About Michael

In 1995, I and some friends from Western Illinois University started dabbling in HTML and spent the better part of three decades designing, developing and managing various websites and internet services.

Over the past few years, however, my life has been leading in a new direction.

Awards

Paraprofessional, Elm Dale Elementary

September 2020 – present

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Support teachers, administrators, and students with varying needs in educational and behavioral situations

  • Used a braille writer to both translate books and create stickers to assist a visually-impaired student

Skills, applications and services used

  • Braille (intermediate to advanced)

  • ASL (novice to intermediate)

Front-end Developer, DCI Artform

February 2017 – January 2019

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Reworked a service lounge pilot program for Subaru

  • Integrated a Color and Trim feature into our touchscreen Nissan Personalization Studio

  • Redesigned the site for Nissan Service Workflow Suite

  • Built a touch display that showcased 50 years worth of selected ads for Subaru’s 2018 National Business Conference

Skills, applications and services used

  • Javascript

  • Typescript

  • Angular 2

  • Ionic

  • Javascript

  • Github

  • Bitbucket

  • Jira

Front-end Developer, Okanjo

October 2015 – July 2016

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Worked on the the front-end routes of a customer-facing interface with our API

  • Updated and wrote coverage tests for our SDK

  • Helped write database queries used to break down our traffic and interactions

Skills, applications and services used

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • Javascript

  • jQuery

  • Github

  • PHPStorm

  • Node/npm

  • Presto SQL

  • Treasure Data

Product Manager, TownNews.com

March 2014 – October 2015

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Manage both day-to-day and roadmap planning for several of our products, including classifieds and verticals, ad entry, and broadcast-centered initiatives

  • Conduct product, market and gap analysis for current and potential products and initiatives

  • Create and maintain roadmap of software releases

  • Create and maintain process tracking spreadsheets used by stakeholders across functions

  • Interact with customers to communicate timelines and assess needs

  • Research third-party features and talk with vendors

  • Coordinate and perform advanced customer service

  • Document processes for project managers and designers to follow

Skills, applications and services used

  • Aha!

  • JIRA

  • CRM

  • Excel

Front-end Developer, TownNews.com

June 2012 – March 2014

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Developed and expanded several template projects, from content news blocks to front-end interface between our CMS and a third-party subscription service

  • Resolved or facilitated the resolution of advanced customer service issues.

Skills and services used

  • PHP/Proprietary template language

  • Javascript

  • jQuery

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • Aptana/ Git/ Beanstalk

Web Designer, TownNews.com

November 2009 – June 2012

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Customized templates for more than 70 newspapers across the country

  • Customized and rebuilt block templates

  • Rebuilt templates for existing automotive vertical

Skills used

  • PHP/Proprietary template language

  • Javascript

  • jQuery

  • HTML

  • CSS

Owner/Front-end Web Developer,
Rock Creek Multimedia

August 2009 – August 2012

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Freelance, often subcontract, web design and development

Skills used

  • PHP

  • Javascript

  • jQuery

  • HTML5

  • CSS

  • WordPress

Web Specialist, Trinity Regional Health System

April 2007 – July 2009

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Spearheaded redesign of Trinity’s public sites, including trinityqc.com

  • Reorganized trinityqc.com content for better navigation, navigation and efficiency

  • Made requested changes to the Intranet

  • Helped set up and maintain Trinity’s digital billboard system

Skills and applications used

  • Photoshop

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • Fireworks

Internet Content Manager, WQAD-TV-DT

July 2001 – April 2007

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Maintained all sections of the site

  • Built weather forecast module in PHP, allowing easier input for meteorologists and more flexibility in displaying the forecasts

  • Authored PHP script that scraped river levels from the National Weather Service’s page and wrote levels to an XML file

  • Wrote a scoreboard module in PHP that allowed creation of teams, conferences and schedules into a MySQL database, input scores into the same database, and let users view scores, schedules and standings dynamically

  • Built several news-related infographics in Flash, including election results and BRAC information

  • Added or edited reporters’ stories and wire copy

  • Posted (and often wrote) local breaking news stories

  • Performed most of graphic design for the site, including two moderate redesigns

  • Edited video clips from newscasts and posted them online

  • Helped create region’s first news podcast

Skills, applications and services used

  • HTML

  • CSS

  • PHP

  • Javascript

  • MySQL

  • XML

  • AJAX

  • Fireworks

  • Flash

  • WorldNow (CMS)

  • Movable Type (CMS)

  • RealPlayer Editor

News Editor/Staff Writer,
Eagle Publications of Western Illinois

January 2001 – May 2001

Accomplishments/ Responsibilities

  • Served as news editor for two weekly hometown papers in the Macomb, IL area

  • Covered town news and coordinated freelance work

  • Laid out all news content for print

Skills and services used

  • QuarkXpress

  • Photoshop