About

Our Partners

empowOR is the result of a unique partnership. Miles IT, Garrett County Community Action (GCCAC) and organization development expert Paige Teegarden formed CSST Software, LLC which owns, supports, and continuously develops CADS and empowOR. This privately-held partnership leverages the strengths of the partners:

Paige Teegarden Headshot

Paige Teegarden

Paige Teegarden, MPP, boasts an illustrious career of over 30 years marked by her unwavering commitment to improving the effectiveness and efficiencies of businesses and nonprofit organizations of all sizes.

GCCAC

Garrett County Community Action

Garrett County Community Action (GCCAC) is a large, diverse, rural community action agency located in Oakland, MD and has been in operation since 1965 GCCAC.

mt-logo

Miles Technology

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Moorestown, New Jersey, Miles IT is a leading provider of business technology solutions to all types and sizes of businesses. With offices throughout New Jersey, New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Northern Virginia, and the greater Philadelphia Metro area, Miles IT services the computer consulting needs of more than 1,800 clients nationwide and employs over 100 full-time professionals.

Our Approach

Mission

At empowOR, we believe in changing human services through data by helping the helpers. Our software provides a top tier client services tracking system that supports the Whole Family approach. The tools we provide help agencies across the nation focus on data collection and management, in order to optimize efficiency and maximize results in their communities.

About Us

empowOR was ‘born’ out of the complex needs of multi-service agencies who are trying to:

  • De-silo their data and approach
  • Use data and technology to improve efficiencies in operations
  • Coordinate services
  • Use data for funder reporting & strategic analysis
Our Team

Leadership

Paige Teegarden Headshot

Paige Teegarden

Founder & CEO
Paige Teegarden, MPP, boasts an illustrious career of over 30 years marked by her unwavering commitment to improving the effectiveness and efficiencies of businesses and nonprofit organizations of all sizes. As the CEO & Founder of CSST Software LLC, Paige has been the driving force and visionary behind the inception and evolution of empowOR and its sister product CADS (Community Action Data Store). She believes in the power of data to transform agencies and communities.
Lil Dupree Headshot

Lil Dupree

Director of Customer Experience
Lil Dupree is the Director of Customer Experience at empowOR and is a dedicated professional with an impressive 19-year journey in the realm of Community Action, spanning both local and national landscapes. Lil is a Certified Community Action Professional (CCAP) and a former Master ROMA Trainer, with a proven track record of leading impactful national initiatives. Her contributions include steering major projects like the Organizational Standards and Emerging Leaders Projects, as well as lending her expertise to the National Data Taskforce.
John Fox Headshot

John Fox

Technical Lead Developer
John Fox is the Technical Lead Developer at empowOR. With nine years of robust development experience, John has established himself as a proficient and versatile professional. His diverse background encompasses work on Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems and the creation of a customized web-based shipping platform, which shares frameworks with empowOR.
Our Team

Sales/Ops

The empowOR Sales & Operations Team is responsible for identifying and acquiring new agencies, conducting product demonstrations, crafting responses to Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and negotiating pricing & terms. Additionally, these individuals are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of empowOR, ensuring that processes run smoothly, resources are allocated efficiently, and customer needs are met.

Andrew Toronyi Headshot

Andrew Toronyi

Operations Manager
Andrew oversees crucial operational aspects of the CSST Software company, managing corporate insurance, fiscal responsibilities, HR functions, and ensuring staff productivity, knowledge, and happiness. He ensures that CSST Software functions effectively and complies with all legal and internal standards.
Becka Horner Headshot

Becka Horner

Product & Business Development Manager
Becka is responsible for defining the product roadmap and prioritizing features to meet market demands. Becka focuses on forging strategic partnerships, expanding the customer base, and identifying growth opportunities to drive empowOR’s revenue and market presence.
Rachel Langkau Headshot

Rachel Langkau

Sales & Admin Coordinator
Rachel facilitates demos with potential new agencies and manages administrative tasks such as scheduling meetings, maintaining customer records, and assisting with sales documentation. Rachel ensures the smooth operation of sales processes, allowing the sales team to focus on building customer relationships and driving revenue growth.
Our Team

Development

The empowOR Development Team is responsible for creating, maintaining, and enhancing the empowOR software. This diverse and experienced team of developers are responsible for writing, testing, and maintaining the code that makes up empowOR’s features and functionalities. They work within various programming languages, frameworks, and tools to deliver a competitive software solution.

