Throughout my career, I have focused on ways to support the technology community and help its people grow. I serve in a variety of capacities including:

- Training and Speaking: Creating and delivering talks and workshops on a variety of topics including agile processes, career development, communication, mental health, personal branding, and team growth
- Conference and event organization: Leadership, marketing, sponsorship management, speaker identification, content creation, day-of logistics, and master-of-ceremonies duties
- Individual career coaching and mentoring: Specializing in helping people transition into tech or change directions once established in their careers
- Connecting: Finding ways to bring people together and connect them to one another and to organizations in ways that benefit everyone involved
- Volunteering: I have been involved with Per Scholas, DogFoodCon, and Columbus Digital Service

Technical Recruiter | Tech Community Manager

Veeam Software

• Connect and engage with community members and end users via user groups, events, and social media.
• Meet and collaborate with influencers (Veeam Vanguards) to co-host and create video/podcast content, identify writing opportunities, give technical talks, and discuss how to grow the Vanguard program.
• Present introductory technical sessions about Kubernetes, Azure, AI, and ransomware mitigation.
• Conduct data analysis and peer review of Ransomware 2024 Report for LATAM, APJ, and EMEA
• Write technical documents including product feature overviews, blogs, user tutorials, and release notes.

Technologist, Product Strategy 

• Create and execute a marketing plan to grow Kasten’s KubeCampus Kubernetes Learning Platform and Kasten user groups into a community of over 25,000 members.
• Plan, project manage, and host 25 - 250 person community Kubernetes Learning Day events for KubeCon EU, KubeCon NA, and WeAreDevelopers World Congress in collaboration with Kasten’s marketing, social media, events, product, engineering, and design teams.
• Build partnerships with other technical businesses and organizations such as Microsoft, Red Hat, CNCF, and DevOps and Cloud Computing user groups to support and create content for Learning Days, KubeCampus Labs, blog posts, and speaking opportunities.
• Write and deliver webinars and blogs about learning through community, getting started with Kubernetes and Cloud Native technologies, community news, and effectively leveraging KubeCampus.
• Propose and deliver talks internationally on a variety of professional and human skills for technologists.
• Monitor and support the broader Veeam ecosystem through participation in Veeam community forms,
collaboration with product teams, and collaborating community managers from Veeam’s team.

Community Manager, Kasten by Veeam 

Microsoft

• Manage relationships with technology influencers (MVPs) by gathering feedback on products, the award program, and the broader tech community. Learn and monitor trends, initiatives, ideas, challenges, and solutions. Report this information to program leadership to influence change.
• Identify and source tech community experts who may be good MVP candidates, inform them about the program, recruit them, and walk them through the nomination and award/reaward processes.
• Identify MVPs for speaking and hosting engagements at events such as Microsoft Ignite Table Topics, Reactor activities, and monthly virtual meetups.
• Participate in and host virtual meetups and events, including monthly social gatherings, new MVP orientations, award celebrations, Microsoft Build, and MVP Summit.
• Validate and review MVPs and their contributions to determine whether to award/reaward them.
• Schedule and host in-person MVP lunch meetups at community and MVP-run technology conferences.
• Propose and deliver talks internationally on a variety of professional and human skills for technologists.

Community Coordinator - Microsoft MVP Award Program

Rocket Companies

• Manage external tech community outreach efforts while also guiding developer advocates and internal and university community managers in their roles for a new, experimental Developer Relations team.
• Lead the Developer Relations team, establishing and tracking metrics for success, coaching team members, and leading all strategic planning efforts.
• Coach social media team on connecting to technologists.
• Create and manage strategy, guidelines, and process for virtual and in-person conferences and events.
• Mentor Associate Technical Community Managers as they establish their brands and become speakers,
exposing them to the tech community, discussing future goals, and teaching them to navigate events.
• Stream a Twitch series for Rocket DevRel that highlighted the Rocket team members and their peers.

