Hoa Pham: Finessing Web 2.0 technology for educational outreach

Name: Hoa Pham (pronounced Wa Fahm)

Age: 34

Organization: CACI International

Title: Web Developer Lead/Manager

Nominated for: Upgrading the Library of Congress Web infrastructure, improving its performance and security, and adding new interactive capabilities. The addition of Web 2.0 technology has been a boon for the agency’s outreach efforts, particularly in the education community. One Web site helps teachers tap into the library’s vast digital resources, while another is designed specifically for kids.

First IT mentor: Steve MacCarthy, who was my hiring manager right out of college. I thoroughly enjoyed working for Steve. He taught me much about leadership, and not only did he lead by example, he always took the time to listen to his staff and kept their best interests in mind. He demonstrated how to “take care of your team and business results will follow.”

Latest accomplishment on the job: I'm currently working on various projects to improve the Web infrastructure for a federal client site. I am privileged and proud to be part of these efforts because they are important groundwork for providing the client with a more stable and better performing infrastructure platform. I also enjoy it because the federal people I work with are very knowledgeable and great folks.

Career highlight: The highlight thus far is my current role as the Web developer manager. In this role, my activities include providing strategic and tactical Web content management for the Library of Congress, its production systems, environments and resources; supporting day-to-day Web operations for the Web Services Division; planning Web projects and coordinating tasks with federal IT managers, project development teams and other IT departments; and managing a staff of 15 direct reports who include information architects, designers, system engineers, developers and systems administrators. These responsibilities enable me to stay hands-on and continue to grow technically and at the same time coach and mentor a fantastic team and expand professionally.

Favorite job-related bookmark: news.google.com and wordpress.org — one of the Web 2.0 projects I’m working on right now.

Favorite app: My iPhone. It enables me to do proposal work on the treadmill, listen to music during my daily commute and surf the Web while shopping at the mall with my wife.

Dream non-IT-related job: In no particular order: owner of a Dutch deli/sandwich place, international trader analyst or lobster fisherman in Maine.

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