About Me

I am highly focused on providing high-end customer service, which I have been doing for the last 17 years. I have exercised this quality in the areas of technology, security, and ministry. I have great passion for all aspects of Information Technology, especially in network and information security and improving network infrastructure through auditing and testing. My work is recognized by others as high-quality work, in which I like to push the “status que” to always be improving.

I possess the attribute of a “learner” in that I have a “curious mind” finding tremendous satisfaction from learning about new data and technics which in turn can always lead to improving processes and methods. I find great value in helping to constantly improve processes and I like to challenge the mentality of “we have always done it this way”, as I believe everything needs to be properly re-evaluated within reason (especially regarding a security landscape).

I am very detail-oriented, valuing organized and thorough reports which result in accurate and valuable data. I have a strong focus and interest in network security due to the constant changing landscape of new technology and new methods that threat actors use to compromise systems. I am constantly learning new facets and growing my breadth of experience. 

I possess quality soft skills. When I started working in Information Technology, my supervisor quickly pointed out that I have a unique and valuable set of soft skills. Something which he saw to be incredibly valuable working with clients. These soft skills he weighed to be more valuable than technical skills since soft skills are more difficult to find and teach someone than it is teaching someone technical skills. These soft skills were also acknowledged by my second company (ETS) in which they moved more of my tasks to work more directly with clients. 

With my technical skill set along with my soft skills, this has made me an ideal person to audit IT infrastructure and meet with clients advising them for their best security posture and optimum value of their infrastructure. This is my focus and what a greatly enjoy.

My Work Experience

I am in my third year working in Information Technology and have been working for two different Managed Service Providers (MSP) doing many different tasks from network configuration, end user assistance, and auditing of IT infrastructure. In my current company serve as a one stop shop for all IT services as we provide services for the creation and maintaining of datacenters, network equipment, camera systems, phone systems, and access control. The variety of client business that I served include police/sheriff departments, County municipalities, Cities municipalities, refinery (production and commercial areas), law firms, property management, and sports facilities among others.

When auditing our clients, my work includes evaluating their cyber security posture in their infrastructure to include password GPO, user configuration, O365 security configuration, remote management, patching, device’s end of life, anti-virus deployment, and end user training. After obtaining the findings of the audit I’ll meet with clients about their security posture and recommend improvements.

Previously before working in tech, I worked for a high-end executive protection company for 5 years and have received multiple promotions up to Senior Team Leader. In this position I was required to interact with high profile individuals and executives providing the best of services. 

Previously before working in executive protection,  I was involved in ministry for 6 years working with adults, students, and families, highlighting further my experience providing customer service goals to achieve customer satisfaction and tremendously growing soft skills. 

My Education

I completed a course in Governance, Risk, and Compliance with Dr. Gerald Auger (2023) and also studies and passed an IT course titled “Course Careers IT Professional” (2023), taught by Josh Madakor which was a well-balanced course covering foundation topics in IT Help Desk. 

I studied for several months of arduous study passed the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA 200-301). This goal was to help me have a strong grasp of how networks operate and how to configure them. I have also completed the CompTIA Security+ (SYO 601) which was completed in private study as well. I have completed other certifications as well such as, Sophos Firewall Engineer Certificate and Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900). I spend about 12-15 hours a week outside of work studying and labbing for continuous growth and harnessing my skill to greatly accelerate my abilities in Information Technology and applying it to Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC).

Additionally, I have completed a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern College in Religion (2010) and a Master of Divinity from the Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley (2015). 

I have current plans in place to begin taking a bachelor’s degree at Western Governors University “Cybersecurity and Information Assurance”. I have a set list of certifications that I am doing self-study on currently to complete before I start taking classes at WGU. This degree will only aid my knowledge and skill set within the cyber field. 

My Skills

Softskills working with executives, Cyber Security Auditing, Cloud Computing working with Microsoft Azure, Network Communications (ARP, DHCP, VLAN, Layer2/3, Routing, UDP/TCP, SSH, wireless), Firewalls, Active Directory, Virtual Machines, DNS Server, Virtual Networks, CCTV, Microsoft Office Suite, Linux, and VMware.

My Hobbies

I enjoy spending time with my family. I frequently visit the gym, and I am well involved in my church. Also, I am a big NFL Football fan!

I enjoy doing home labs and I am currently building out a full-fledged network in my house. This gives me the opportunity to continue my learning on my own and testing and experimenting with things that I would not otherwise test in a client environment. 

Additionally, I like to do DIY projects at my house and especially building projects with wood. This last year we renovated our house which was a great learning experience, I certainly valued the process (I also installed a whole new floor). I like to also build things at request of my wife.