Derry Lyons

Systems/Data Architect

Duties and Projects

In my current role as Systems/Data Architect, I am responsible for the planning, documentation and integrity of the Kent School District's central data servers. Predominantly, UNIX systems with Oracle databases, they are the powerful workhorses behind out Information Technology Department.

For the past five years, I have been responsible for coordinating development on the Kent School District World Wide Web server. Some of the major projects I have designed/developed are:

Teacher's Toolbox: Most other professionals have tools, so why not our teachers? We needed a metaphor to organize the tools on our intranet, as well as links to external resources helpful to educators
Staff Development Registration: Being an Oracle shop, it seemed natural to build a staff development system in Oracle and use the web to register and cancel from classes, and provide staff with transcripts of classes taken.
InformAGENT: Long before URLminder, we needed a way to draw people back to our web site when new and exciting changes were made. InformAGENT was designed to notify people by e-mail of new web changes, cancelled sporting events, and weekly lunch menus.
Calendar of Events: Schools have calendars for everything - meetings, sports, club activities, vacations, staff training classes. This program was customized to meet specific district needs, and tie with InformAGENT.
Print Shop Tracking: Improving the tracking of print shop jobs, providing immediate status of jobs via the web, and improving internal billing processes are just a few of the benefits of the Oracle-based KSD tracking system.
Mileage Manager: A great little tool to keep track of mileage for your travel reimbursement!

Experience and Skills

Various flavors of UNIX (SunOS, DEC UNIX, AIX)
Relational Databases (Oracle, Access, 4th Dimension)
Programming Languages (Perl, Pascal, Shell)

Supervision of computer interns
Coordination of 40+ web developers
Staff Training (Internet, E-Mail, Graphics, Relational Databases, CGI)

Employment History

2000 - present, Systems/Data Architect - Kent School District, Kent WA
1995 - 2000, Internet Project Lead - Kent School District, Kent WA
1994 - 1995, Data Coordination Specialist - Kent School District, Kent WA
1991 - 1994, Computer Intern - National Marine Fisheries Service/NOAA, Seattle WA (Sand Point)
1987 - 1991, Owner - Panorama Technical Services, Kent WA (specializing in educational technology consulting)
1987 - 1991, Computer Intern - Kent School District, Kent WA

Education

Bachelor of Science - University of Washington, Technical Communications (1994)
Associate of Arts - Green River Community College (1991)
Graduate of Kentridge High School (1989)

Staff Training

Intro to CGI Scripting
Intro to the Internet
Scanning Graphics
Relational Database Design

Presentations

March, 2000 - American Association of School Administrators - Promising Technology Model of KSD IntraWeb
April, 1999 - Association for Computer Professionals in Education - Intro to CGI Scripting
March, 1999 - Northwest Council for Computer Education - Classroom Tools
May, 1998 - Washington Association of School Business Officials - Business Tools for Schools
May, 1998 - Association for Computer Professionals in Education - New Tools for Schools
April, 1998 - Global Information Infrastructure award ceremony for Kent School District web site
October, 1997 - Washington Association of School Adminstrators Project Leadership - Intranets and Transactional Systems
July, 1997 - National Education Computing Conference, Seattle, WA - Cool Tools for Intranet (co-presenter with Bill Bowman, Apple Computer)
April, 1997 - StepStar Satellite Broadcast, ImagineII Series - Networking Beyond The Classroom Walls
April, 1997 - Washington Association of School Adminstrators Project Leadership - Intranets and Transactional Systems
March, 1997 - Northwest Council for Computer Education, Portland, OR - Intranets for Education

Personal Awards

1998 - Kent School District Information Technology Department - Employee of the Year
1993 - U.S. Dept of Commerce Performance Award
1990 - Washington Association of School Administrators - Community Leadership Award
Several KSD Web Awards

Corporate Awards

2000 - American Association of School Administrators - Promising Technology Model

Other Places in Webspace

Oh you MUST check out my humor page!

To see how technology can be leveraged via the web, look at Washington State Dept. of Transportation -- truly an example of how data can be unlocked and shared.