I am a Ruby/Rails based Software Engineer at a non-profit in curriculum publishing, Open Up Resources, where I have been for 3 years and counting. Before taking my current developer role, I completed a Software Development internship at the NSBE Pro-PDX, was a contract junior developer for GiftRibbn, and graduated from a 6-month, full-time certificate program in Web & Mobile Development at Epicodus Code School in Portland, OR.
Since getting into tech, I have written several blogs, been on a guest several podcasts and tech Twitch streams, started & maintained a Wiki of resources for folks getting into tech (find that link in my LinkTree above), volunteered at RubyConf 2022, and served on RailsConf 2023 Program Committee. I continue to look for ways to engage in the Ruby/Rails and broader technical community while joyfully getting to do what I love for work - perpetual learning.
- Pronouns: she/her, they/them
- 📙 Check out my Wiki where I keep a running list of resources for folks getting into tech.
- 🌱 I’m currently deep diving into ... ⚡ Ruby/Rails #forever ❤️ ⚡
- ❓ Ask me about ... getting into tech from non-traditional backgrounds and craft cocktails! 🍹
- 👣 Next steps for me ... continued community engagement and tech talks! 🦾
- Lead Engineer for Skills Block 2024 curriculum
- Entirely responsible for the modeling and importing of the complete complex Skills Block curriculum
- Transformed XML with supporting PDF and DOCX files into HTML rich text in a Ruby/Rails + Postgres environment
- Managed cross-team and cross-company collaboration and communication - internally between Academics, Product, and Engineering, and with our external education partner, EL Ed.
- Established and managed product roadmap, as well as task identification and prioritization
- Created initial design concepts, always keeping our end-user experience for K-2 teachers at top of mind
- Led teams improvements to start delivering engineering's projects on-time
- Redesign of and feature additions to the non-profit NSBE Pro-PDX's site.
- Highlights: Added a job board, a paid subscription service, a blog, media, and more thorough copywriting content; SEO; Wix content management system; improved security with CAPTCHA forms; improved donation portals with Donorbox; UX/UI redesign for web and mobile experiences; created "how-to" documentation for internal and external use; improved back-end connections to PayPal and MailChimp.
- Redesign of website for Portland, OR band, Strange & the Familiars.
- Highlights: UX/UI redesign, semantic HTML5 with reusable vanilla HTML components, CSS3, domain transfer, devops through Vercel & BlueHost.
- UX/UI redesign of J'reyesha Brannon's professional portfolio website in Wix CMS, with several page additions and minor copywriting.
- Grandmere Supper Club - a Portland pop-up focused on slow French cooking.
- Front-end development for GiftRibbn.
- Highlights: React, UX/UI design, C# API and database back-end connections, JWT authorization & authentication, hospitality, e-commerce.
- Arctica Igloo Assistant 2024, Arctica Volunteer 2023: volunteer position supporting the critical infrastructure of ice sales at Burning Man
- DEFCON 2023-present Inhuman Registration Volunteer: registration operations and support for Inhuman Registration (i.e. anyone not in the general public; includes 550+ DEFCON staff, as well as press, vendors, etc.)
- RailsConf 2023 Program Committee: curating the tracks and talks for the largest, longest running gathering of Rails developers in the world.
- Epicodus Mentor 2023-present: ongoing professional & technical mentorship via Lunch Talks for current students working to transition into tech
- Ongoing community content proofreading and resume reviews for Virtual Coffee
- RubyConf Houston Volunteer, 2022
- Epicodus Peer Mentor, 2020-2021
- #GettingBetter at Interviews: Important Q's to Ask During your Developer Job Interview, 2022 on dev.to
- #GettingBetter at Recognizing your Accomplishments as a Junior Developer (and Beyond), 2022 on dev.to
- #GettingBetter at PRs and Code Reviews as a Junior Developer, 2022 on Dev.to
- Code School Survival Tract, 2021; included in Epicodus Code School's curriculum and on Medium
- NSBE Pro-PDX Gets its First Interns, 2021 on NSBE Pro-PDX
- Jan 31, 2024, 12:00PM - 1:00PM (PST): Epicodus Lunch Guest Speaker
- March 8, 2023, 12:00PM - 1:00PM (PST): Epicodus Lunch Guest Speaker
- April 26, 2023 1:30PM - 3:30PM (EST): MC for RailsConf Lightning Talks
- Speaker at ChickTech + ACT-W Virtual Conference, August 30 – September 1, 2022, "From Bartender to Software Engineer - How I Went from Slinging Drinks to Coding for a Living at 30" | <Slides> | Watch Here!
- On
. Formerly streaming at The Jonan Show with the 'Code School Q&A' crew, where we supported folx interested in software, code school students, and recent grads working to get into the tech industry.
- Launchies podcast, Episode 041, posted Dec 15, 2021, "Googling and Self-Teaching – Attend Code School Q&A with Danielle Thompson" Listen Here!
- Greater Than Code podcast, Oct 13, 2021, "Transitioning into Tech" Listen Here!
- July 21, 2021, 10:00AM (PST): DEV,to Twitch Stream Watch Here!
- July 20, 2021, 12:00PM – 1:00 PM (PST): PDXWIT Happy (Lunch) Hour - First Gen in Tech, Lightning Speaker | Link
- July 14, 2021, 12:00PM – 1:00PM (PST): Epicodus Alumni Internship Experience Panel
- January 21, 2021, 12:00PM – 1:00PM (PST): Epicodus Upper Cohort Peer Mentor Lunch Talk
- Aug 8-11, 2024 (IRL) DEFCON31
- Aug 10-13, 2023 (IRL) DEFCON31
- April 24-26, 2023 (IRL) RailsConf
- Nov 29–Dec 1, 2022 (IRL) RubyConf
- Aug 30–Sep 1, 2022 (virtual) ChickTech + ACT-W Virtual Conference
- Aug 11–14, 2022, (IRL) DEFCON30
- May 17–19, 2022, (IRL) RailsConf In-Person
- May 25–27, 2021, (virtual) New Relic's FutureStack
- June 8, 2021, (virtual) Applitools + Cypress present Front-end Test Fest
- June 7–11, 2021 (virtual) Treehouse Festival
- June 10–11 (virtual) CONNECT REIMAGINE 2021 by Women Who Code
- Aug 5–8, 2021, (IRL) DEFCON29
- The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
- Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Noble
- The Tangled Web: A Guide to Securing Modern Web Applications by Michal Zalewski
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, by Claire L. Evans
- Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye by Marie Matsuki Mockett
- Ladybug Podcast --> ⚡ software developer gold ⚡
- Greater Than Code --> "the human side of technology"
- Code Switch from NPR --> not programming related, but rather, talks on race & culture
- The Rewatchables --> 🎬? fun conversation about all sorts of rewatchable movies 🎬
