About Me
I joined the Web Services Group at Carleton in 2016 after returning to Carleton through a position at the Science Education Resource Center. I have built websites for large and small businesses, and public and private institutions, and with over seven years of university-level teaching experience, I bring a wide variety of experiences back to Carleton.
In 2017, the web team began migrating all of Carleton’s websites from the Reason CMS to WordPress, starting with the award-winning Admissions website. In my role, I have worked from all the way in the back-end, integrating data sources from various campus systems, to the front-end display code, and wiring it all together in between. We have used an alphabet soup of technologies, including PHP, JavaScript, CSS (and Less, SASS, and PCSS), WebPack, Twig, Docker, Composer, Kubernetes, Node.js, GraphQL, and a variety of database servers and flavors, including MySQL, MSSQL, and Oracle. There is a lot to do in the project, but it has been immensely satisfying work to modernize Carleton’s websites.
Education & Professional History
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, MFA, 2007
Carleton College, BA cum laude, 1998
Selected Employment History
- Carleton College, Senior Web Application Developer
- Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College
- Freelance Illustration, Graphic Design, Web Design and Programming
- Washington State University, Pullman, WA
- Assistant Professor, Clinical, in the Digital Technology and Culture program
- Instructor, Art Department
- Minneapolis College of Art and Design
- Adjunct Professor of Design
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Instructor of Record, Serigraphy
- Planet Propaganda, Madison, WI
- Active Media Developer
- Illustrator/Designer
At Carleton since 2015.
I Like to Draw and Make Stuff
In addition to my current work as a web developer, and my previous career as an Art and Design professor, I have also illustrated five books for children, with my sixth book coming in 2023. I make picture books and comics, and I have also worked in illustration and graphic design, web design and programming, and fine art painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and art installations. I write and draw every day in pursuit of more storytelling opportunities.
I have had my work earn a spot in Communication Arts, Print, and HOW design annuals. In 2016, one of the books I illustrated, If Kids Ruled the World, won Ontario’s Blue Spruce Award and Saskatchewan’s Shining Willow Award. Manners are Not for Monkeys won a 2017 Rainforest of Reading award.
Next up, I am working on another book with Kids Can Press, written by Ryan Uytdewilligen, with the working title, This is Not My Story!, coming out in Spring 2023.
Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate
My family and I study traditional karate from Okinawa with a Northfield dojo established by Carleton math professor (emeritus) Bob Dobrow in 2008. Our dojo is part of a global network of schools founded by Ansei Ueshiro in 1962, and now headed by Hanshi Robert Scaglione in Florida. Our local Shihan is Sensei Steve Hatle, San-Dan (third-degree black belt). The dojo includes Northfield community members, as well as Carleton students from PE classes and from the Karate Club student org.
My daughter and I began our training in 2016, and we were promoted in the summer of 2021 to the rank of Ik-Kyu (brown belt with black tips). My son began training at the end of 2019, and recently earned the rank of San-Kyu (green belt, brown tips), and my wife has just earned her green belt (Yon-kyu). Shorin-Ryu karate is a beautiful and living tradition. The dojo invites all who wish to learn more and train — beginners and advanced students are always welcome on the deck.
