With two decades of experience in website development, I have the background and expertise to provide you with a website that will exceed your expectations. I cut my teeth on manual HTML coding back in the 1996 — the web’s Jurassic era — before Cascading Style Sheets even existed.
For years, I coded all websites manually in a text editor, because the tools in those early days were so primitive and generated awful code that would display correctly only on the developer’s computer using the developer’s browser on the developer’s monitor. I tried — and quickly rejected — FrontPage and other “automatic” web tools. I used Dreamweaver for a few years, when I was working with a team for which Dreamweaver served as source control. I’m still more comfortable in code, but the popularity and flexibility of WordPress in recent years led me to develop a broad-based skillset in WordPress so that I can design and build a site for clients that they’ll be delighted with and be able to use for blogging and to edit their own site.
I have experience and expertise using HTML, CSS, Photoshop, PHP, MySQL, FTP, SSH, and all manner of alphabet soup. But I work hard to speak the language of people who just want a top-quality website that their visitors will find useful, engaging and easy-to-use. Developing websites is continuing education at its best; I devote time regularly to learning the newest techniques, the latest search engine trends, and the overall future direction of the web.
My Background
I spent seven years as the Corporate Web Site Manager for the Shrine of North America and Shriners Hospitals for Children, managing a web site that grew from 35 pages at its launch in 1996 to several thousand pages over the next few years.
As the sole Web site staff member, I had full responsibility for web site design, web site content, HTML coding, scripting, web site navigational structure and all other aspects of the Web site. She was instrumental in the launch of the Shrine and Shriners Hospitals Web site at its inception in 1996 and was named the organization’s first full-time Web Site Operations Manager in 1998.
I left Shriners in 2003, moving to Punta Gorda to begin working with a Fort Myers Web site development firm. Through that affiliation, I worked on the development of numerous Web sites for diverse companies and organizations. In 2004, I began offering my services independently to local companies in the Charlotte County area.
Since 2004, I have designed and built websites for a variety of businesses, including Realtors®, attorneys, and boat dealerships, for local clients in Punta Gorda as well as businesses as far away as Missouri and California.
Prior to the launch of the Shrine/Shriners Hospitals Web site in 1996, I worked as Projects Manager in the Shrine’s Public Relations Department. A degree in Mass Communications, coupled with my public relations experience, gave me a solid grounding in corporate communications and marketing. This background has been invaluable in transferring the broad-brush principles of mass communication to the specific medium that is the World Wide Web.
