, LSSGB, has spent more than two decades in project management and nearly ten years leading and maturing IT PMOs across two major city governments. As the PMO Manager for the City of Charlotte, Donna built and evolved the Public Safety IT PMO, establishing governance, intake processes, prioritization committees, and standardized methodologies that improved consistency and delivery across complex portfolios. She now brings that deep PMO leadership expertise to the City of Glendale, driving PMO advancement, strengthening processes, and enabling successful execution of technology projects across the organization.

Sara Ainsworth, PMP, PMI-ACP, is a Senior IT Project Manager who leads large-scale modernization initiatives that improve operations and public service delivery. She excels at aligning leaders, technical teams, and vendors to drive clarity, momentum, and disciplined execution across complex enterprise projects. Known for a collaborative, solutions-focused leadership style, Sara advances technology programs that strengthen organizational effectiveness and long-term readiness.

Topic Summary: Discover how a city IT PMO transitioned from survival mode to structured, effective governance in just two years. This session covers the essentials of that transformation: defining project criteria, implementing stage-gates and required documentation, and establishing an intake and prioritization council using a simple scoring model. You will also learn about updating portfolio tooling and setting up quarterly benchmarks for continuous evolution. Leave with a structured, practical approach that you can immediately apply to any public-sector PMO.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to: 

1. Understand the unique challenges and opportunities of maturing a PMO in local government. Learn how constraints such as shifting priorities, lack of standardization, and political oversight affect PMO operations. 

2. Identify practical steps to move from an informal PMO to a structured, strategic one. Explore how defining project criteria, building templates, implementing stage gates, and strengthening intake/prioritization can transform PMO performance. 

3. Apply roadmap thinking to PMO development. See how current-state assessment, future-state planning, and quarterly reviews help drive continuous improvement. 

4. Recognize the value of governance evolution. Learn how shifting from TGC to ITSC, adding scoring, enforcing documentation, and establishing review processes creates alignment and prioritization discipline. 

5. Take away actionable strategies for PMO credibility and leadership buy-in. Understand how visibility, metrics, communication, and showcasing workload support executive trust and PMO empowerment.

 

If you have any questions, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

All meeting attendees will receive one (1) PDU for attending the meeting

REMINDER: We always look for volunteers to present at future breakfast meetings.

• Your topic can be anything related to project management.
• The presentation should last approximately 45-50 minutes, and you will receive 5 PDUs for your time and effort.