About Me
I joined the Web Development team 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 six books for children. I make picture books and comics, I’ve done a bunch of design and illustration for my friends Louis & Dan, 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.
My work has earned spots 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. Both That One Spooky Night and This is Not My Story were official Junior Library Guild selections.
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 eldest child and I began our training in 2016, and we were promoted in May of 2023 to the rank of Sho-Dan, first-degree black belt. My son began training at the end of 2019, and recently earned the rank of Ni-Kyu, brown belt, and my wife has just caught up and also earned the rank of Ni-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.