Although I am currently employed full time, I’m always seeking business opportunities in non-traditional roles that require a high degree of flexibility and adaptability.
- I am a problem solver. I love attacking the business problems that overwhelm others.
- I have a multitude of skills and knowledge that I can draw from when faced with a challenge.
- I am a creative, driven individual whose experiences and education will be a perfect fit with any potential employer.
- I welcome the opportunity to prove it to you personally.
Feel free to contact me with any opportunities or questions you might have.
Employment
911 Emergency Fire & Medical Dispatcher
Phoenix Fire Department
Job Description
- Obtaining critical information from customers in various states of crisis.
- Providing self-help until firefighters or paramedics arrive on scene.
- Monitoring operations via radio to ensure firefighter safety and assisting with the need for additional resources.
Special Duty Assignments
- On-the-job trainer for new dispatchers. Help to apply the skills that they learn in our training classroom in real life situations.
- Designed a database using Microsoft Access to house information for the training hours that our employees have accumulated.
- Designed a separate MS Access database to manage quality assurance checks for 911 phone calls.
- Maintain the seating schedule for the alarm room personnel, maintaining a rotation of the various jobs we perform daily.
- I also serve as a union steward for the alarm room, helping to advocate fair treatment for all of our employees.
Web Designer and Business Owner
Three Point Design, LLC
- Engineering custom web solutions for several small businesses, primarily using WordPress.
- Managing the day to day operations of a small business.
- Experience setting up and operating social media outlets for businesses. (Facebook pages, Twitter for businesses, mailing lists.)
Media Developer
Virtual Incident Command Center at Mesa Community College
- Setting up and operating social media channels for businesses.
- Monitoring engagement across multiple channels to determine if the efforts being made are effective in reaching a target audience
- Creating effective contingency plans for communicating with the public during a crisis.
Administrative Assistant
St Andrew the Apostle Catholic Faith Community
Job Description
- Coordinated the enrollment, attendance and volunteer availability of a religious education ministry.
- Serve as the main point-of-contact for other questions regarding ongoing church services.
Special Projects
- Designed a database in Microsoft Access to house the enrollment and attendance information for our ministry.
Education
Arizona State University
Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Studies, Concentrations in English and Communication
The degree program in which I participated is among the most unique in the country. The focus of my degree does not fall within the two selected areas of concentration, but rather resides in the process of general integration of knowledge. According to the BIS website:
Arizona State’s BIS program provides students the intellectual tools needed to integrate their concentration areas, engage in interdisciplinary problem solving, and prepare for careers and graduate programs that increasingly cross academic disciplines.
Learn more about my degree program at the School of Letters and Sciences page at ASU.
I have completed a number of classes covering many different subjects. Descriptions of the course work that I completed in each concentration area follows in a separate page.
Skills and Talents
Web Site Design
Web Design with WordPress
As you can see here, I build and create web sites, primarily using WordPress as my development engine and CMS of choice. For more about my philosophy as a developer and about the web design business I operate, head to Three Point Design.
Coaching & Mentoring
OJT Training with Phoenix Fire Department
My ability to learn and adapt is closely related to my ability to turn around and share that knowledge with others. I find myself staying involved with the teaching and mentoring process no matter what my actual job description might be. By becoming willing to help someone learn a skill or body of knowledge that I have experienced in the past, it increases the liveliness of the memory. I find myself learning from those that I mentor and teach almost as much as they may learn from me.
I received a letter of Exceptional Performance for my work as a mentor during the on-the-job training of one of the new classes of dispatchers that we hired in 2008. I have been an on the job trainer for new 911 dispatchers for 6 of the 7 years that I have been employed by the City of Phoenix.
Innovative Thinking
Shift schedule for Phoenix Fire Department
Very often a standard solution for a problem is not satisfactory for the specific group of people that I work with. For example, a 911 call center needs to have minimum staffing levels over the course of a day. The traditional solution to that problem is to employ three eight hour shifts that each meet the volume requirements of that time frame. But by throwing out the rules, I was able to design a ten hour shift schedule in our workplace that relies on four starting times instead of three, with the added benefit of a four day work week for more than 70% of the dispatchers on duty. This solution took me more than a year of trial and error and out of the box planning to create and is the basis for the shift schedule that we have in place now.
Habitat for Humanity
Construction Small Group Leader
As an experienced volunteer for Habitat For Humanity, I have assisted in the construction of several houses throughout different parts of the Valley. I also help lead new volunteers through the different construction tasks, giving them as much of the experience of Habitat as possible. It is a mission that I throw my full weight behind, figuratively and literally – at the end of a good day’s work, I realize that I have muscles in the weirdest places! But it’s all for a good cause: Habitat is dedicated to “eliminating substandard housing in our community by helping low-income families purchase a simple, decent home in which to live.”
One swing at a time.
Read more about the mission of Habitat for Humanity Valley of the Sun.
Other Experiences
We learn from everything we do.