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About Me

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Education

  1. Bachelor of Science - Business, Marketing, and Computer Education (SIU, 2012)
  2. Master of Science in Education - Higher Education Administration (SIU, 2014)
  3. Master of Science - Data Science (TTU, 2022)
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Work

Ben in high school was mowing a cemetery and flipping burgers at the local Dairy Queen. When I started a SIU, I started working in the residence halls as a Resident Assistant (where I met Lauryn). I also worked for New Student Orientation at SIU and eventually served on a committee to plan Week of Welcome events for incoming students. That work made me bit by student affairs, so I pursued the College Student Personnel program at SIU. During the program, I held graduate assistantships in our housing office working with learning communities and in our student involvement office managing student organizations. I also had a summer internship at a little place called Texas Tech.

On my birthday in 2015, I started working for Texas Tech's housing office doing database reporting. I didn't know a thing about databases, so I did what I can to learn. I eventually was able to expand the scope of what the Housing IT team could support, culminating in moving dozens of systems online after the COVID pandemic hit. COVID also showed me that this may not be the best place for me long term, so I decided to trade a coworker named Kelly for a boss named Kelly (who happened to be married to the first one).

In 2021, I started with the web team at Texas Tech helping support university websites. While I started in a support role, I quickly jumped over to be the team's developer, and eventually the trainer / accessibility "expert". Learning more about web accessibility brought back the ideals of my Higher Ed Admin program. Student Affairs is all about helping students find connections, navigate college, and grow into the people they would become. Advocating for accessibility feels like a return to that ethos. With Texas increasingly becoming hostile to people, and SB17 somewhat shadowing the advocacy I could do, I started to find other options. Thankfully, I already liked Silktide as a product and company, so my current role with them seems like a logical step. What I lose in loan forgiveness, I will more than gain in a better environment and much looser ties to this state.

business-transforming outcomes

Hobbies