Project manager, designer and software developer

Design. I earned a B.S. in Architectural Design at the University of Florida and spent years as a professional designer doing print, signage and wayfinding systems. At Perkins & Will I was a Branded Environments Designer: I designed signage systems for projects worldwide alongside architects and engineers, and managed projects from the design side. I also developed the systems we used to track large volumes of signage elements and where each one was installed, which kept those projects accurate and efficient.

Production. Before Perkins & Will I worked on the production side. At a print shop I was production manager and project manager for a crew of about 20 across three locations, running high-volume work for colleges and Chicago area businesses, including large-format printing, bindery and finishing. At a small sign shop I managed signage projects for big college buildings, including Northwestern University's, and delivered them on time and on budget. I managed people, schedules and clients in both jobs, and I run software projects the same way.

Software. I taught myself JavaScript first. In 2019 I completed General Assembly's Software Engineering Immersive to get formal training and a credential, and to make my React, Node and Python skills job ready. It also gave me a realistic sense of how long software takes to build, which is what makes an estimate or a scope cut honest.

Teaching and leadership. From 2019 to 2024 I was a Lead Instructor in Software Engineering at General Assembly. For the first year and a half I mostly taught. After that I also supervised about ten new instructors, which meant onboarding, scheduling, feedback, escalations, and the ceremonies that kept concurrent cohorts moving. I set the standards our remote teams worked to, ran code review every week, and taught more than 150 developers. Watching those developers land jobs is still the part I'm proudest of.

TRStudios. Since 2024 I've run TRStudios, my own development studio. I scope each project with the client, design it, build it in React, Next.js and TypeScript, test it, launch it and support it after launch. The work includes campaign sites, legal and home services, consumer wellness, WordPress development for Albany Park Theater Project, and a contract as software engineering manager for a national medical association. I've delivered more than 15 client projects so far.

Games. I also publish games under my own studio, weatherstew: a children's game on Google Play that I built myself in Godot, with Cold Harsh Sea 2.0 in development for Steam, and a new web game that I'm working on which will turn into another mobile app.