What He Does: Responsible for making the code, equipment, and people behind our technology run smoothly.
Background: After graduating with distinction with a BS in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Joe worked as the Web programmer and systems analyst for projo.com where he re-architected the entire site and developed several award-winning interactive features. Another native Rhode Islander, Joe joined the RI.gov team in the beginning of 2004 and has developed the software for many of our award winning Web services.
Outside of Work: Avid musician who has been playing piano since age 2 and guitar since age 10
Little Known Fact: In the fourth grade, Joe participated in the fifth and sixth grade spelling bee and won third place. The word 'receipt' still perturbs him.
Background: She holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Punjab, Pakistan, where she was in top five position holders. Sidra is a Brown Graduate with MS in Computer Science with 3.88 GPA.
Outside of Work: Loves to fly at Horizon Aviation, interested in politics and likes to watch cricket.
Little Known Fact: Wants perfection in whatever she does.
Background: Matt holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He was a Summer 2013 graduate of Launch Academy, a 10-week immersive bootcamp to learn web development.
Outside of Work: Matt spends his time snowboarding, bowling, and playing tennis.
Little Known Fact: He has been to Africa twice, but has never been to Canada.
Background: Matt holds a AAS in Fine Art from CCRI. He has spent over a decade designing and developing for the web. Prior to joining RI.gov Matt worked at Mediacom Communications corporate headquarters in NY as their lead web developer.
Outside of Work: Matt enjoys playing the drums, photography, and painting.
Little Known Fact: Growing up Matt attended the Bristol Fourth of July Parade 13 years in a row.
What She Does: Makes sure our users are happy and our business is running smoothly
Background: Priscilla is the person you will most likely communicate with if you need assistance with our many online services. She has a bookkeeping certification from Rhode Island College. She worked as a teaching assistant for the Providence School District in the bilingual department. She is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Outside of Work: Enjoys spending time with her family and loves to watch 80's and black and white movies.
Little Known Fact: She describes herself as a closet shoe fashionista.
What She Does: Ensures that things get done on schedule and that people know what we did.
Background: Nicole graduated from Rhode Island College with a BA in Public and Professional Communications. As a student she interned for GTECH Corporation in the public affairs division. After graduation, Nicole eventually worked for GTECH’s National Response Center in training and operations. She left in 2007 to work in client services for a Web site based out of Boston, MA that helps high school students with the college application process. She joined the portal team in December of 2009.
Outside of Work: Foodie and a Yogi and makes the best brownies!
Little Known Fact: Nicole is a 200 hour registered Yoga instructor.
Background: Before switching careers to the Internet, Tom worked for 12 years in local television as both a producer and production manager. In 1998 he left TV to join the original launch team of Ocean State Online, an early Web portal dedicated to his native Rhode Island. He first became involved with RI.gov in 2003 as a freelance consultant. He thought he would stay less than six months, but he quickly became enamored with their mission and took over as general manager late in 2004.
Outside of Work: Loves to write and tries to paint
Little Known Fact: During his TV years, he directed over 100 episodes of the Bozo the Clown show.
What He Does: Gets posed in a variety of interesting places and moves mysteriously from one office to the next.
Background: Wikipedia defines a ‘Web (or code) Monkey’ as a person only capable of grinding out code, but unable to perform the more intellectually complex tasks of software architecture, analysis, and design. The Web Monkey is also the subject of Tom’s seldom-updated in-house comic The Adventures of Monkey Von Webstien.
Little Known Fact: The employee name “Monkey, Web” was once inadvertently left in a budget as a holding place for a new hire that was submitted to corporate accounting.
NIC Corporate
Role: Our parent company
What they do: Support our local operation - and operations in 20 other states - from corporate headquarters in Olathe, Kansas.
Background: The Portal Operations Division of NIC employs over 100 professionals in accounting, technology, human resources and legal. They are dedicated to making sure that our small Providence-based team can focus on our core mission of developing online services and working with the state of Rhode Island.
Little Known Fact: NIC used to stand for the National Information Consortium but now it just stands for NIC.
