An enthusiastic teacher turned librarian turned support engineer turned strategy & operations person, I have a diverse background and broad interests. While primarily working with web technology, I have interests in general computing and technology, instruction, accessibility, information management, technical services and metadata, and documentation among others.
I am always on the look out to improve existing services and implement new ones. While not a programmer or developer, I like to learn and I am not afraid to work with and dig into code. My methodology is very much user oriented in all my projects and work, and my aim is to improve the user experience and quality of life for others.
Outside of GitLab, I mentor others through various programs, such as the Aspire mentorship program by Support Driven.
Last but not least, I help with organizing conferences and workshops (see the list below).
You can contact and follow me on mastodon or find me elsewhere through my digital bio page.
Most Recent Employment
I’ve linked the reflection posts where available. For details on the roles, please see my LinkedIn.
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- Technical Support Engineer at HiddenLayer (2026 – Present)
- At GitLab (2018 – 2026)
- final 8-years reflection post
- 2025 Jan – 2026 Jun: Staff, Strategy and Operations (Office of the Chief Product (& Marketing) Officer). See second 7th year, and 8th year reflection post.
- 2023 Nov – 2024 Dec: Staff, Strategy and Operations (Office of the CEO, formerly named Chief of Staff to CEO Team). See 6th year, and first 7th year.
- 2022 Feb – 2023 Nov: Staff Support Engineer. See second 4th year, first 5th year, third 5th year, first 6th year.
- 2023 Mar – 2023 Oct: Strategy and Operations Internship (Office of the CEO). First for TeamOps (Workplace), second for OKRs.
- 2022 Nov – 2023 Jan: Acting Chief of Staff to CTO.
- 2022 Jan: CEO Shadow Rotation.
- 2020 May – 2022 Jan: Senior Support Engineer. See 3rd year, first 4th year reflection post.
- 2020 Jan – 2020 Apr: Support Engineer. See 2nd year reflection post.
- 2019 Feb – 2020 Apr: Senior Support Agent. See 1st year, 2nd year reflection post.
- 2018 Jun – 2019 Jan: Support Agent. See 1st year reflection post.
- Manager of Technology and Technical Services at New Westminster Public Library (2016 – 2018)
- Content Creator for National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) at the BC Libraries Cooperative (2014 – 2016)
- Accessibility Librarian for CAPER-BC at Langara College (2013 – 2014)
- Web Services (Innovative Technologies) Librarian at Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries (formerly Ryerson University Library & Archives) (2012 – 2013)
Previous Experience
My previous professional experience includes:
- website redesign/development,
- web accessibility,
- user studies/user experience,
- documentation,
- accessible digital and physical materials,
- supervision,
- library systems administration,
- collaborative software (such as wiki) implementation and administration,
- cataloguing,
- information management,
- project management,
- change management,
- process and workflow improvement,
- reporting,
- research,
- planning,
- collection management,
- reference,
- training, and
- instruction.
For details, please see my LinkedIn profile.
Other previous experience include teaching, research support, tutoring, office/clerical support, and customer service.
Current and Recent Volunteering
- Organizer, Code4LibBC (2013 – 2018, 2024-Present)
- Mentor, Aspire by Support Driven (2019 – Present)
- Post Author/Contributor, Notes Between Us – winner of a 2023 Clawbies award (2023 – 2024)
- Mentor, UBC ACSA (Arts Co-op Students’ Association) (2014 – 2021; program inactive)
- Mentor, UBC Online Career Mentor (via Ten Thousand Coffees) (2018 – 2021; program inactive)
- Past volunteer work involved organizing and volunteering at tech events, peer reviewing, and mentorship.
Most Recent Speaking & Writing
- Code4LibBC 2025 (October 2025): How to stay web accessible: Applying WCAG 2.1 & 2.2
- Code4libBC 2024 (May 2024): Giving back to the community through transparency and a public handbook
- Notes Between Us (December 2023): Getting Better at Resume Writing: Results oriented job descriptions
- Support Driven Leadership Summit (November 2023): When Work Doesn’t Fit the Mold, a Chief of Staff Steps In
- Support Driven Expo (October 2023): A Public Handbook: Building trust with the team, customers, and beyond
Education
I finished my Master’s in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS) in December 2011 and officially graduated in May 2012.
Previously, I completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Psychology, then a Bachelor of Education also at UBC, but began as a student in Software Engineering and Mathematics (at what is now SFU Surrey, but used to be TechBC).
