I’ve usually been the one who had to figure it out.

In a hospital · 2008–2016

I was IT Manager, then Director of Information Services, at Arkansas Surgical Hospital, reporting to the CEO. I was responsible for technology operations, budgets, vendors, business continuity, and security, including HIPAA security. I was the architect of the hospital’s EHR implementation and the clinical workflows needed to meet Meaningful Use, the federal program that tied incentive payments to proving, under audit, that a hospital used its EHR meaningfully.

I was a hospital employee until 2013. Then I became a contractor, the hospital became a client of my company, and I stayed in the same role until 2016.

The technology exists so nurses, physicians, and staff can do real work. If it gets in their way, telling them the architecture is technically correct isn’t much of an answer.

In my own company · 2011–2016

I owned NPlus1 Data Solutions, a managed-services company, and started it while I was still employed at the hospital. I was responsible for technical direction, and also for customers, staff, vendors, delivery, sales, and the finances. When you own both the technology and the bill, you learn that the most technically impressive answer isn’t automatically the best one, and that a system somebody can actually operate is usually worth more than one they can’t.

In energy · 2017–2022

For five years I was at Southwest Power Pool, leading a two-person team responsible for enterprise storage and data protection across several data centers in a high-availability energy environment: thousands of hosts and tens of petabytes. We doubled storage capacity while operating with half the staffing level I arrived with, and completed major migrations without disrupting critical operations. A design has to do more than look good on a diagram. Somebody has to patch it, recover it, and expand it, and somebody has to understand it at two in the morning when the person who designed it isn’t available.

In enterprise infrastructure · 2022–present

I work for a global financial-technology company on enterprise infrastructure and automation, and the work has grown well beyond storage. I designed and built an infrastructure operations platform using Jenkins, GitLab, Windows and Linux Docker agents, PowerShell, and Python across multiple data centers. It gives engineers a controlled, repeatable place to run and maintain their automation, with scoped credentials, role-based access, approvals, and an audit trail.

I’ve also replaced repeated manual checks across storage, SAN, VMware, IPAM, and backup with automated collection, validation, reporting, and alerting. Once the data was being collected, I could keep history, compare runs, watch trends, forecast capacity, and put important findings in front of someone who could act on them. More recently I’ve been using AI to turn technical results into plain-language operational reporting. I still work directly with storage and SAN infrastructure, vulnerability remediation, and complex incidents.

I’ve spent years in Civil Air Patrol, the U.S. Air Force auxiliary, where I’ve mentored volunteers and cadets and developed subordinate leaders. For three years I led the Arkansas Wing’s annual leadership encampment, the last as its commander. In 2026 that meant 200 people from 18 states for 12 days: medical care, safety, food, transportation, and training. Nearly all of it was staffed by volunteers I couldn’t pay, and most participants were minors.

I kept seeing information problems I could fix, so I built the software it ran on: three applications used by more than 100 people for registration, rosters, schedules, and mobile access. I also built and led a small unmanned-aircraft training program so other members could eventually operate and teach it.

I was commanding the operation and building the systems that made it work. That combination probably says as much about how I think as anything on my résumé.

It helps me learn unfamiliar tools while I’m working, write code, compare approaches, and test what I’ve built. That doesn’t make me an expert in everything. My experience is what tells me when something doesn’t make sense, when I need to dig deeper, or when I need somebody who knows that area better than I do. The case on checking AI’s work is the honest version of that.

Enterprise infrastructure and automation, a global financial-technology company

2022–Present

Enterprise infrastructure, automation, operational reporting, controlled execution, storage and SAN operations, security controls, and AI-assisted operations.

Southwest Power Pool — Senior Systems Administrator

2017–2022

Enterprise storage and data protection across several data centers supporting thousands of hosts and tens of petabytes of protected data.

NPlus1 Data Solutions — Owner

2011–2016

Managed-services business ownership, technical direction, customers, staff, vendors, delivery, sales, and finances.

Arkansas Surgical Hospital — IT Manager / Director of Information Services

2008–2016 (employee 2008–2013; contractor through NPlus1 2013–2016)

Hospital technology leadership, EHR implementation architecture, responsibility for HIPAA security, business continuity, budgets, vendors, and clinical workflows.

Earlier enterprise and consulting work — Alltel and Edafio

Infrastructure, data protection, networking, migrations, and technical consulting.

U.S. Navy

F-14 maintenance and supervision of sailors.

Civil Air Patrol — Volunteer Command and Program Leadership

2021–Present

Squadron and wing leadership, cadet programs, encampment command, leadership development, UAS training, and systems built to support operations.

Some of the technology I’ve worked with includes Jenkins, GitLab, Docker, PowerShell, Python, Terraform, OpenShift, Kubernetes, Microsoft Fabric, ServiceNow, VMware, Active Directory, AWS, Azure, Rubrik, NetBackup, Commvault, Cisco MDS, Brocade, Pure Storage, HPE, and Dell EMC.

I’m a Christian, Navy veteran, husband, father, and grandfather. Before IT I served in the U.S. Navy working on F-14 aircraft and supervising sailors. I also work with wood, maintain property, and usually have something apart in the shop or something outside that needs fixing. I still like writing code, troubleshooting, and taking a process somebody hates and making it easier. And I like building something and seeing somebody actually use it.