Tommy is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (BFA Photography May 2009). While attending school he worked as an Information Technology Assistant at the Spurlock Museum where he spearheaded, alongside the Director of Information Technology, a student team to systematically recreate the museums web presence to be in compliance with the new Illinois State Laws. Immediately upon graduation he moved to Chicago, Illinois to pursue a career in front-end development specializing in accessibility. He is currently employed at the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Here he has worked with his colleagues to theorize, create, and implement the LAS Portal for Students, Faculty, and Staff. This has improved workflow and saved resources for the college. He and his colleagues are currently working to integrate more archaic systems into the portal to create a central database where all LAS business is managed.
Tommy has taken it upon himself to bring accessibility to the forefront in all his projects. He is working toward a world of equal access by breaking down the idea of us vs. them. He is working adamantly to create applications and interfaces that are usable by as large of an audience as possible.
Tommy prefers to use Apple Macintosh systems, Adobe Creative Suite, Google Chrome, and Open Source web applications.
Instead of focusing on a small area within the realms of Computer Science and Information Technology Tommy uses a large number of well-developed and developing skills to bring as much to the table as he possible can. He uses a calculated yet artistic approach to all of his problems including those requiring technical expertise, coding, and mathematics. In his early years as a student he excelled in math and sciences including Calculus and Applied Astronomy. He then found his passion for the dark room and the chemical processes involving film developing as well as the optics of the physical camera before joining the BFA program in photography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Today he uses his acquired web development skills to create accessible and holistic web presences. He accomplishes this by using his diverse background to fuel suggestions and decisions to his clients. He works adamantly with clients, copywriters, and designers to ensure websites achieve a number of goals including: speed, accessibility, attractiveness, and successful client-customer relations.
He has taken it upon himself to be involved and vocal with those creating standards to ensure accessibility is easy and effective to implement while not ignoring the needs of those without impairments. He firmly believes in progressive enhancement and elegant degradation of scripting to achieve these goals.
- Web Technologies
- CSS 2.1
- XHTML 1.1
- HTML 5
- jQuery
- Javascript
- PHP
- MySQL
- Theming (Plone, Drupal, etc)
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Photoshop (Including Camera Raw)
- Adobe Premier
- Adobe Sound booth
- Adobe Acrobat Professional
- Adobe Bridge
- Apple Software/Hardware
- Vast Knowledge of Mac OSX operating system (up to 10.6)
- Working knowledge of Macintosh hardware
- iPhone
- MacBook Pro
- iBook
- iMac
- Final Cut Pro Studio
- FileMaker Pro
- Aperture
- Photography
- Film Photography
- Film SLR (35mm)
- Large format cameras
- View camera
- Hasselblad
- Mamiya
- Black and white dark room processes
- Color dark room processes
- Digital Photography
- Digital SLR cameras
- Digital RAW dark room workflow
- Retouching
- Film Scanning
- Film Photography
Tommy spends his recurring free time in his home in Chicago, IL. There he splits his time between his fiancé, Nicole, his dog, Buster, keeping up with current technology and environmental events, reading, and playing all kinds of games. On weekends he enjoys getting out of the house to enjoy hikes, camping, and gardening. He loves oceanic beaches and lush forests and plans his vacations accordingly.
