A 1995 ham radio license to 20+ years building, leading, and modernizing carrier-grade networks.

It started in 1995 with an FCC Technician-class amateur radio license — the first hands-on encounter with circuits, signal theory, and the physics of getting information from one point to another. That foundation grew alongside coursework at Ohio State University, Rhodes State College, and Penn State University, then moved into the field: installing high-speed data and VoIP service, then telephone and data infrastructure as a journeyman technician and instructor. Since 2009, that progression has led to a Senior Network Engineer role with Verizon Wireless, leading router and node configuration across a national wireless network — 20 years of experience across the IT and telecommunications sectors, specializing in network setup, maintenance, and advanced troubleshooting within mission-critical, carrier-grade environments. Looking now to lead at the intersection of technology and business — including where AI and automation meet network operations.

The amateur radio side of that story didn't stay static either. In 2013, I upgraded from Technician to General class by passing a second, more advanced federal exam — one covering ionospheric propagation and skywave behavior, electrical principles (reactance, impedance, RMS and PEP power calculations), circuit components and practical circuit design, signal modulation and bandwidth, and antenna and feedline theory: the same physics that governs microwave links, fiber-optic transmission, and RF spectrum today. That upgrade opened HF privileges, and the years since operating station KB8YYE have put the theory to work: confirmed contacts across every inhabited continent, all 50 U.S. states, and 81 European entities, detailed on the Awards page. Two parallel tracks, one continuous thread — proven ability, progressively earned on both sides, not just passed-test knowledge.

That same progression shows up in the day-to-day record: proven results in network performance monitoring, capacity planning, troubleshooting, and outage restoration management, backed by a background in project management, personnel leadership, new hire training, and cross-functional communication. The Rocknet Lab section of this site — a self-built three-node virtualization cluster that also hosts the page you're reading right now — is a working example of that same progression applied end to end, from hardware and network design through to production hosting.

The rest of this site walks through the credentials behind that record — education and certifications, recognition earned along the way, a hands-on lab that proves these skills scale beyond a resume, and a look at what I do outside of work.