<about>

I am a Chicago based, digital marketing professional with over 27 years of progressive experience applying interactive and technology driven strategies to improve business performance. I possess demonstrated leadership skills focusing on team building, project management, and effective collaboration between creative and development teams.

In other words: I thrive on collaborating with multi-disciplinary groups to solve complex problems.

In my current role, I am the VP, Director of Interactive Technology at AbelsonTaylor Group. However, throughout my career I have been in both front-end and back-end development roles and maintain a diverse knowledge of web technologies. Combined with a natural ability to act tactically with competing priorities, deliverables and deadlines I leverage my development skills to maximize the potential of the products that my team and I build.

Where Did it All Begin?

In a past life, I was great with numbers—so much so, I thought that's what I was meant to do. I enrolled at Purdue Northwest in Hammond, IN, majoring in accounting. But a few semesters in, I realized something: while numbers made sense, they didn't satisfy my creative side. I'd grown up playing guitar and writing my own songs. I spent a lot of my free time devouring comic books, spending hours sketching and recreating my favorite characters. Numbers just couldn't compete with that.

I needed a change. I picked the guitar back up, formed a local band with my brother and some friends, and we played small, local (sparsely attended) shows. It fed my creative side for a while, but the need for something more was still there. So, I went back to school—but this time, I packed up my life and moved to Houston to attend the Art Institute of Houston. It wasn't for web development (this was the mid-'90s after all); I was there for digital audio and video editing. That's where I first got my hands on tools like Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.

Having access to the creative tools that professionals use creates opportunity that some of the free software doesn't

After graduation, I moved back to Indiana and worked for my uncle's video production company as an editor. It was a short lived role, but long enough for me to build the company's website—and that's when I got hooked. HTML and the web opened a whole new creative world for me.

Building on That Spark

From there, I became a self-taught designer and developer. Nights turned into long hours of trial and error as I tried to replicate the things I saw online. Looking back, those late-'90s websites weren't anything fancy, but they had interactive elements that I just had to understand and try to recreate. A couple of years later, I was handling web development for various companies I worked for, creating online tools and experiences that helped their customers get more out of their services.

It wasn't long before I started freelancing on the side, picking up clients in my rural area. Opportunities were scarce, but I seized every chance I got to refine my skills and grow as a developer. When I couldn't find paying projects, I built tools, games—anything that challenged me and could one day benefit others. Every line of code was an experiment, every project building on that foundation and leading to something bigger.

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.

— Pele

Fast forward a few years, and while juggling multiple freelance projects and another small business, I got a call out of the blue from AbelsonTaylor. They asked if I was interested in an interview. I was so caught off guard that I missed the original point of the call. But once I got my bearings, my curiosity kicked in. How did they get my number? What was the opportunity? And why me?

The Dream Becomes Real

It turned out to be the beginning of my professional journey as a developer. I started at a standard level, working on emails, banners, basic websites—and deep in Flash development. It felt like home. There was always something new to learn, and though I was sometimes in over my head, I was eager to prove myself. Each project stretched my abilities, and I was almost relentless in figuring out the pieces I didn't know.

My appetite for knowledge was insatiable. I wasn't satisfied just doing the job—I needed to master it. So I dove deeper, took on every challenge, and stayed up late learning whatever I could. Before I knew it, I'd gone from a standard developer to a senior role. It didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't without a lot of sacrifice and commitment. But slowly, the hard work paid off.

Did I Jump the Shark?

It's a fair question. Did I fly too high too fast? Moving from senior dev to development manager happened quickly in comparison to some. A new role came with new responsibilities, but there was still a need for me to stay involved in build processes and code reviews. I was excited by the prospect—after all, this seemed like the best of both worlds. Right?

If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

— Bruce Lee

At this point in my career, the title became part of the job, but it wasn't who I was. At my core, I'm still a developer. As I look back now, the years seemed to blur together. My time as a development manager flew by, and before I knew it, I'd transitioned again—this time to Associate Director. But no matter the title, my hands never drifted too far from the code.

As I moved up, from Associate Director to Director, I had to balance the strategic needs of the department with my love for the technical side of things. There were moments when I missed the simplicity of heads-down coding, but leading the team was an entirely different kind of rewarding. I was guiding the next generation of developers, helping them navigate the same hurdles I once faced.

Soon, the team needed a lead, someone to take the reins at a higher level, and I was promoted to Senior Director. It was a major milestone, a culmination of years of dedication, but with it came an even greater responsibility to drive the team forward. The challenges were bigger, the stakes higher—but with each new role, I learned more about balancing leadership and staying connected to the developer inside me.

The Next Phase

Since then, I've moved on to Vice President of the department. My focus now isn't just on growing the team, but also ensuring we stay technically relevant in an ever-changing landscape. From AR and VR to AI, the options seem to expand daily. But no matter what's on the horizon, my guiding principle remains the same: keep it user-centric. That's why I push my teams—and the agency as a whole—to prioritize digital accessibility.

Our quality assurance and UX teams have been training on accessibility, with plans to become certified through the IAAP in the near future. We've also established an employee resource group dedicated to accessibility and inclusivity, which I'm proud to serve as president of. Shifting from a doer to someone who helps shape ideas and concepts has been one of the most rewarding transitions in my career.

But even with all these responsibilities, I haven't let go of my roots. In my free time, I still build websites and tools for family, friends, or—let's be honest—just for the fun of it. Creating will always be a part of who I am.

personal highlights

• Cross-discipline design and development
• Team leadership, sometimes hands-on
• Project stewardship
• Custom tool development
  • Team workflow improvement
  • Personal growth
  • Downtime happy place