Joan Marie Verba
I'm a front end web developer and UI/UX designer, and I believe that the goal of web development and design is to make applications/web pages that present users with the information they want in the style they prefer. I find this both challenging and exciting, and is one of the reasons I find coding and designing so much fun.
I also have extensive experience in writing, editing, and publishing.
Experience
Web Developer and Social Media Manager
Created web pages using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or WordPress. Coordinated Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and/or YouTube pages for maximum effect. Made custom Twitter backgrounds and custom Facebook fan pages.
Publisher
Formatted paperbacks in InDesign (full cover and interior), and formatted ebooks for publication. Titles have been recipients of the Mom's Choice Award, the Scribe Award, the EPIC Award, and the Midwest Book Award.
Application Developent Associate
Application Development Associate at Accenture. In addition, I volunteered to speak about the process of finding a job to students participating in Junior Achievement.
Leader and Receptionist
Leader/lecturer and receptionist - running the meeting, giving the weekly presentation, counseling members, greeting and weighing members, maintaining records, doing bookkeeping for each meeting. Received awards for most at-work meetings as a receptionist, and for the number of meetings where I filled in for other leaders who were ill or on vacation. Guided several members to lifetime status.
Quality Editor
Editing shopper surveys. Including querying shoppers for details, proofreading reports, correcting grammar and spelling.
Company Word Processor
Word processor at Lerner Publications, assisting in various editorial tasks, including photo research, manuscript preparation, company newsletter, problem solving.
Applications Programmer/Technical Writer
eal-time, online applications (flight schedules and other airline applications, plus hotel reservations) in FORTRAN, BAL
(assembler language)
Technical Writer at Century Design.
Education
Coursera
- Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
- Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, Ideate
- Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes
- Conduct UX research and test early concepts
- Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma
- Responsive Web Design in Adobe XD
- Design a user experience for social good
University of Minnesota Coding Boot Camp
Full Stack Web Development: Intensive 24-week course dedicated to designing and building web applications. Skills covered consisted of HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Handlebars, Firebase, Node.js, MySQL, MongoDB, Heroku, Express, ReactJS, REST, MVC Paradigm, and Responsive Design.
The Iron Yard
The Iron Yard offers immersive, 12-week courses that go far beyond tactical skills and teach students to think as a software engineer. The process shows students to learn how to learn so as to keep current on technologies in the long run. The Front End Engineering course focuses on creating experiences in web browsers that users see and interact with. The lessons cover web design principles to complex JavaScript applications (including ReactJS) that manage data, in addition to HTML and CSS.
Indiana University
Associate instructor of astronomy, graduate courses in astronomy
University of Minnesota
Bachelor of Physics degree
Skills
HTML5
CSS: Includes Bootstrap, SASS, Elemental UI, Media Queries
JavaScript libraries: jQuery
JavaScript testing and compatibility: Testing projects work across devices and through updates.
JavaScript foundations: Types, functions, objects, scope, closures, constructors, prototypes and much more. Built applications with JavaScript.
Version control: Git, GitHub
Architectual Styles: REST
Additional Skills
WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign and Photoshop), Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD
Projects
Web Development Projects
UX/UI Design Projects
Interests
I have served on the board of directors of The Minnesota Science Fiction Society and The Mythopoeic Society
Member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers
Publications
(Partial list)
Books:
Secrets of the Sorcerers
Summoned by Dragons
Twelve: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Defying the Ghosts
Wondry Dragon Finds a Home
The Arachne Portal
Sword of Queens
Danger Zone
Extreme Hazard
Situation: Critical
Deadly Danger
Action Alert
Countdown to Action
Boldly Writing
Voyager: Exploring the Outer Planets
Short Stories:
"Revenge, Denied"
"The Wisest Wizard"
“The Sum of the Parts"
Articles:
"Working Together in a Novel Way", The Writing Group Book
"Post-It Software Notes", ComputerUser magazine
"Coda Music Technology", ComputerUser magazine
"Computer Manuscript Formatting" SCBWI Bulletin
"The Three Great Myths of Writing", SCBWI Bulletin
"She Dunit", Mpls./St. Paul Magazine