Associate Director, Application Development

Professional Summary

Associate director-level application development leader with more than 20 years of experience guiding enterprise software delivery across higher education, research, healthcare, and business operations. Combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution across software architecture, full-stack development, databases, infrastructure, modernization, and production support. Record of translating complex operational needs into durable systems, aligning stakeholders around delivery, and sustaining enterprise platforms after launch.

Core Qualifications

• 20+ years of enterprise software delivery and 17 years at Drexel University building long-lived institutional systems
• Application development leadership across SDLC strategy, architecture review, modernization, delivery management, infrastructure, and operations
• Portfolio ownership across academic operations, sponsored research, healthcare technology, faculty services, student workflows, and event systems
• Software engineering depth across Python, Django, React, JavaScript, C#, ASP.NET, PHP, REST APIs, RBAC, and CAS authentication
• Platform, cloud, and database experience across Linux, Windows Server, Nginx, IIS, Apache, AWS ECS, AWS RDS, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, reporting, and data migration
• Leadership through mentoring, hiring support, onboarding, adjunct teaching, and cross-functional stakeholder partnership

Professional Experience

Drexel University College of Computing & Informatics

Associate Director of Platform and Software Development | 2023-Present

• Lead application development strategy, architecture, modernization, and lifecycle stewardship for enterprise systems supporting academic, research, and administrative operations.
• Own a portfolio that includes the CCI Apps Enterprise Platform, Proposal Tracking System, Course Assistant systems, Discord provisioning workflows, Senior Project Showcase Platform, and Philly Codefest Event Management Platform.
• Maintain hands-on responsibility across infrastructure planning, database administration, deployment, production support, and operational continuity for faculty-hosted websites, research application servers, and core production environments.
• Partner with faculty, administrators, researchers, and leadership stakeholders to shape requirements, prioritize delivery, and keep institutional systems maintainable and trusted over time.
• Mentor developers, cooperative education students, and student technical staff while contributing to hiring, onboarding, and day-to-day technical development.

Senior Software Developer | 2014-2023

• Served as lead architect and principal software engineer during the largest expansion of the College’s internally developed software ecosystem.
• Built and expanded the CCI Apps enterprise platform into a core operating layer for academic operations, faculty services, student engagement, research administration, and administrative workflows.
• Architected and developed the Proposal Tracking System, which has managed approximately 1,745 proposals, supported more than 100 annual submissions depending on year, and remained in use for roughly a decade.
• Developed Course Assistant application and scheduling workflows that have processed approximately 405 applications and support roughly 30 to 50 assistants per academic term.
• Led primary development of the ACE Clinical Research Platform, supporting approximately 2,500 users across roughly 30 provider offices and more than 40 digitized clinical and assessment forms for Drexel, the University of Connecticut, and UC Davis collaborators.
• Delivered specialized research and healthcare systems including ECHOASDER, the TYS Android application and backend APIs, a School of Education ACE-related platform, and the PAST Windows application with Raspberry Pi integration for rehabilitation analysis workflows.
• Expanded Philly Codefest into an end-to-end event operations platform covering registration, check-in, project submissions, judging, sponsors, prizes, resume collection, reporting, and administrative coordination.
• Designed production environments, configured application and database servers, deployed releases, administered databases, supported long-lived production systems, and modernized legacy platforms after launch.

Web Services Architect | 2008-2014

• Managed the College’s public web presence while designing and delivering custom applications for departmental and operational needs.
• Established the architectural foundation, stakeholder relationships, and delivery practices that later grew into a broader software and platform function.
• Created early application patterns and support models that enabled later expansion into enterprise academic and administrative systems.

Pennoni Associates

IT Specialist | 2003-2008

• Developed database-driven business applications supporting proposal development, proposal management, and business development operations.
• Expanded into enterprise application development, reporting, automation, and business systems support across multiple departments.
• Contributed to a multi-year enterprise implementation and legacy data migration spanning accounting, human resources, marketing, project management, and records management workflows.
• Worked directly with business stakeholders to preserve continuity, support adoption, and improve operational reporting during organizational system change.

Additional Leadership

• Adjunct Faculty, Drexel University: taught INFO 210, INFO 315, INFO 365, and INFO 366, bringing practical enterprise application and database experience into undergraduate instruction.
• Mentored developers, cooperative education students, student workers, and early-career technical staff through onboarding, project delivery, and day-to-day technical growth, while participating in recruiting and interviewing.
• Co-author, HIVE-4-MAT: Advancing the Ontology Infrastructure for Materials Science, published in Metadata and Semantic Research (MTSR 2020), Springer CCIS 1355.