After 11 years working in the Kansas City area as primarily a mainframe software developer in the financial industry, I returned to NIU in August 2001 and joined the faculty as an instructor in computer science, primarily in the mainframe/enterprise development environment. I continue teaching and mentoring students at all levels, and I sometimes work as a mainframe consultant.
Programming languages with which I've worked professionally are COBOL, Assembler, JCL, C++, C and CA-IDEAL, and I teach -- or have taught -- all of these languages and Java at both the beginning and advanced levels. I am now teaching advanced Android mobile app development.
Other technologies and methodologies with which I've worked are Cloud and Big Data, SQL, Db2, CA-DATACOM DB, IMS, VSAM, SDLC, Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design, CICS and IBM MVS and z/OS.
I have more than 36 years of experience in software development with the last 23 years spent primarily in higher education. I am very proud of and grateful for the three annual Excellence in Teaching awards I have been awarded by NIU's Department of Computer Science's Student Advisory Board in 2005, 2019 and 2021.
My hobbies are playing French horn in our local municipal band and community orchestra, history, classical music and opera. I write program notes for concerts and classical music reviews, and I speak, read and write German fluently.