About
There are easily hundreds of other sites available on the internet. Thanks for visiting mine.
Professionally
I’m a web developer who enjoys working with front-end technologies. Since shifting my career focus from product management to development in 2011, I’ve spent the bulk of my time working in and around the Drupal CMS. I wouldn’t be where I am today without Drupal and the community that supports it. I’m proud to have made a number of contributions back to the project over the years.
Most recently I have been focused on the intersection of traditional content management systems, like Drupal and WordPress, with modern JavaScript. In some cases, this means using a decoupled (aka headless) architecture to provide CMS data to a front-end framework like React. For much of my time at Pantheon I’ve focused on ’Decoupled Kit’ which is a series of starter kits and packages to support building sites using this approach. I have also helped maintain various SDKs for sourcing data from Drupal, including the Drupal API Client, which is in active development.
In my opinion there is more to this problem space than just headless use cases. Projects like Drupal have an exciting opportunity to retain their strengths while also taking advantage of the best of the modern JavaScript ecosystem. At the same time, JavaScript frameworks can learn from the hard fought lessons of PHP as they transition to a server-first future. I’m excited to be a part of this evolution and expect to be working in this space for the foreseeable future.
Unprofessionally
I’ve been known to do a number of things that don’t involve writing code. I also write code unprofessionaly on occasion.
I live in the Chicago suburbs with my wonderful family - my wife, son, and two cats. Prior to moving to the Midwest I grew up on the East Coast. I was born and raised in Rhode Island, and lived in Massachusetts for a number of years before moving to Illinois. I’ve been in Illinois for over a decade now, but I’ll always consider myself a recent transplant.
One of my biggest passtimes outside of work is playing video games. Maybe not the best hobby considering how much time I tend to spend in front of a computer, but it is what it is. I’m a huge Nintendo fan and have been since back in the NES days. My favorite game of all time is Metroid Prime.
For about 15 years I performed comedy on a regular basis - primarily long form group improv in the Boston area. I met hundreds of amazing people and had a chance to travel quite a bit. Eventually being home for bedtime was more desirable than driving in to the City for a Tuesday night rehearsal. I never quite made it to SNL, but I can still get some good laughs at the kitchen table or on a Zoom call.
I’m also a big music fan. I don’t go to concerts as frequently, but I listen for much of my work day and try to keep up with new music. I was a ska-punk kid in the 90s. I still listen to things that you’d classify as ‘punk’ but also many things that fall into the broad classification of ‘indie rock’.
I enjoy distance running. I ran one full marathon only to realize that half-marathons are my sweet spot. I also enjoy BBQ, whiskey, and craft beer which offsets much of the benefits of running. I can do a pretty solid brisket on my smoker.