My Bio -
I didn’t set out to be a marketer or to become involved with information technology and the Internet. Some may say that I came upon it accidentally, but I say God's providence guided every step and all I did was follow where He led.
Before the Internet was public, I got my first taste of Marketing and Public Relations (PR) as a student at Toccoa Falls College. I had the privilege to travel with a college sponsored signing groups. While part of "Exaltation", the group traveled the United States, Canada, and Indonesia for 16-months ministering and promoting the college.
After finishing the tour and having graduated from Toccoa Falls College with a major in Broadcasting, I joined the college staff as a PR Assistant and later as the PR Director. I was involved with many traditional marketing, public relations, and fund raising activities.
Many new opportunities in marketing and public relations became available in 1994 when the Internet was introduced to the college campus. I endeavored to take advantage of the new technology, by actively participating with the IT (Information Technology) Department in the design and coding the college's website.
It was during this time that began to use some of the techniques now known as "The New Rules of Marketing & PR". A simple example would be posting News Releases on the college website for our constituents and to attract new visitors. Of course, at this time search engines like Google didn't exist yet, all we had were web directories like Yahoo!
Just prior to Y2K I began a new phase of my life. I left the comfort of Toccoa Falls College and joined an IT consulting firm, the IT Institute, as a project analyst. I coordinated IT projects, tracked multi-million dollar project budgets, managed business-to-business IT procurement, installed networking equipment, servers and workstations, and designed and implemented corporate website. While working with the IT Institute I had to joy to working on the construction of Jazzland Theme Park, which later become Six Flags New Orleans. (Unfortunately the park as decimated by Hurricane Katrina and is currently not opperating.)
After working on Jazzland, I joined the staff of the company that build the park, Alfa SmartParks, as an IT project analyst and applications specialist. The change meant that I did most of what I was doing before, but with the added responsibility of administrating and supporting enterprise applications.
While with Alfa SmartParks, I began my MBA with Jones International University the first regionally accredited university to exist only online. My MBA specialization was Information Technology Management.
Upon finishing my MBA I joined the staff of Adventures In Missions as the marketing coordinator. During my three years we rebranded the organization and tremendously expanded the nonprofit organization's web presence of the Christian short term missions organization.
Our marketing was web-centric and included traditional marketing with search engine marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine advertizing, and more. The organization was using a non-RSS blogging system for mission trip reports before blogs become popular. Participation levels increased 6.3% after my first year and 29.3% after my second year.
The founder, Seth Barnes, is always listening for where God will lead the organization next. In fact, his first book is call The Art of Listening Prayer. While I was with Adventures In Missions we expanded the First Year Missionary Program and developed several new projects (product lines to a certain extent). We partnered with Bruce Wilkinson to start Dream for Africa in Swaziland, which was an abstinence based AIDS prevention program, and Never Ending Gardens, which which as a program to send people to Africa to plant small garden plots for families to feed themselves. Then Adventures In Mission began The World Race, an 11-month missions trip around the world. Teams of adults race from mission site to mission site with a month of ministry at each site. The experiences the teams have are outrages. You will have to read the blog posting from the team members and watch their video blogs for yourself to believe the stories. And finally, Adventures In Missions was part of the immediate and long-term relief and assistance in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region following Hurricane Katrina. For more on the mission's immediate response to the crises I recommend your read Katrina Soul Search. (I'm briefly mentioned in the book.)
While with Adventures In Missions I did consulting, web development, and graphics work for Praxis Press, a book publisher, and MissionsResources.com, a nice online book for missions resources.
Now, I'm in my dream job! I'm instructing at Toccoa Falls College as assistant professor in the School of Business. My course include all of our Marketing courses, Business for Nonprofit Organizations, Business Finance, and Information Systems. In my spare time I'm taking course work toward my Ph.D. online with NorthCentral University in Business Administration with a Specialization in Marketing.
