Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and a graduate of University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003 with the Oakland-native love of my life. Together, we love spending time with our two children traveling, enjoying local farmer's markets, and frequenting our favorite neighborhood watering hole for the occasional double IPA and curly fries.
After a brief stint in management and sales, I discovered that my interests lied more in computers and technology, leading me to pursue an ever-evolving career in web application engineering and technical marketing (whatever THAT means).
I am an experienced full-stack web app developer with nearly 20 years in related fields. Versed in both client and server-side technologies, I specialize in front-end UX and UI design and implementation. I take pride in learning and applying new technologies in fun and exciting ways. A veritable jack of all (or at least many) trades, I am comfortable almost anywhere. Whether I'm creating interesting user interfaces with JavaScript, manipulating data in MySQL databases, creating marketing content for websites, fiddling with images in Photoshop, or finding neat subjects to photograph out in the world, I enjoy trying new things and being handed new challenges.
Spanning an unconventional range—from rental car sales and management to web tools and user interface design and implementation—my versatility and adaptability shine through in my work experience.
In 2003, I graduated from the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon. During my studies, I focused on entrepreneurship with emphasis on digital marketing and dabbled in computer science. Projects included an entrepreneurial business plan, early web marketing and advertising experiments, and light C++ programming.
The computer science courses during college stuck with me and helped ignite the spark that drives me today.
I was fortunate enough to spend my freshman year of college in Istanbul, Turkey, studying with a diverse group of students in an emerging academic program.
At Yeditepe, I was enrolled in the new Art Management program which encompassed classes in economics, art history, philosophy, and computer science.
During startup phase, I designed and implemented the translator UI for the El Loco web app. Taking data from the El Loco desktop tool, I transformed XML-formatted data into interactive HTML mock-ups of mobile apps, providing invaluable visual context to translators.
Duties included generating content (copy and visual assets) for marketing campaigns, maintaining the company website, producing screencast support videos, supporting back end development, providing UX/UI direction and input.
As a pioneer in the e-commerce space, Kagi helped software developers sell online securely and reliably.
Beginning as a customer service representative, I took the initiative and worked my way into Account Management and eventually technical support and product development. Along the way, I enhanced my JavaScript, HTML, and CSS skills while learning about XML/XSLT, PHP, and Apache.
Responsibilities included developing and maintaining client store management tools (JavaScript, PHP, XML/XSLT), implementing customized client stores and order pages, troubleshooting problem areas as needed, and updating the company website.
Sadly, Kagi closed its doors in July, 2016.
As part of the Enterprise Management Training program, I learned many valuable skills including fleet management, personnel management, and corporate account maintenance.