I'm currently a Staff Developer Advocate at GitHub.
I reside in Northern California with my wife, kids, and puppies.
I've worked in tech for over 17 years. I began my career in operations (the artist formerly known as IT) when I was still in high school - seriously, I gained my first client when I was 16 years old.
I do not have a college degree, I learned (and still do) by doing; growing up in the MySpace / Xanga era helped hone [at the very least] my CSS and HTML skills. I'm very visual, but also learn kinesthetically, and it's how I still operate, learn, and skill up today.
I previously worked for Microsoft in a variety of capacitities for over a decade. I began as a vendor in April of 2009, and became a full time employee in March of 2016, left in 2022 to join AWS, and ultimately joined GitHub in 2024. Prior to Microsoft, I worked as a Systems Integration Engineer for a medical device company. At said company, I was hired because of my connection to Microsoft (I was a Microsoft MVP at the time), but I was the only MVP who's award focus was Windows and Devices, but worked full time as a Linux Systems Administrator and used macOS. I've also owned my own boutique consulting firm, catering to SMB and high profile clients across the US.
When I'm not working I enjoy camping, cooking, traveling, and a glass of Macallan 18 neat.
Pre-COVID, you'd probably find me at conferences, customer meetings, user groups, and other events around the world 🌏. These days it's via a camera 📹, mic 🎙, and teleprompter (I have ADHD and it helps to write my thoughts out before I start talking).
