JD started his career as a designer but now has over 29 years of professional development experience as well. In 2015, he worked his way into CERT and Emergency Communications with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). In 2019, he started a PennState Graduate course to earn an iMPS Homeland Security: Public Health Preparedness. In 2022, he added a second master's program and three professional Intelligence and Geospatial Analysis certificates.
While at Penn State, his capstone project researched the gamification of Emergency Management training and the potential for developing virtual reality apps for that purpose. He discovered that having fun is the secret ingredient to the effective onboarding of skills and to increasing their long-term retention.
He has worked on large projects such as the Dallas Cowboys, Indiana Colts, & Minnesota Vikings stadiums, and large websites such as SPE.org, imaginecommunications.com, & waspbarcode.com, garnering multiple peer awards for outstanding performance.
JD has a task-oriented attitude that does not sacrifice quality and quickly learns new solutions to complex problems. His design expertise, strategic thinking, dedication to excellence, and ability to work with a full range of personalities in any environment give him depth in supporting the teams he is on. He excels at bringing calmness to those around him, even in the often tense development world. JD is also dedicated to continual self-improvement through his evident passion for lifelong learning and seeking an improved approach to everything he touches.