Avocation: A calling or occupation; a hobby or past time.
Vocation: Work, job or profession – especially a type of work demanding special commitment; Urge to follow a specific career: a strong feeling of being destined/called to undertake a specific type of work, especially a sense of being chosen for religious work or life.
Originally from the Northwest (born in Seattle) I returned to Portland, Ore in 1991 and have lived in the SW Arnold Creek neighborhood ever since. I’ve been active in my local community and have served on the Southwest Neighborhood’s (SWNI) Public Safety Committee, Land Use Committee and the Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) managed by POEM.
I currently sit on two non-profit sustainability organization boards, Solar Oregon and EarthShare of Oregon, and was involved in drafting the Portland’s Climate Action Plan.
For much of the past twenty years I worked in Silicon Valley/Silicon Forest mostly as a professional technology manager or as a senior project manager. My main focus was on implementing large software business systems and web services for global high-tech companies. Most recently, I worked for the area’s largest health insurance company on several member-facing “key initiatives” such as Personal Health Records, Pharmacy Systems, and Integrated Member Experience. Acting as Sr. PM and/or Sr. IT Staff Consultant, I reported to executive sponsors and the KI steering committees as I drove the program portfolio objectives to successful completion.
I received a B.A. in Political Science from University of California-Santa Barbara and obtained professional development credentials from University of Oregon (Sustainability Leadership Program), Portland State University (Advanced Project Mgmt), and UCSB (Management).
I am a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), American Solar Energy Society (ASES), Solar Oregon, NorCal Solar, Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association (OSEIA), and recently applied for the International Project Management Professional designate (PMP).
At this stage of my life my goal is to combine my vocation with my avocation
To this end, I’m transitioning my skill-set to renewable energy and sustainability solutions with an objective to provide leadership and consulting services for project development and project management. I wanna be in the clean energy game! It’s this personal and professional transformation that sparked the idea for my blog. I’m now on the path to a more sustainable life and I’d like to bring others along with me. Care to join?
I’m still in the learning curve to be sure, but I’ve recently completed Photovoltaic (PV 200) training at the Solar Living Institute http://www.solarliving.org/, The Natural Step http://www.thenaturalstep.org/usa , and University of Oregon’s Sustainability Leadership Program http://sustain.uoregon.edu/index.php, which helped me prepare me for the path I am about to take.
Next step is putting knowledge into action. This I intend to do and I will blog about it here.
Please follow or join me if you will, it won’t be boring I assure you.