Brandon Myers Headshot

Brandon Myers

Junior Software Developer
Brandon dedicates his efforts to resolving bugs, implementing optimizations, spearheading the development of new features and enhancements, and writing/optimizing complex SQL queries.
Damon Flick Headshot

Damon Flick

Junior Software Developer
Damon works as part of the development team to design, code, and test software features and enhancements. He collaborates with senior developers to learn best practices, troubleshoot issues, and contribute to the ongoing development and maintenance of empowOR’s software products.
Juliana Meo Headshot

Juliana Meo

Software Support Manager
Juliana oversees tasks such as gathering requirements for new features, troubleshooting software bugs, and providing technical support to internal staff and end-users. Her role focuses on efficient problem resolution, service quality maintenance, and cross-departmental collaboration to enhance software usability and customer satisfaction.
Shruti Belhe Headshot

Shruti Belhe

Project & Support Administrator
Shruti adeptly oversees projects by employing agile methodology to manage scope, resources, and schedules. She ensures rigorous quality checks, facilitates seamless team coordination, and proficiently generates client status reports through Striven while providing essential support during software releases.
Our Team

Customer Experience

The empowOR Customer Experience Team supports new agencies with onboarding by providing personalized training sessions, walkthroughs, and documentation to ensure effective use of the empowOR software. CET provides day-to-day assistance to agencies who encounter issues, have questions, or need guidance on using the software. They offer timely and effective solutions through various channels, such as email, chat, phone, and ticketing systems.

Carley Pelella Headshot

Carley Pelella

Launch and Training Manager
Carley is responsible for crafting tailored training plans and documentation for agencies, ensuring a seamless launch and ongoing success, while remaining dedicated to fostering continuous learning and innovation for both staff and clients.
Crystal Rogers Headshot

Crystal Rogers

Software Support Coordinator
Crystal has a distinguished 4.5-year tenure as a supervisor at a Northern Arkansas Community Action Agency, where she managed their LIHEAP program. Crystal currently acts as the first point of contact for end-users experiencing software-related issues, facilitates communication between end-users and the development team, and maintains detailed records of customer interactions, reported issues, resolutions, and workarounds.
Gino Mauricci Headshot

Gino Mauricci

End User Support Manager
Gino manages user inquiries regarding empowOR, addressing technical questions, organizing bug reports for the Development team, prioritizing user suggestions, forwarding inquiries to the Sales/Marketing team, and assisting in Quality Assurance Testing, while also maintaining release notes for updates. Prior to his pivotal role in delivering top-tier end-user support for empowOR, Gino also contributed his expertise as the Financial Education Counselor at Garrett County Community Action.
Liz Belden Headshot

Liz Belden

Software Specialist
Liz is a bridge between the Customer Experience Team and the Development Team, working to create and maintain reporting functionality, coordinate import and export projects, and support new customer setup and configuration. Liz started at empowOR in July 2023 after working three and a half years for Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA), where she led the launching of empowOR as the primary database of record.
Marielle Davidson Headshot

Marielle Davidson

Customer Experience Coordinator
Marielle coordinates a smooth and positive onboarding process for new customers by assisting them with account set-up, training, and top-tier support. She skillfully manages projects for valued clients, ensuring that their needs and expectations are met and that projects are completed within established timelines.
Scott Monaghan Headshot

Scott Monaghan

Support Specialist
Scott is responsible for designing and developing forms and workflows, responding to support requests, refining support software, and ensuring quality assurance across all empowOR and CADS features. Scott possesses in-depth knowledge of empowOR’s products and services, allowing him to provide expert-level assistance to current clients.

Security

CSST Software has a favorable SOC 2 audit and completes audits once a year. According to this year’s SOC 2 - Type 2 Report, empowOR by CSST has established operational requirements that support the achievement of service commitments, relevant laws and regulations, and other system requirements. Such requirements are communicated in its system. policies and procedures, system design documentation, and customer agreements. Information security policies define an organization-wide approach to how systems and data are protected. These include policies around how the service is designed and developed, how the system is operated, how the internal business systems and networks are managed, and how employees are hired and trained. In addition to these policies, standard operating procedures have been documented on how to carry out specific manual and automated processes required in the operation and development of various CSST services. Our SOC 2 had no findings listed.
In terms of additional security measures, Miles IT, which hosts our application, has been subject to Security, Privacy, Confidentiality and Availability SOC 2 Type II audits annually and CSST Software reviews the report to ensure consistency with principal objectives and service commitments. Current Service Level Agreements guarantee a software response time (defined as the interval from the time the end user sends a transaction to the time a visual confirmation of transaction completion is received), of less than two (2) seconds for 98% of all transactions.

See empowOR in action

Orrick smile eyes closed right - transparent
What our clients say

Testimonials

Client inquiry and the ability to send requests for documents have reduced the time that our Case Managers spend doing intake by 50%.

Joseph Figueroa

Tri Lakes Cares (TLC), CO

Before empowOR, La Puente's Crisis Prevention arm was taking up to 2 weeks to process an application. These days, we can process applications in 1 business day! empowOR was a game changer.

Adam Cheise

La Puente Crisis Prevention, CO

The capacity for reporting is far beyond any system we have seen.

Betsy Andrews Parker

Community Action Partnership of Strafford County, NH

Ready to get started?