Skipper Pickle
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Professional Skills
- Certified ScrumMaster
- UX design
- Web application design
- Instructional design
- Game design
- Data analytics
- Scrum Agile
- Methodical creativity
- Conflict resolution
- Content development
- Community development
Software Skills
- Adobe Illustrator
- Omnigraffle
- Axure
- InVision
- Adobe XD
- Jira
- ColdFusion
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Captivate
- SQL Server 7.0
Experience
Owner, The Will Stewart Study Group LLC (Richardson, TX), 2007-present. Consultant and developer for curriculum, e-Learning, and instructional design projects.
Senior Product Designer, Voyager Sopris Learning | Cambium Learning (Dallas), 2008-present. UX designer and business analyst for web-based reading and math intervention technology. Gathered business and pedagogical requirements from curriculum team and education professionals. Designed interactions, creating storyboards and wireframes. Queried SQL database to create reports on application usage. Created characters and animation scripts for Ticket to Read Phonics. Revised user interface and created learning interactions for Ticket To Read Fluency. Designed UX, adaptable word flow, and games for VocabJourney. Oversaw product development for VmathLive, including avatar and multi-player matching systems. Designed engagement systems (games, achievements, avatar system) and managed partner relationship for LANGUAGE! Live. Led cultural shift to Scrum Agile development for two teams, assimilating three Scrum masters over two years and proxying for product owners.
Director of Marketing, Nexo Communications LLC (Lake Worth, FL), 2006-2007. Built web application to allow creation and management of customer accounts, tying together our Verisign account with a third-party billing system. Created branding campaign (web site, brochures, and mailers) for new flagship telecommunications product. Created CD (including Flash navigation) for distribution to customers and partners.
Education Community Manager, Macromedia, later Adobe (Richardson, TX), 2004-2006. Initiated education community development with a quarterly newsletter to K-12 professionals (first issue received more than twice the average response of typical e-mail). Created infrastructure (primarily coding in ColdFusion) for education leader program. Supervised K-12 professional community of practice around core products. Delivered bi-weekly status report on trends in education community as they impacted Macromedia’s education market.
Vertical Marketing Developer, Macromedia (Richardson TX), 2000-2004. Built templates and assets for use by K-12 and Higher Education professionals. Wrote student curriculum (Macromedia Studio MX 2004 Step-by-Step, Studio 8 Step-by-Step and Multimedia Projects for Macromedia Flash MX 2004 and Dreamweaver MX 2004) and assorted staff development guides). Created prototype for use by early adopters with Flash Communication Server.
Localization Manager/International UI Designer, Macromedia (Richardson TX), 1998-2000. Hired and trained ten-person team for testing localized software. Created K-12 professional development site both with and without user progress tracking. Led four-person team in education development efforts. Monitored and responded to customer feedback.
Lead Curriculum Designer, Jostens Learning (Irving TX), 1997-98. Responsible for leading six-person team in developing educational software: personnel management, asset acquisition, project scheduling and budgeting product review, product feature planning and implementation, localization.
Curriculum Designer, Jostens Learning (formerly Ideal Learning) (Irving TX), 1992-94, 1996-7. Responsible for scripting, script review (English and Spanish), coding of models, QA sequencing, debugging, and cross-platform development of networked curriculum. Projects include Language Arts 8, Spanish/English Reading, Kindergarten Reading, Houghton Mifflin’s K-2 Reading Series (Mac CD-ROM format consisting of 19 CDs containing 2000 MB of materials).
Director, Language Arts Development, Gamco Education Materials (Big Spring TX), 1994-1996. Supervised R&D team to create educational software games. Oversaw development team as game/product designer. Prepared budgets, 18-month schedules, and development scripts for a variety of products. Implemented QA database to replace hand-written system. Wrote 40,000+ words for grammar product.
Other experience includes six years teaching secondary English and other subjects, netrepping Netrunner, executive administration of a local arts center, cross-cultural training, and radio announcing.
Education
B.A., English, John Brown University, 1986.
A.S., Broadcasting, John Brown University, 1986.
M.A., English, University of Arkansas, 1988.
Graduate studies in Marriage and Family Counseling, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1992.
Languages
Spanish (fluency equivalent to Foreign Service Level 4)