Dan Katz

Current

Lead Web Developer at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
President at Electric Sage Designs LLC

Past

Web Developer at Simwell Productions
Trip Leader at Onshore Offshore Expeditions
Trainer & Customer Service Rep at Amazon.com

Teacher of English as a Foriegn Language at Ecuador
Recreation Leader at UC Santa Cruz

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2 more...

Education

Fort Lewis College
STESL
University of California, Santa Cruz

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Recommended

3 people have recommended Dan

Connections

98 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Dan Katz’s Summary

Lead web developer for large federal healthcare contractor delivering creative business solutions via cost-effective, web-based technologies. I know how to dramatically reduce IT overhead and increase employee productivity and happiness.

A true versatilist, I can move between business and technical roles with ease. With expertise in wiki deployment and adoption, I am a big advocate of "Enterprise 2.0".

Dan Katz’s Specialties:

Drupal, Confluence, Jira, standards-based web development, Linux (Redhat,Ubuntu), PHP, MySQL, CSS, XHTML, Javascript/JQuery

Dan Katz’s Experience

Lead Web Developer

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield

(Non-Profit; Insurance industry)

January 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)

Lead web developer at the Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program Operations Center in Washington DC.

I work across IT, executive and management teams to enhance communications and increase operational efficiencies. You might see me wearing hats of project manager, open-source evangelist, developer, wiki champion, trainer, mentor, or analyst.

Currently my projects include enterprise-wide wiki deployment and adoption, business solutions, portals, and Intranet development - primarily with Drupal, Confluence, and Sharepoint.
President

Electric Sage Designs LLC

(Internet industry)

April 2003 — Present (6 years 8 months)

In current incarnation, I moonlight as a trainer, consultant, nerd-herder, developer, open source integrator & chief troublemaker bringing Drupal, Wiki, & Web 2.0 joy to companies & organizations in the Washington DC area and beyond.

Back in Colorado, I grew gross revenues 5x in a period of less than three years. I hired, managed and trained employees and contractors, identified and incorporated newly emerging web technologies, led and managed client projects of varying sizes and scopes.

Installed, configured, customized and supported standards-based websites including Drupal and CiviCRM solutions. Designed and conducted user tests, modeled use cases and software specs for complex web-based applications. Configured and administered LAMP hosting cluster, attended and gave industry training sessions and presentations. Utilized web-based Intranet and Extranet tools such as Basecamp and DokuWiki to collaborate with team and clients.
Web Developer

Simwell Productions

(Internet industry)

April 2000 — March 2003 (3 years )

Designed, coded and maintained static and dynamic websites for web design company. Solicited and won increasingly larger contracts, and assisted in creating internal systems and SOPs. Collaborated with and managed graphic designers, programmers and marketing firms. Assisted in the administration of Windows and LAMP hosting cluster. Ran company for business owner due to an unexpected illness.
Trip Leader

Onshore Offshore Expeditions

(Recreational Facilities and Services industry)

2001 — 2001 (less than a year)

As a trip leader I took groups of teenagers on wilderness, service-learning and cultural exchange expeditions on the Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona and Utah. Worked with economically & racially diverse groups in challenging situations. Worked with teens to develop mutual understanding, work ethic, commitment, responsibility, and fun.
Trainer & Customer Service Rep

Amazon.com

(Public Company; AMZN; Internet industry)

July 1997 — July 1999 (2 years 1 month)

Created web-based training materials for customer service department, assisted in the creation of customer service Intranet, handled "escalation" customer service issues over the phone and via email, diffusing volatile customer service situations and creating "win-win" solutions.
Teacher of English as a Foriegn Language

Ecuador

(Education Management industry)

January 1997 — July 1997 (7 months)

Taught English to foreign nationals and their children. Developed curriculum.
Recreation Leader

UC Santa Cruz

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

1992 — 1995 (3 years )

Led groups of college students on backpacking, hiking, climbing, sea kayaking and ski trips. Participated in and facilitated workshops in leadership, team building, communication, conflict resolution and emergency wilderness medicine.

Dan Katz’s Education

Fort Lewis College

NXLevel Certificate , Leading Edge Enterpreneurship Training , 2005 — 2006
STESL

TOEFL Certificate , Teaching English as a Foriegn Language , 1996 — 1996
University of California, Santa Cruz

BA , Biology & Environmental Studies , 1991 — 1995

Activities and Societies:

Wilderness Orientation, Recreation Department, Outdoor Education, Trip Leader

Additional Information

Dan Katz’s Websites:

Dan Katz’s Interests:

my wife and daughter, good food, telemark skiing, hiking/camping, sea kayaking, movies, music, open source, enterprise 2.0, social networks, linux, drupal, travel and languages