Current Role

English Language Arts instructor in the state of Alaska.

Artist and author.

Experience

Alaska Gateway School District

August 2024 – Present

Taught students grades six through eight in the art of the English Language.
Used CHAMPS classroom-management strategies to provide a positive learning environment with clear expectations.
In alignment with the district’s curriculum and the State of Alaska’s educational standards, developed a unique implementation of the Amplify English Language Arts program.
Built custom online courses using the Instructure Canvas platform for organizational and efficiency purposes.
Created scripts using Python and local-language artificial intelligence models (LLMs) to generate customized worksheets, quizzes, and tests.
Co-taught an extracurricular technology class for high-school students. This class introduced foundational concepts in programming, LLM and other generative-artificial intelligence models, 3D printing, and robotics.
Taught an extracurricular Creative Writing course for middle-school students. This course focused on creating an environment where students can learn to love writing, reading, and being creative. As a supplement, the course explored generative-artificial intelligence as a means of creative skill building.
Led a reading-intervention class (RTI) to provide extra support for approximately ten middle-school students.

Yukon-Koyukuk School District

August 2023 – July 2024

Provided explicit instruction based on the UFLI reading-intervention curriculum to elementary students.
Traveled to remote Alaskan villages on a bimonthly basis to provide onsite support.
Conducted biweekly data-driven assessment to ascertain student needs.
Contacted parents on a monthly basis with printed data visualizations showing their children’s progress.
Over the course of the year, all classes taught showed significant improvement in DIBELS assessment scores.

University of Alaska – Fairbanks

January 2023 – July 2023

Developed C++/Python scripts to gather and visualize data from a mining robot intended for extraterrestrial deployment.

Fairbanks, AK

July 2020 – January 2023

Served as a full-time father for my two children during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Developed interpersonal and leadership skills in the context of working with adolescents.

Komodo Platform

September 2017 – June 2020

A primary co-author of the Komodo Whitepaper. This ninety-three-page document formed the basis for the internal company vision and the external marketing narrative.
Authored, edited, and co-edited hundreds of pages of technical documentation.
Performed common, simple developer tasks: set up and maintained a Vuepress documentation website, managed Github repositories and test servers, and created basic C++ scripts for workflow automation.

TimeClick Software

June 2016 – November 2016

Utah Valley University: August 2014 – December 2015

Brigham Young University: January 2016 – April 2016

Independent Illustration, Creative Writing, and Technical Writing

April 2004 – July 2020

Author/illustrator of Westly: A Spider’s Tale (2015, Shadow Mountain Publishing).
Recipient, Kirchoff/Wohlberg Award (New York Society of Illustrators).

Richard Solomon—Artists Representative

April 2007 – February 2009

Tasks included networking and managing transition from traditional to digital media
Sourced 20 million free advertising impressions via corporate networking

Brigham Young University

Summer 2003 – Fall 2005

Brigham Young University – BFA: Illustration (2007)

Western Governor’s University – MAT English Education (2023-25)