Brian Abbott

Brian Abbott

Curriculum Vitæ

Personal Profile

Diligent, dedicated, eager and well-rounded. Independently motivated and sociable. Quick to adapt to changing environments, needs, personalities and technologies. Previous work and education experience in Europe and Asia. Always exploring, learning and seeking more to learn.

Specialized skills:

Javascript/Jquery, PHP, Python, JSON, HTML, CSS, LAMP/MAMP, Git, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, MySQL, cPanel, SEO best practices, Google Analytics & Search Console.

Theoretical foundation and practical applications of modern linguistics, especially phonetics and phonology.

General skills:

Proficient in MS Office Suite, Google Apps and Adobe Creative Cloud. Familiar with project management applications including Slack, Trello, Basecamp, Assembla and Microsoft Project.

Recent Work Experience

Web Developer (independent) 03/2014 - present

  • Front- and back-end web development, primarily HTML, CSS, Javascript/Jquery, PHP and image processing.
  • Constantly learning new technologies and staying au courant with best practices.
  • Conveying the capabilities and limitations of various technologies to clients in non-technical language.
  • Interacting with clients to define and achieve specific, attainable project scopes and marketing goals.
  • Managing differing client needs, expectations, budgets and schedules.
  • Cross-browser compatibility and responsive design.
  • Security risk prevention and mitigation.
  • Utilization of latest proven technology to future-proof digital assets.
  • Building emails to render accurately across a wide range of clients and managing email lists of up to 100,000 subscribers to deploy via Mailchimp, Constant Contact, SurveyMonkey, et al.
  • Meeting deadlines consistently in a fast-paced environment, on-call 24/7.
  • Administrative and accounting duties required as sole proprietor.

Web Developer at Bent Media, Inc. 07/2011 - 02/2014

  • Front-end web development, primarily HTML, CSS, Javascript/Jquery, PHP and image processing.
  • Cross-browser compatibility, responsive design and/or mobile development.
  • Building emails to render accurately across a wide range of clients ranging from antiquated to modern mobile platforms, as well as managing multiple lists of up to 100,000 subscribers and deploying via Mailchimp and Emma.
  • Meeting deadlines consistently in a fast-paced environment.

Education

Tulane University and George Washington University Graduate Coursework

  • Broad range of courses under the umbrella of International Development including Statistics and Research Design, Project Management, Economics, Demography and Crisis & Emergency Management.

University of Minnesota B.A., Linguistics

  • Phonetics and phonology specialization, covering transformational/linear as well as non-linear approaches, including constraint-based frameworks (especially Optimality Theory), with attention to a given theory’s successes and failures at reflecting general cognitive processes.
  • Spent one year at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia on scholarship exchange to conduct self-directed field work on Malay phonology (read the paper here).
  • Field work included recordings and spectrographic analysis utilizing self-taught leading-edge software.
  • Other coursework included child language acquisition, TESL/TEFL, simulated field research eliciting from an Albanian informant, and one or more semesters of traditional language instruction in German, Polish, Korean, Thai and Malay.

Activities & Interests

  • Musician and contributor to local independent record label
    • Self-taught multiple Digital Audio Workstations including Logic Pro, Protools, Sonar and Ableton Live.
    • Multi-instrumentalist spanning many eras and styles.
  • Volunteer work
    • Self-initiated post-Katrina volunteer work in an effort to establish distributed, hurricane-proof, smart-grid infrastructure elements in New Orleans.
    • Local stakeholders included NASA/Lockheed Martin, Louisiana Technology Council, New Orleans Office of Recovery Management, New Orleans City Council, Mary Queen of Vietnam Church and CDC, and the Sierra Club.
  • Participant in local sports league
  • Novice gardener
  • Unrepentant bad dancer

Additional Info

Available for work now

References Available on Request