 |
 |
 |
 |
Recent Experience:
Environmental Finance Center - Region IX, www.efc9.org. Director of Technology and Arts. That somewhat says it all, I ensure that our little happening non-profits are better every time I redesign them, and ensure emails run on time as well as answer technical questions and make various activities possible, including but not restricted to, art director, graphic designer, web site designer and coder, and overall ensure the non profit prospers in its efforts to bring about a more environmentally safe and ultimately sustainable world through assisting business to adopt increasingly environmental policies and practices that mitigate the use of harmful chemicals to promoting the greening of the business from the bottom up.
Starting initially as the web and graphic designer, in 1998, increasingly I became responsible for the development and guidance of technology that will be needed for our non-profit mission as well as training staff in the use of new technologies that are needed as well as being the help desk for those whose skills are useful in promoting a green world.
Additionally, over time, I've had the opportunity to work on some side projects including:
wellnetwork.org: where I took a small site and built a color scheme and layout design around the available information with some added images chosen by staff. They plan on taking their web site into some interactive territory and therefore my design may no longer be available.
I designed a small safari web site for a friend trying to provide a favor to her most favorite African experience, in this case using frames, and without CSS. Unfortunately due to electrical issues, amongst others, the design remains available, but unused to date.
GreenStart.org, an umbrella organization for three environmental sites, with the front door consisting of verbiage, I redesigned it so that it had some cool rollovers and went of course to the different sites. I assumed responsibility for updates to the ACET site as well as continued to my work with efc9.org. Have suggested additional site navigation improvements, which may be acted upon in the future. This site unfortunately is no longer a valid url because the only non profit that has succeeded is efc9.org.
Project Manager of BAVC student group organizing and designing a web site for InSpirit Communications, InSpirit Home Page, (no longer an active link) a film, video, graphic design and publications writing company. In addition to Project Management assisted in site design, writing HTML and uploading site. Additionally, the program required an internship of 100 hours which was completed at UC Berkeley's Hass School of Business and PlanetOut.com.
Of course there are my myriad designs that I've create for my site, jimnicholas.net; pixelcolor in a previous life, as well as now and finally my altdivinities.com web site.
All sites can either be viewed as live sites or in the case they are no longer used can be viewed in my portfolio except for previous designs of my own sites.
Pertinent Activist Experience:
As a small town boy who went off to college in the early 1970s, actually even before going, I was reading books that would cause me to dedicate my life to environmental activities, more than any other cause.
Once I landed in Isla Vista and bumped into the first activists while I was espousing, "we need to get rid of automobiles" and it was later in life that I realized that probably was the ticket into the fold, since I believed it then and I believe it now. When I spoke then I knew little about anything, however, one of my first duties was to do a survey regarding bus service which then was used to create a student ballot initiative that we called the "Clean Air Initiative," in which I ran the campaign that eventually succeeded, with over 50% of the student population voting and 80% in favor of the initiative, which assessed ourselves a dollar a quarter in return we used our registration cards as a free pass to use any bus in the region, which went from Carpenteria in the east to Goleta in the west.
At that point I was a community activist and was involved in all the campaigns in trying to secure a right to vote on a City of Isla Vista, as well as fighting all the obstacles thrown at us by the University of Santa Barbara and the conservative elements within the County.
While I worked prior to and after graduation for the Isla Vista Community Council as the Executive Director of all Council activities which included the running of our own elections to being the person who documented all public meetings. I also worked for the only governmental agency Isla Vista was ever able to succeed in achieving which was the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District as the Administrative Assistant to the Director. In this situation the Director was the chief biologist while I ran the Districts public responsibilities in addition to administering at one point over 25 CETA employees. One of the more rewarding experiences during this time was the District's purchasing of land from proceeds of the successful bond measure passed by Isla Vista voters
Finally, I was part of the group who initiated the begriming of the Füd Co-op and was President of the Isla Vista Federal Community Credit Union for two years, while being part of the committee that helped saved the Credit Union at that time. While remaining an unsung hero, the IVFCCU was the first credit union in the Country based on geography, which paved the way for credit unions to be able to increase their ability to attract members, via geography, after being sued by banks who felt threatened, with the suit reaching all the way to the Supreme Court where for once, banks lost.
Previous Experience:
In a previous life I wrote Environmental Impact Statements for the Environmental Science Associates, Inc. My main area of expertise was in land use, public utilities and governmental operations. I worked on Walpert Ridge; the East Bay Bridge Project, which was the land reclaimed from toxic materials left by the 100 years of railroad usage and now includes the Home Depot, Compusa and a large number of new housing units. I was also instrumental in writing the EIR for the proposal by the City of Sacramento to incorporate the whole of the county into one one governmental unit or City and County similar to San Francisco, which was defeated at the ballot.
Prior to that, I worked successfully with the Duboce Triangle Association in the early 1980s, to procure and develop a small postage stamp park at the corner of Beaver and Noe Streets in San Francisco.
Education:
San Francisco State's Multimedia Certificate Program, Internet Design and Technology. The Certificate provides a comprehensive program in digital media leading to a strong foundation in visual and information design and production. Media project: Portfolio Site, www.pixelcolor.net, which of course is now this somewhat expanded but still useful tool pixelcolor.info.
Bay Area Video Coalition's (BAVC) MediaLink Multimedia Program, part of their JobLink services. MediaLink is an intensive and highly selective three-month program with training in several multimedia and digital video applications, HTML and web design.
Certificate in Environmental Planning, Master's Degree Program, Consortium of the California State University, San Francisco.
University of California, Bachelor of Arts, Socialism, (Sociology) Santa Barbara.
