About Me

my why

 

To inspire others to dream big, so that we can accomplish limitless possibilities. 

As a Principal Software Engineer, I turn those possibilities into reality by leading high-impact projects, driving AI-powered innovation, and empowering my team to excel.

my how

takes initiative

I proactively identify and drive strategic improvements in development processes, architecture, and team workflows to increase efficiency and quality across projects.

learns independently

As a self-taught engineer, I rapidly acquire and apply new skills, from emerging frameworks to AI technologies, enabling my team to stay ahead of industry trends.

works efficiently

I streamline development workflows, remove obstacles, and focus efforts where they deliver the most impact, enabling my team to produce high-quality results with minimal overhead.

communicates candidly

I practice radical candor to keep expectations clear, remove blockers early, and build trust across teams and stakeholders.

builds community

I foster a collaborative culture, mentoring engineers, encouraging knowledge sharing, and strengthening connections within and beyond my immediate team.

my what

  • Web development
  • Mobile development
  • Game development

Professional Skills

Percent expertise reflects my ability to deliver results independently and efficiently, drawing on my depth of experience and problem-solving skills. It is based on how quickly and confidently I can complete tasks in each area without needing to research solutions or seek assistance, factoring in both current proficiency and practical readiness.

Operating Systems

operating systems by years

Windows
Android
Mac
Linux
iOs

operating systems by expertise

Windows
Android
Mac
Linux
iOs

Programming Languages

programming languages by years

HTML
XML
CSS
PHP
SQL
JavaScript
HTML5
CSS3
PHP7
PHP8
TypeScript

programming languages by expertise

HTML
HTML5
XML
CSS
PHP
PHP7
PHP8
JavaScript
CSS3
SQL
TypeScript

Standards & Methodologies

standards by years

W3C Standards
PCI DSS Standards
WAI / WCAG Standards
PHP Coding Standards
PSR Coding Standards
JavaScript Coding Standards
AirBnB Coding Standards

methodologies by years

AJAX
Object Oriented Programming
Test Driven Development
S.O.L.I.D. Principles
Agile Methodology
Behavior Driven Development
DevOps Principles

Frameworks & Libraries

frameworks by years

MVC Frameworks
Micro Frameworks
Slim
Kohana

libraries by years

jQuery
React

DevOps Tools & AWS Services

devops tools by years

Git
Composer
PHPUnit
Jenkins
Vagrant
Docker
AWS CDK and SAM
Node JS
Gulp
GitHub Workflows & Actions

AWS services by years

ElasticBeanstalk
CloudWatch
S3, SNS, SES, SSM
CloudFormation & Serverless Templates
Code Pipeline, Code Build, Code Deploy
Lambdas
API Gateway
Dynamo DB
IAM Roles and Policies

Web Process & Technology

web process by years

Project & Requirement Scoping
Search Engine Optimization
Content Management
User Interface & Experience
Agile Project Management
Product Development

web technology by years

MySQL
LAMP Stack
Payment Gateways
APIs
WordPress
Node JS / NPM

work experience

2022 - now

Principal Software Engineer

Wake Forest University - AIT
  • Lead the creation of strategic, sustainable technical solutions for business operations.
  • Manage the WordPress development team, setting priorities, providing guidance, and supporting professional growth.
  • Drive initiatives to explore, pilot, and integrate AI technologies into development workflows, enhancing efficiency, code quality, and innovation across projects.
  • Oversee the exploration, implementation, and management of all UA infrastructure and AWS code not managed by IS.
  • Ensure project quality by fostering a culture of test-driven development and encouraging tools that evaluate code quality.
  • Mentor and train software engineers on best practices, new technologies, and advanced web development topics.
2019 - 2022

Associate Director, Digital Product Architecture

Wake Forest University - AIT
  • Led digital product development, refining workflow and development processes, providing strategic feature guidance, and steering developers toward better results.
  • Developed CI pipelines for serverless applications using AWS CDK, SAM, CodeBuild, and CodePipeline.
  • Removed over 20 years of technical debt from existing PHP codebases.
2017-2019

Associate Director, Digital Development

Wake Forest University - CER
  • Led the development team, overseeing operations and planning sprints as an unofficial Scrum Master.
  • Guided the team toward department and sprint goals.
  • Collaborated with the team to establish improved development workflow processes.
2012 - 2017