Selection of Work
My previous presentations, articles, and blog posts cover numerous topics. Since continually adding to the list will get too long, a selection of all blog posts and externally published work is below, broken down by topic, in reverse chronological order:
My journey
In addition to my work reflection posts (listed above), here are a few others:
- Being/Becoming a Staff Support Engineer (GitLab, 2022)
- Choosing not to go into management (again) (GitLab, 2021)
- UBC iSchool Career Development Talks series (March 2021): My journey from library technology to tech
- Origin of my nickname: Arty-chan
Career Development
- Getting better at resume writing: Results oriented job descriptions (2023)
- Support Driven Leadership Summit 2023 (November): When Work Doesn’t Fit the Mold, a Chief of Staff Steps In
- Tracking your work (for performance reviews and promotions) (2023)
- University of British Columbia, School of Library, Archives, and Information Studies, ePortfolio (September 2017): Interview on benefits to an online portfolio
Work/Community Culture & Similar
- Code4libBC 2024 (May 2024): Giving back to the community through transparency and a public handbook
- Support Driven Expo (October 2022): Everyone Can Contribute: Making Support Effective Through Contributions
- Implementing Values: What we (libraries & co) can learn from GitLab (2019)
- Code4LibBC 2017 (December 2017): Code4lib(BC): What It’s All About
- Yet Another Tips Post on Job Applications (NWPL, 2016)
- BCLA Perspectives Vol. 7 Issue 1 (November 2015): Code4Lib is for you, for me, for everyone
- The Pastry Box Project October 1, 2015: Better Than Christmas Morning: Finding Your Motivation
- The Pastry Box Project September 21, 2015: A Community Supported on Obsolete Technology
Accessibility
- Code4LibBC 2025 (October 2025): How to stay web accessible: Applying WCAG 2.1 & 2.2
- Education Institute (October 2018): Evaluating Your Website for Accessibility Compliance and WCAG 2.1
- Cowichan WordPress Meetup (August 2018): Making Accessible Content and Websites in WordPress
- Florida Library Webinars (August 2018): Auditing Your Website for Accessibility Compliance and Understanding How ADA Applies
- Weave Journal of Library User Experience, Issue 7 (October 2017): A Practical Guide to Improving Web Accessibility
- Code4Lib Journal, Issue 37 (July 2017): A Practical Starter Guide on Developing Accessible Websites
- Write the Docs (May 2017): Write the Accessible Docs Lightning Talk
- University of Pittsburgh (February 2015) and Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) (March 2016): Making Accessible Content Easy and Part of Your Work
- LIBR 2411: Library Technologies and Information Management at Langara College (October 2015 guest lecture): Accessibility is About Your Users
- Accessible Format Production: Overview, Part 1 & Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 (NNELS, 2015)
- Accessible Formats Overview (NNELS, 2015)
- Persona work for the BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit (February 2015)
- Access 2014 (October 2014): We’re All Disabled! Part 2: Building Accessible (Web) Services with Universal Design
- LibTechConf 2014 (March 2014): We Are All Disabled! Universal Web Design Making Web Services Accessible for Everyone
- ACRL TechConnect (October 2012): Making Your Website Accessible Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (WCAG focused)
Topics without recent additions
Project Management & Workflow
- Prioritizing work in Support (GitLab, 2020)
- Education Institution (September 2017 webinar): Reviewing and Improving Workflow and Productivity
- Implementing a “Nearly Limitless” Circulation Pilot and Adding an “Express TV” Collection (NWPL, 2017)
- Florida Library Webinars (March 2017): Reviewing and Improving Workflow and Productivity: Methods and Tools
- Code4LibBC 2016 (December 2016): Getting Things Done: Discovering Efficiencies in Workflow
- Workflow Review Rationale (NWPL, 2017)
- Issue Tracker (Redmine) Implementation & Uptake (Ryerson, 2013)
- Getting Staff on Board and Moved to WordPress (Ryerson, 2012)
Technical Services, Library Collections, & Metadata
- Horizon ILS Administration: Creating Custom Reports, Circulation Rules, & Learning to be an ILS Administrator (NWPL, 2017)
- Code4LibBC 2015 (November): Semi-Automated Editing Metadata and MARC Records
- Merging Control Numbers into MARC Records (NNELS, 2015)
- Using Regex in MarcEdit to Fix Repeated Subfields (NNELS, 2015)
(Web) Design, Development, User Experience & Usability
- Website Redesign: Making It Responsive & Phased Homepage Redesign (NNELS, 2015-2016)
- Code4Lib BC Spring Workshop (May 2014): Usability On a Budget
- Accessible WordPress TwentyTwelve Child Theme & Update (CAPER-BC, 2014)
- Wiki: Move & Content Reorganization (CAPER-BC, 2013)
- TRY Conference 2013: RULA Bookfinder: Getting People to their Books Fast! – Project 2013 Winner of the CLA/OCLC Award for Innovative Technology
- A Revision & Webpage Redesign: Help Section, Articles Section, Digital Commons Home Page, About Us Section, Services Section, Contact Us Page (Ryerson, 2012-2013)
- Creating a WordPress Theme Options Page (Ryerson, 2012)
- UBC Education Library Redesign (Assignment, 2011)
- Help Portal [Content Analysis Statistics, Draft IA, Card Sort, Launch, Timeline] (UBC, 2010-2011)
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