Résumé — Melanie Lynn Kertley

Professional Summary

Operations strategist and founder of SanctumTools LLC — a software company with a live product line: the SanctumTools wellness app, Tablespread, and the Poor Man's Budget Tool. I build them by directing an AI/human engineering team, not by hand-coding. Behind that is twenty years turning operational chaos into working systems across automotive, hospitality, and finance — anchored by a 90% reduction in outstanding Accounts Receivable ($500K → $49K) through root-cause process redesign at a collision center. I find the broken system, name the real job, and direct the build.

Professional Experience

Action Advisors

High Point, NC · January 2026 – Present

Administrative Assistant

Manage client-facing tasks at an accounting advisory firm; serve as the primary point of contact for clients during peak tax season.
Run an AI-augmented client communications workflow: Microsoft Copilot triages email threads to flag unanswered inquiries, then drafts professional responses. Every draft is human-reviewed and verified against the original client request before sending. Human-in-the-loop, every time.

Capital Automotive of Greensboro

Greensboro, NC · November 2020 – September 2025

Office Manager, Carolinas Collision Centers

January 2024 – September 2025

Reduced outstanding Accounts Receivable from approximately $500,000 to $49,000 — roughly a 90% reduction — by investigating every open balance, contacting insurance carriers directly when collections required it, and resolving disputes that had gone unaddressed for months.
Diagnosed and fixed the systemic source of revenue leakage: implemented a workflow rule requiring final estimates to be aligned with insurance carriers' final supplements at the start of each claim, eliminating the close-then-reopen pattern that was generating write-offs.
Executed daily financial reconciliation across CCCOne and CDKGlobal at 100% data accuracy and regulatory compliance.
Trained 5+ new employees on office procedures, customer service standards, and proprietary software systems.

Collision Center Coordinator

March 2022 – October 2023

Mastered and utilized industry-specific software platforms (CCCOne and CDKGlobal) to optimize repair order processing, tracking, and management for an average caseload of 50+ active files.
Administered complex vendor relationships, ensuring meticulous data entry and invoice verification within the CDK system.

Receptionist

November 2020 – March 2022

Answered all incoming dealership calls on the Mitel phone system and routed them to the appropriate departments (sales, service, parts, finance).
Greeted and assisted customers in the showroom as the first point of contact for the dealership.
Designed and rolled out a tag sign-out system that eliminated recurring lost and missing tag issues.
Performance in this role led to promotion to Collision Center Coordinator in March 2022.

Self-Directed Projects & Technical Focus

Tablespread

Founder · 2026 · a SanctumTools product

Premium menu-planning app for people with a full kitchen who still don't know what to make: scan what's on hand, let the AI sous chef build the week around it, and leave with one organized shopping list while the pantry keeps itself current. Live and public at tablespread.melaniekertley.com, with full legal docs and payments processing. Designed and shipped by directing the AI build team.

The SanctumTools wellness app

Founder, SanctumTools LLC · 2025 – Present

A conversational AI companion for people managing serious mental illness: it tracks mood shifts, pain, and hygiene in real time so users bring real data to a clinician instead of relying on memory. Architected and directed full-stack delivery — authentication flow, Firestore data model, Cloud Functions, retrieval-augmented chat — through an AI-orchestrated build process. I own the architecture and the decisions; the implementation is executed by a directed AI/human team. Shipped to real users on Firebase + Claude API; in private beta May 2026, launching at 20 beta users.

The Poor Man's Budget Tool

Founder · 2026 · a SanctumTools LLC product

Budgeting web app for people living paycheck to paycheck, built on a triage engine that answers "what do I pay first?" when funds are short. Shipped on Firebase (Hosting, Authentication, Firestore) at budget.sanctumtools.com with Google sign-in and cloud sync; deterministic logic, no bank connection or account numbers (privacy by design). Free tier live; native iOS build with an optional paid Household tier in progress.

melaniekertley.com

Personal Portal · 2026

A public personal site with custom email-link authentication (Google Workspace DWD impersonation) gating an optional Claude-powered chat assistant and member post feed. Architected and directed the full build — auth flow, data model, AI chat integration — and shipped it on Firebase through an AI-orchestrated process. Engineered for AI discoverability (JSON-LD structured data, llms.txt, sitemap) with a full SEO and security baseline. Built in approximately six hours with an AI agent team.

ChameleonGeneration.com

Co-Founder & Contributing Writer · May 2026 – Present

Generation X publishing platform examining technological adaptation and the cost of constant reinvention. Originated the core concept and contribute the lived-experience editorial voice; technical co-founder operates the domain and publishing pipeline.

AI Cover Letter Guide

2026

A step-by-step workflow for using AI to write targeted job-application cover letters in two minutes. Built from 70+ real applications.

Technical Proficiency

I architect, direct, and operate these systems through an AI-orchestrated build process — I own the decisions; a directed AI/human team executes the implementation.

AI & LLM Tools Claude API (Anthropic SDK), Microsoft Copilot, prompt engineering, AI orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, persistent-memory agent design. (Architect + direct.)

Cloud & Infrastructure Direct and operate: Firebase (Hosting, Cloud Functions, Firestore, Authentication), Google Workspace (DWD impersonation, Gmail API), Cloudflare DNS, Google Search Console.

Development & Operations Linux (Fedora), Git/GitHub version control, command-line operations, HTML/CSS. JavaScript/Node.js and basic Python at a read-direct-and-modify level — I work in the code and direct changes; I don't claim hand-coded fluency.

Industry Systems CCCOne Collision Management, CDKGlobal Automotive Platform, Mitel Phone Systems, POS Systems.

Administrative & Financial Accounts Receivable, Multi-System Data Integration, Financial Reconciliation, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook).

Key Achievements

AR Turnaround: Reduced outstanding receivables from ~$500K to ~$49K (90%) at Carolinas Collision Centers through process diagnosis, workflow change, and systematic claim-by-claim investigation.
Directed AI Builds: Architected and shipped three production AI applications — the SanctumTools wellness app, Tablespread, and this portal — by directing an AI build team, owning data model, auth, and integration decisions end to end.
Data Integrity: Maintained 100% accuracy in daily multi-system financial reconciliations across CCCOne and CDKGlobal.
Process Architecture: Identified and resolved a systemic revenue leakage pattern (premature claim closure) that had been costing the business unrecovered insurance supplements indefinitely.

Education

General Equivalency Diploma (GED) — New York State Education Department