I’ve been working in tech since around 1990. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a lot of great places, at times of great technical evolution, or even revolution.
A sampling of places I’ve worked full-time, in chronological order:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where I coded database tools for managing data from the Human Genome Project;
- Systems Applications, Inc. (apparently gone now, it was an air quality consulting firm in San Rafael, CA), where I developed databases of air quality data and resident complaints;
- Environmental Defense Fund, where I managed the servers, desktops and laptops, and coded and launched the first generation of online nonprofit advocacy and fundraising tools, as well as founding their website;
- Brooklyn Museum, where I founded the IT department and we launched influential open-source tools for building and managing educational technology;
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we got the entire collection online, with big hi-res pictures; rebuilt the website; founded a huge and successful social media operation; and raised millions of dollars online;
- The New York Public Library, where we made online advocacy lots more successful, strategized and connecting the book catalog to event registration to get a fuller picture of the Library’s users;
- America Achieves, where I rebuilt the website, implemented Salesforce, and reduced monthly infrastructure costs by 95% ($14K to $600) by migrating them to Infrastructure-as-a-Service;
- Curtis Institute of Music, where I founded the IT department, migrated all business systems to the cloud, implemented an integrated, system-wide CRM, rebuilt the website, and consolidated performance and pedagogical scheduling into one uber-system.
A sampling of work I’ve done as a consultant:
- I led an evaluation for the Kramlich Collection, leading to the selection of a combined asset/collections management system;
- At Learning Heroes (as consulting VP of Technology), I rebuilt Be A Learning Hero and built tools to make standardized tests more valuable to kids and parents;
- In 2017 I worked on tech and digital strategy for the New Mexico Public Education Department, refocusing their operations from a compliance model to a customer-service model and leading to the launch of their parent-focused website (no link, as this was too good to survive a recent change in the state’s administration);
- I served as Digital Strategy Advocate at the American Institute for Conservation, moderninzing and simplifying their architecture, helping to make digital competency a more effective part of the conservation profession, and advising on technology and digital strategy;
- Before I became their CTO, I led a strategic growth project at Curtis Institute of Music, resulting in goals that I later met as their CTO.
- I’m in the process of updating computer systems and moving all infrastructure to the cloud at Astral Artists.
- I’m bringing modern, Zero IT approaches to Salt Design Studio.
Here’s my Linkedin profile, which is a little more detailed, if you’re still reading this and want even more.
This blog is mainly posts about the technical ways large, scholarly nonprofit institutions and their staff and visitors intersect. Some of the posts will be more personal (even ridiculous).