Tech Community Manager

SaltStack

• Create a Community Management Plan for a DevOps/SecOps organization that allowed Salt’s open source contributors to collaborate more effectively with internal software development teams. In under a year, the community grew and became more cohesive, active, and positive. 
• Participate in release planning, release playback, and standup meetings with the rest of the Salt Open Engineering team, write user stories for community deliverables, and deliver regular progress updates and demos to the internal engineering team and open source contributors.
• Design, implement, and manage new programs including Community Open Hours, Pull Request and Documentation Jams, Test Clinics, and Formula and Documentation Working Groups.
• Monitor and moderate community communication channels including Slack, IRC, and Google Groups. 
• Host, record, edit, and transcribe community event videos to post on YouTube.
• Implement weekly Twitch streams on testing, triage, and research and development.
• Write blog posts, documentation, Salt Enhancement Proposals, and Community Wiki updates.
• Manage the Salt Enhancement Proposal process which allowed changes to the Salt project.
• Work with Marketing to move user groups, conferences, and other events to digital platforms in the United States, South America, and Europe. 
• Represent Salt at general tech community events including conferences, podcasts, user groups, and Twitch streams with the goal of introducing the broader tech community to SaltStack.
• Track OKRs including contributor numbers, attendance numbers, and other community statistics.

Community Manager

•	Created and presented content including blogs, podcast interviews, social media posts, talks, and workshops aimed at software developers and other technical professionals.
•	Promoted company IoT, Machine Learning, and Data Solution projects at conferences and events.
•	Advised consultants on how to become involved in the tech community.
•	Coached coworkers on creating and submitting talk abstracts as well as guiding them through the talk creation and delivery process.
•	Tracked activities and outcomes using Confluence and Salesforce.

Innovation & Product Evangelist

•	Collaborated with clients to create hardware and software solutions with a strong focus on IoT and Machine Learning in the healthcare, startup, and non-profit industries.
•	Led client kickoff meetings, standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives.
•	Managed project scope by documenting and monitoring changes and seeking stakeholder approval.
•	Utilized Confluence, Jira, and Microsoft Office to track project status, features, and progress.

Product Owner

Dog Food Conference

•	Manage marketing and social media efforts for a local Microsoft + Open Source conference.
•	Expand conference to include human skills, open source integration, keynotes, and social events.
•	Identify, select, and coordinate speakers for over 80 conference sessions each year.

President

Test Double

•	Expanded company reach into new markets through regular speaking engagements.
•	Participated in company leadership meetings to discuss and resolve issues related to company growth, employee engagement, and consulting client challenges.
•	Managed and mentored developers through one-on-ones and creation and tracking of professional goals.
•	Assisted employees with being selected to speak at conferences by helping them create talk proposals, prepare content, and create related blog posts.
•	Led initiatives to increase diversity and inclusion within the company.
•	Analyzed existing hiring and qualification processes and tools. Implemented changes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the recruiting process.

Support Agent: Employee & Community Engagement

Improving Enterprises

•	Co-led the Columbus branch of an international software development consulting company, specializing in enhancing the local office’s marketing and recruiting efforts.
•	Managed all efforts to engage in and support the technology community through conference sponsorships, user group hosting, and planning networking events. 
•	Created content for social media, blog posts, marketing campaigns, and recruiting campaigns.
•	Spoke at client sites, tech conferences, user groups, and non-profits on topics including professional networking, communication, career growth, interviewing, personal branding, diversity & inclusion, and mental health.
•	Assisted consultants in creating conference talk proposals and presentations, blog posts, user groups, and internal training classes and helping them find ways to become involved in the community.
•	Communicated with clients to discuss their business problems and hiring needs, then worked closely with the rest of the leadership team to address those challenges.
•	Participated in company leadership meetings to discuss and make strategic business decisions, resolve personnel issues, scale the organization, and grow its reputation.
•	Identified, interviewed, and hired software development team members including Developers, Data Specialists, UI/UX Professionals, DevOps Engineers, BAs, PMs, Scrum Masters, and Agile Coaches.
•	Analyzed, increased, and improved recruiting and hiring efforts and implemented changes to candidate tracking and interviewing.
•	Conducted new-hire orientations and ongoing check-ins with employees.
•	Diversified employee engagement, retention, team-building, and recognition activities to ensure that they were inclusive for all employees.

Director of Community Outreach & Talent Management

CloudDevelop Conference

•	Lead social media and promotional efforts of a cross-platform cloud computing conference.
•	Assist with day-of event coordination.

Marketing Lead

My career has focused on the human side of technology. I have experience in tech recruiting, developer relations, tech community management, training, marketing, consulting, event planning, talent management, candidate sourcing, and employee engagement. I am an international speaker who excels at connecting and communicating with tech community members and guiding them to individual and organizational success. I'm adept at helping technology and businesses work together effectively. I've supported a variety of industries from startups and small businesses to government agencies.

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