A brief bio

It started with a Commodore 64, where I wrote BASIC programs after going to a programming camp in elementary school. At school, we had Apple’s and learned LOGO.

Naturally, I went to the University of Virginia and majored in Sociology. That was my rebellion against my folks, I guess. Both of my parents were programmers and frequently I would go to work with them. Punchcards in a loud room. I learned to navigate DOS on their coworkers computers to find games.

After University, I eventually enrolled in a bootcamp of sorts for programming. There I learned COBOL and my first job was writing PL/SQL…then COBOL. I quickly picked up Java and joined a small consulting company and did full stack development with Java, JSP, EJBs, Javascript. There was no Stack Overflow, no libraries…what a time to be alive. Most of my career is shaped by the project that went from a death march and working 90 hours or more a week to eXtreme Programming, an agile methodology geared toward certain engineering practices.

I am constantly searching for that nirvana of quality software delivery with a sense of urgency. Over the years, I have lead teams as a Scrum Master and Tech Lead. I love being able to improve an enterprise, whether with guerilla grassroots efforts or working with senior leadership. I am incredibly interested in solving problems, sometimes this can best be done with software other times it is improving an organization’s process.