EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts, English Literature
Vanderbilt University
1997

EXPERIENCE
Golden State Communications | Director of WordPress
March 2008 - present
In March 2008, Golden State Communications hired me as a User Interface developer and Project Manager. In that position, I created the front-end XHTML, PHP and CSS for clients’ sites, maintain sites post-launch, advise on SEO and code for better search engine rankings. I also managed certain projects to coordinate all the elements of the build. Since then, I have led GSC’s adoption of open-source technologies both for our internal use and our clients’ and my title was recently changed to Director of WordPress. WordPress has become our standard Content Management Platform for open source sites. I am also our Linux server administrator — I set up new sites in the LAMP environment and install the necessary software. Currently, we are building several clients’ sites on the WordPress platform. I am also becoming familiar with ProjectPier, Magento Commerce, WordPress MU, and MediaWiki.

echo | site operations
May 2007 - February 2008
From May 2007 to February 2008, I worked in the Creative Department of echo as a Site Operations Specialist. Site Ops is the production side of the Creative department. I sliced the designs created by our graphic designers, hook up our content management system and code our sites. As part of the Creative team, I was involved in discussions of user experience, web standards and best practices. I also took active roles in communicating with other departments about working with Creative, populating our wiki with documentation on our code and protocols, and creating a Functional Specification process for the department.

Echo’s clients include Kanye West, Janet Jackson, Korn, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, Faith Hill and Dolly Parton.

independent web developer
1999 - 2007
Before seeking a full-time job in an internet company, I worked as a freelance web developer designing, coding and consulting on many projects for individuals and small businesses. I worked with third-party content management systems as well as built my own in MySQL and PHP. I developed a great deal of experience in blogging and consulted with and advised clients on best practices for blogging. I have worked with software from Blogger.com, MoveableType, WordPress, Greymatter and Typepad. Currently, I strongly favor the flexibility and ease of WordPress.

My clients included: Prince Market Research, Oak Hill School, Anderson & Rankin, Ann Sharpsteen as well as a great number of bloggers: Bob Krumm, Bill Hobbs, MooreThoughts, NashvilleFiles, Doug Malan, and others.

Highlights from my web work appear in the web category of this site.

freelance writer
2000 - 2007
I covered music and culture for a number of publications as a freelance journalist. My writing has appeared in the Nashville Scene, All the Rage, The Tennessean, The City Paper, Dig Magazine, The American Spectator, WORD Magazine (UK) and others.

Much of my writing appears in the articles category on this site.

web publisher
1999 - 2007
I began publishing on the web as a means to make my own writing publically available. Quickly, I took on contributors to my webzines and began editing their content as well as developing relationships with publicists and media.

My biggest success as a publisher was Nashvillezine.com which ran from 2004 - 2006. The site was a collaborative blog-style ‘zine that operated on the idea that the indie rock music scene could be covered better by those in it (band members, club bookers, recording engineers, fans) than by the mainstream media. At the end of its run, the site drew more than 2000 visitors a day, had around 20 contributors and informed the mainstream press who all moved into blogging soon after the Zine’s demise.

Highlights from my web work appear in the web category of this site.

SOFTWARE
I use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Transmit, Amaya, FileZilla, UltraEdit, WS_FTP, Paint Shop Pro, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint as well as any other programs and suites that I need.

OPERATING SYSTEMS
Currently I work on a Mac professionally and Windows XP and Xubuntu Linux at home.

For more information check the about section.