| Blog Entry - Friday, October 10th, 2008 | Add / Read (7) |
Hi, I'm Libby Nicole Ingrassia and I just keep reinventing myself. I am currently working with WorkFlow Studios, an IBM Business Partner and VAR (value-added reseller). Previously, I spent two years as the editor and program director for LotusUserGroup.org, almost six years as the editor of e-Pro's family of publications, and before that wrote multiple certification guides for Notes and Domino for R4.x, R5, and ND6. I've contributed to or provided technical editing for books covering the MCSE and Net+ and IC3, as well as other Domino-related books. After e-Pro closed its doors for good in the spring of 2005, I spent some time taking stock and then...
For two years between LotusUserGroup and WorkFlow Studios, I was a high school English teacher at KIPP Houston High School (KHHS), teaching about 100 freshmen for 9th grade English and another 20 plus students in yearbook. At the same time, I was a grad student at Rice University, working on a Master of Liberal Studies (MLS). After being graduated with my master's degree, I decided it was time to come back to the technology world, and put my research and writing skills back to use in the community I've spent so much of my career involved with.
I live in a townhome in the Montrose area of Houston with my fiance, Philip, three cats (the kitten - Freya, Pandora, and Dawn) and spend as much time doing yoga, running, and reading as I can (although mostly in the reverse order).
I was graduated from the University of Houston's Honors College in 1993, with a BA in English and a minor in History. My first job (not counting the many years spent waiting tables at Bennigan's, teaching swimming lessons, lifeguarding, arranging and giving UH campus tours, various summer internships, being a resident advisor (RA), working as a receptionist for my best friend's parents, and selling flower garlands at the Texas Renaissance Festival) was as a technical writer and editor at a company called Information Development, Inc. In this job, I didn't know any of the technical material -- I was the writer/editor who talked to subject matter experts (SMEs) on various topics, and turned our conversations and their writing into technical manuals. I worked on lots of petroleum-related companies, one of which took me to live in Shekou, China, for six months on a job for Philip's Petroleum. That was in spring/summer of 1994 and is a story in itself. Other projects had me working on telephone company training manuals, early CBTs, software manuals (including my first job working with Notes -- a v3 sales application that I tested and documented), a job for a major television network's news division (how-to for their first laptops for their road warriors), and others.
After a few years, I realized that I was one of the folks in the office who knew the most about the technology -- I kept fixing the printers or telling people how to make DOS (or Win 3.1) do what they wanted it to -- and I liked it. I noticed that there were people out there teaching the technology making a lot more than I was, so I went to a company called BusinessWare Learning Centers and taught software for one of my favorite bosses of all time -- he taught me a lot about how to be a technologist and how to teach, as well as just being an all-around interesting guy. Hi Daniel! I started out teaching applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Windows end user stuff... and worked my way up to teaching Project and technical courses on Lotus Notes (and yes, it was still all Notes back then, not yet Domino), and Windows, and networking. (Ask me the story of how I got my CLI some time -- it's pretty funny).
After a few years of teaching and consulting there, I realized that I could be making quite a bit more money focusing on the consulting. I'm not sure I'd make this move if I had it to do over, but I went to work for Deloitte and Touche's subsidiary DRT Systems as a Groupware Consultant -- jobs installing Notes, doing migrations from Exchange, upgrading to new versions, etc. Some fun work, but very long hours. I started at DRT in fall of 1997 and stayed until 1999.
It was during this time that I got the opportunity to write my books. So, I went to work for a friend at a company called Total Seminars and worked with them on my books and some others. I did some teaching and consulting during this time. I also started to write for the then just starting Web site -- DominoPro. After a while, I went off to be an independent consultant. I wrote some more. I made a ton of training videos (no smart comments from the peanut gallery please) for a company called LearnKey. I taught some classes. I worked on some Domino installations and troubleshooting and help desks. I spoke at some conferences.
During this time, Penton Technology Media bought Group Computing from the original publisher. I went to go run the magazine as the Editor in 2000. When we merged Group Computing with WebSphere Professional to make e-Pro Magazine, I stuck around. When we relaunched, multiple times, I stayed as editor, de facto managing editor, etc.
On the more personal side, I was born in Long Island, New York. I lived in NY until just after my seventh birthday, when we moved to Houston. I lived in Houston until 1999, then moved to Carlsbad, CA. And then, in January 04, I moved back to Houston. I went to high school and college in Houston (Westfield HS class of '89, University of Houston ('93), and Rice University ('08)).
My favorite things include reading (everything from Shakespeare, to science fiction and fantasy, to some philosophy and history, to the occasional fluffy romantic chick novel -- or whatever my book club is reading on a particular month), dancing, rowing, running, playing games in general, and Scrabble in particular, keeping up with my Astros and watching baseball in general, and hanging out with my friends (in Houston, San Diego, and wherever else I happen to be). I spend a lot of time on the computer, working, tinkering, and writing. Now that I'm back in Houston, the rowing and running are a lot more muggy, but still fun. I'm training for another half-marathon (Nike Women's in San Francisco in October and the Houston half in January). I'm also finally dancing again, now that I'm back to my dance studio - SSQQ -- I help teach Western (two-step, polka, waltz), and also love to dance jitterbug (and jitterbug acrobatics), ballroom (tango, waltz), and west coast swing/whip. I spent two years with the San Diego Rowing Club and rowed for a time with the Houston Rowing Club. I like to cook for special occasions (lasagne, turkey and all the trimmings, butternut squash soup, and chili are some of my specialties). I'm making things like turkey/cranberry sausage with spinach or tacos with cilantro or pasta salad for the more every-day kinds of meals. I've started swimming again, trying slowly to get back to the kind of shape I was in when I was a competitive swimmer in high school. I used to play on a co-ed softball team, but I am currently without team. I'm not very good, but I'm very enthusiastic, and our team used to have a lot of fun (of course, that may be more about the beer and pizza afterwards, but....). When I get the chance, I like to travel - so far, I think Ireland is my favorite place, although Scotland (visiting Warren and Kitty) and Nice and its surroundings (from when I've visited my friends Louisa and Philippe) are both high on my list of places I love. Still, there are so many other places to visit that I can only look forward to the next travel adventure.
Author: Libby
Posted at: 03:34:25 PM
