I'm known for my passion, integrity, and ability to communicate complex technical concepts to any audience, innovate solutions to complex technical problems, and lead teams with diverse backgrounds. But I didn't get there in a day; it has taken an entire career of pivotal moments to arrive at this point.

Having long dropped off my resume, I started my career as lead reporter and photojournalist for the no-longer-published Kootenai Valley Times. Journalism as a career began with a dream and a passion for photography, design, writing, and education. My dream became fully realized in my first professional journalism job; unfortunately, journalism is not sustainable and does not pay adequately enough to make a living. Given that I had lived through the era of publishing, moving from cut-and-paste layouts to computer-based layouts and content creation, I had grown quite a skillset in software, writing, and digital media. This unique skill set has led me into the modern world as a software engineer. Still, most importantly, it has informed the direction of the defining moments in my professional career.

The Backup Training Corporation is where I encountered my first pivotal, career-defining moment. Leading twenty-seven staff, I produced the first online college-accredited, post-graduate continuing education courses in the US, giving every police officer in the country access to accredited training on their schedule. The objective was more than just creating a technology solution, which had challenges; the goal was to demonstrate to colleges and universities that online education is legitimate. Going into the process, multiple regional universities insisted that they would "never" grant accreditation to online education. Within two years, I produced over fifty 8-hour, regionally accredited courses, proving that online education is viable. Now, over 4,000 post-secondary institutions provide online degree programs for distance learners. I learned from this experience that "never" is a term experts use to describe things they are uneducated about. With technology, anything is possible if you possess an endless supply of time and money; however, a creative approach to a complex problem sometimes leads to an incredible outcome.

One day, while walking with my two-year-old daughter from my office in downtown Sandpoint, Idaho, I was extremely frustrated by the pedestrian infrastructure, which was highly unsafe. If I wanted to walk the half-mile distance from my office to the city library without endangering my daughter, I would need to take a more proactive approach with the city government. With this new problem, I contacted my professional and personal network to explore options. I discovered that there was a newly formed city advisory committee to address pedestrian infrastructure concerns. Through my network, I secured an appointment from the current mayor, which I accepted, and became a member and active contributor to the City of Sandpoint Pedestrian Advisory Committee. During my four-year tenure in various positions, including co-chair, I played key roles in multiple projects that revitalized the pedestrian infrastructure in Sandpoint. I helped lead small neighborhood improvement projects, draft ordinances, provide design guidelines to city planners, and advise on long-term comprehensive planning. Through many community donations, grants, and improved city code, the City of Sandpoint finally moved closer to fitting the slogan on a sign as you enter town: "Sandpoint is a Walking Town." This work was pivotal in my understanding of being a citizen and realizing the impact I could make as an individual in my community.

At the EdTech software company Essential Education Corporation, I bootstraped a startup. I was excited to see if there was an opportunity to use education technology to help students effectively on a large scale. One of my most significant accomplishments was architecting and developing a mock reimplementation of the entire GED assessment online. It was an important milestone, as the GED was only available in paper form at the time, as most assessments during this era. I demonstrated that online was a genuinely effective way to allow users to practice for the official paper test. The results of my implementation were phenomenal, as it could predict a rate of 95% of the student's actual performance on the GED. There were many key moments, and I'm proud that I could grow the company from $0/yr in revenue to $6M/yr in 5 years without outside funding. However, I'm mostly proud that I was able to play a key role in helping over a half million online students earn their GED.

While working at Educational Testing Service (ETS) as an individual contributor and cross-functional team lead for a federal contract, I planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to perform a presentation to the Department of Education that was abruptly canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My work up to this point was critical as a primary contract proposal author for ETS, leading to a new $50M contract. I continued as the lead software architect and head of platform research for the US National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); however, the work pivoted dramatically when it was clear that in-person testing would be impossible. Leading a small dedicated research team within the research division at ETS, I played a key role in successfully guiding the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) staff in understanding and creating a multi-year plan – that has been fully implemented to date – to bring the national assessment online, both on program owned and school-based equipment. Leveraging my ability to communicate complex technical problems and lead teams across multiple organizations to work collaboratively in creating a solution was a key defining moment in my growth as a professional.