My employment experience includes a versatile range of management and content/web development experience, most of which demanded learning on the job. My first professional position, seven years as Editor-in-Chief of a national start-up magazine Alternative Press, required comprehensive development of skills in editorial/freelance contractor management, resource budgeting and print-production oversight.
During an additional eighth year at the magazine, I worked to launch the company’s first website, which initially involved negotiating contracts and fees with site developers, planning budgets for site set-up and maintenance, and obtaining clearances and rights from writers and photographers for content.
This led to the position of Managing Producer of Cleveland Live (Cleveland.com) for two years, overseeing development of specific website projects by working directly with area publications and local attractions/venues to share their content with this online guide to the city, while also providing oversight and guidance to other content producers. The design and overall presentation of the site was in continual flux, and it was important to adapt quickly to the company management’s evolving objectives.
For all websites, ongoing adherence to government-mandated Section 508 guidelines provided (and continued to provide) me with a current knowledge of usability and accessibility issues.
This web development activity was balanced with outreach work that included developing handout and display materials for numerous events for the NASA Aviation Safety Program, including three years supporting the Program’s detail-intensive presence at the EAA Airventure event and three years managing the logistics for the annual Weather Accident Prevention Review event.
This experience was further supplemented by serving as the Logistics Chair for the annual NASA ICNS Conference from its inception in 2001 to 2006. My work managing the budget, leading the event support team, and working with NASA Conference Chairs to ensure a smooth, professional experience for the attendees was met every year with a NASA Achievement Award.
Support has continued with this conference since 2006, after event oversight was handed over to the IEEE and AIAA organizations for the following year’s event, as I responded to regular requests for documentation and event statistics vital to the Conference’s future and continued to supported the event as Publications Chair, with a new website designed and developed for the 2008 event.
The aforementioned work at Zin Technologies, including website development, continues in my current (as of September 2006) position with Analex Corporation. Notably, in of 2007, I worked with a fellow NASA contractor to take the existing, official NASA CSS-based design theme and integrate it into the open-source Wordpress content management system, performing proof-of-concept and Section 508 accessibility testing. This implementation ultimately allows multiple
Finally, in order to keep current on the state of web development and clients’ needs, in my spare time I have complemented my experience with freelance projects such as the Smoke Free Ohio website, which helped lead to a successful campaign win in the 2006 election, as well as a handful of small business sites currently in development (see Portfolio for updated examples). This has enhanced my work on NASA sites specifically in the areas of search engine optimization, electronic/PDF publication on CD-ROM, ASP.net C# programming, and overall client relations.
