Higher Education: Two Decades, Six Institutions, Both Sides of the Org Chart

Most web professionals working with colleges and universities know one institution well, or one type of institution, or one side of the org chart. Higher ed is harder than that. The institutions span community colleges to research universities, the work spans CMS migrations to brand redesigns to faculty teaching, and the people you work with span students, staff, faculty, deans, and provosts. Doing the work well requires depth across all of it.

I built a higher-ed practice intentionally across faculty, staff, contractor, and consultant roles, and across community college, small private, regional liberal arts, and R1 institutions. The breadth is the point. Colleges hire me not because I have done their exact site before, but because I have done enough adjacent work to know what to ask, what the constraints will be, and where the political and budgetary edges live.

Fifteen years teaching web design, web development, and graphic design at the college level at Virginia Western Community College, alongside fifteen years of practitioner work at the same institution. Two years as staff Webmaster at Sweet Briar College after a redesign engagement that started as contract work. Webmaster at Reynolds Community College, leading a full website redesign and the institutional CMS migration from Modern Campus to Hannon Hill Cascade. Senior backend developer on the WordPress multisite at Wake Forest University. Ongoing consulting and contractor work for Randolph College. Strategic consulting for Ferrum College through a provider transition and a contentious launch. A complete brand-aligned redesign for the Blue Ridge Institute and Museums (a Ferrum College affiliate). The specific deliverables vary because higher ed varies, but the through-line is the same: shipping web work that is durable, accessible, and aligned with how the institution actually operates.

A higher-ed practice with credibility on both sides of the org chart. Budget cycles, accreditation, governance, enrollment funnels, faculty politics, IT realities, accessibility compliance, FERPA-adjacent content, communications turf, the pace of academic time. I understand all of it not because I read about it, but because I have lived it at six institutions over twenty years. When a college hires me, they do not have to translate higher education for me. That is the work this practice is built to do.