Originally from Oklahoma and Colorado, I’ve lived in New York City, Northern Italy, all over Australia, and have traveled everywhere in between. My formal education is in Graphic Design and I’m self-taught HTML, CSS, Pearl, Flash, and other platforms while trying to achieve those design skills in the digital age. I’ve spent years working for large Marketing firms, running my own design agency, and working in Corporate settings as a designer and managing teams.
I currently hold the position of Associate Director for the User Experience team at ISS STOXX based in New York where I work on and oversee UX and UI design on the many various products in our company. It’s been a great opportunity starting the team from scratch and building it up to the talented and skilled group that it is today.
My love of photography was a product of my travels. I wanted to capture the places that I thought at the time I would never see again and so I aimed to improve my photography skills along the way. Because of this progression, most of my photography has been landscape and scenic. Over the last few years I have embraced the drone video medium and have working in that field more as a creative outlet. The ability to see the same scenery but at a different vantage point made me fall in love with travel photography all over again.
I’ve served in two branches of the military. I joined the U.S. Air Force as America was building up for the Iraq war in 1991. I served as an Aircraft Armament Systems Specialist for the F-16 Falcon. After my enlistment I went back to college and joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve and continued in my education in Graphic Design. At some point I wanted to join Reserve Officer’s Training Corp (ROTC) and after some deliberation I joined the U.S. Army ROTC at my university and changed over from the U.S. Air Force Reserve to the U.S. Army Reserve while I finished my education. Eventually, I served as an Executive Officer in a Drill Sergeant Training Battalion in Norman, Oklahoma.
My son recently graduated at my alma-mater with a degree in Communications and is pursuing a career in eSports Commentary and Organization. He has a natural gift in voice over work and commenting on play-by-play events.