Senior Web Developer

Wake Forest University - CER
  • Led efforts toward server redundancy and later migrating to cloud hosting with AWS.
  • Developed best practices and coding standards.
  • Integrated Blackbaud endpoints into the event registration system.
  • Introduced PHPUnit unit testing into modern codebases.
  • Built APIs for Blackbaud and third-party integrations.
  • Learned and implemented Agile/SCRUM methodologies.
2012

Web Developer

High Point University

Developed new web content utilizing PHP5, jQuery, PHP Eclipse, Git, Ubuntu Linux, HTML5 and CSS3 technologies. Updated website development to utilize PHP5 OOP design methods for improved ease of development and maintenance. Maintained existing Drupal and Joomla websites. Explored development of new websites with Kohana framework and WordPress integration.

2011 - 2012

PHP Web Developer

Wells Fargo

Developed search and report functionality utilizing object oriented programming methodology, PHP5, Kohana Framework, Ext JS 4, Oracle 11g, PHP Eclipse and Subversion. Followed object oriented design patterns, company coding standards and best practices in all development activities. Utilized Subversion version control software and peer review to ensure high quality of code implementations.

2007 - 2011

Web Developer / Senior Web Developer

HD Web Studio

Developed new websites utilizing ColdFusion, MySQL, Javascript, AJAX, in house CMS and shopping cart, third party plugins, and Javascript libraries such as jQuery. Converted PSD designs into HTML/CSS meeting W3C and WAI standards utilizing Photoshop, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver software. Shopping cart developed that integrated with Paypal, UPS, and credit card gateways such as authorize.net.

2004 - 2005

Software Quality Assurance Tech

Gilbarco Veeder Root

Tested dispenser software.

1999 - 2007

Owner / Webmaster

Asazi Productions / Asazi Web Services

Designed and built websites with HTML and CSS to W3C standards. Developed dynamic websites utilizing PHP, MySQL, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, osCommerce, and custom CMS. Developed appealing results driven web content and graphic banners retaining 80% visiting on weekly/monthly basis, 15% visiting bimonthly. Publication of an e-zine that drew 15,000+ visitor first 18 months.

1993 - 2000

Research Technician III

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Education

Self Trained

The circles represent level of knowledge on the subject.

Artificial Intelligence

AI terminology by knowledge

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI Model Deployment
Machine Learning (ML)
Large Language Models (LLMs)
AI Ethics
Supervised & Unsupervised Learning
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Embeddings
Tokenization
Generative AI
Transformers
Deep Learning

AI concepts by knowledge

Training & Inference
Scalability & Deployment Strategies
Model Evaluation & Metrics
Explainable AI & Model Interpretability
Bias & Fairness in AI
Overfitting & Underfitting
Feature Engineering
Attention Mechanisms & Self-Attention
Sequence Modeling & Time Series Analysis
Transfer Learning & Fine-Tuning
Neural Network Architectures (CNN, RNN, LSTM, Transformer)
Hyperparameter Tuning

Education

Team Treehouse

The circles represent level of the learning track: three solid dots is beginner, six solid dots is intermediate and nine dots is advanced.  Most tracks range from 10-30 hours of courses.

Frontend tracks

Learn HTML 10 hrs
Web Design 43 hrs
Beginning JavaScript 18 hrs
Learn React 7 hrs
Frontend Web Development 57 hrs
Full Stack JavaScript 45 hrs

Backend tracks

Beginning PHP 15 hrs
Beginning Java 10 hrs
Beginning C# 17 hrs
Beginning SQL 10 hrs
Beginning Security 5 hrs
Intermediate PHP 16 hrs
Object Oriented PHP 14 hrs

AI Tracks

AI for Programmers 4 hrs

Other Tracks

Introduction to Project Management 18 hrs
Product Management Basics 14 hrs

Certifications / Degrees

2025

AWS Certified AI Practitioner

AWS
2004

Master CIW Web Designer

CIW
1989 - 1993

Bachelor of Science in Biology

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Interests

  • Pets (dog, cat)
  • Watching Sci Fi
  • Binge-watching TV
  • Video games
  • Playing soccer
  • Writing music

Social Media