Monterey Bay

I am currently the Lead Staff in charge of Web Services in the information technology department at California State University, Monterey Bay, referred to as IT@CSUMB.EDU, a logo and identity I designed for our department. My role is both an operational staff, as an analyst and programmer, and as manager of two Web Development staff and several other functional staff in support of Web spaces and applications on CSUMB.EDU.

In 1996, I became a temporary staff to develop the university's Web presence and continued to teach, developing a Web design class for multimedia majors. Later that year I was hired full-time as the webmaster for the school, and I have managed projects, staff, and students towards the production of Web spaces and applications across campus. In total, I developed three curricula for teaching Web before halting teaching in 2000 to devote more time to my staff position.

In the fall of 1995, Dr. Marsha Moroh provided me an opportunity to join a team teaching and developing curriculum for that very class at the brand new campus, on the old Fort Ord army base.

Between 1993-1995, I became a substitute teacher at Monterey High School teaching chemistry, physics and other subjects while studying to obtain a public school teaching credential. In 1994, however, Lt. Steve Bible from the nearby Naval Postgraduate School introduced me to the Internet and the World Wide Web. I began teaching it as part of my student teaching at Monterey High and soon wanted to find a way to develop a class at the high school level where I could teach basic computing skills.

Hawaii

In 1991, I took a yearlong position with Dr. Tom Wright at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory to help continue building an electronic bibliographic database of all Hawaiian geoscience from 1955 to present. I was also a volunteer field geologist for the Observatory, part of the US Geological Survey.

In 1992, I decided to stay on Hawaii, spending the next two months as a wildland firefighter for the Hawaii Volcanoes National Forest. In the Spring of 1993, I became a temporary teacher for Mr. Steve Stephenson at Waiakea Intermediate School in Hilo, Hawaii. For the full semester, I taught earth science to seventh and eight graders. Because of this exposure to teaching, I decided to return to my hometown in California to obtain a teaching credential.

Graduate School

I entered Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, to study the chemistry of volcanic rocks with Professor Jim Luhr, now with the Smithsonian Institute. My thesis dealt with the study of rocks that had originated near the boundary of crust and mantle in central Mexico, carried up by rapidly rising magma. To find the age of the rocks, I picked and collected the mineral zircon for radiometric dating using isotopes of uranium and lead under the supervision of Professor Sam Bowring, now at MIT.

I desktop published my thesis using a Macintosh but had to port my geochemical data to Lotus 1-2-3 on DOS before that was easy to do. Little did I realize that my fearlessness for computing and multimedia would pay off a few years later.

In the Winter of 1990, I spent nine weeks in the Mexican Volcanic Belt, between Guadalajara and Mexico City, as a field assistant to a graduate student of Professor Ian Carmichael of U.C. Berkeley.

College

I entered U.C. Berkeley in with the intention to study geology, the best combination of hard science and outdoors. My influences were professors Garniss Curtis, Walter Alvarez, and Ian Carmichael. I also worked for a year at the Berkeley Geochronology Lab where I prepared samples for radiometric dating using isotopes of potassium and argon.

After completing classes, we spent six weeks in field camp in the White Mountains and the Benton Range, both in eastern California. I then spent five more weeks in the Apennine Mountains in Italy, working for a graduate student of Professor Walter Alvarez.

Growing Up

I was born and raised in Monterey, along the Central Coast of California. I attended Monterey High School and graduated tenth in my class before being accepted to the University of California, Berkeley.