Austin Smith and Matt Johnson began Alley in 2010 to provide consulting and web development expertise for media and non-profit clients. Since then, Alley has built a number of prominent digital media properties and become a leader in developing open source content management and publishing software.

As Managing Partner of Alley, Austin focuses on the design, creation and maintenance of high scalability sites. He defined the architecture and direction of client sites like the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the New York Post. During his work with clients, he has built custom solutions to solve specific editorial needs, like an Affordable Care Act (ACA) Subsidy Calculator for KFF which accurately predicted subsidies before the launch of the federal health insurance law. (Outlets including NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post all credited this tool in their reporting.) In addition, he was the initial author of Fieldmanager, Alley’s signature WordPress plugin.

Prior to Alley, Austin was director of technology, emerging markets for About.com, a division of The New York Times Company, and was the lead developer for The Economist’s website.

Austin has presented his work at industry conferences including WordCamp San Francisco, WordCamp London, DrupalCon Paris, WordCamp Nashville, DrupalCamp Philadelphia and numerous WordPress VIP events.

Austin is based New York City.

Matt co-founded Alley in 2010 to provide consulting and web development expertise for media and non-profit clients. Since then, Alley has built a number of prominent digital media properties and become a leader in developing open source content management and publishing software.

As Alley’s Managing Partner, Matt shares the responsibility of culture evangelism and advocacy with Austin, and is particularly passionate about Alley's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. He also works on key client delivery process improvements.

Before Alley, Matt was the principal software engineer for Slate Magazine and, while there, built economic spin-off site TheBigMoney.com. He also served as the Software Development Manager for the New York Observer, and lead developer for People For the American Way Foundation's youth leadership training programs.

Matt has spoken or presented at several conferences and industry events, including WordCamp Europe, WordCamp New York, SRCCON, and ONA.

Matt received a B.A. in physics and astronomy from Wesleyan University and an M.S. in astrophysics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is based in New York City.

As an Alley partner and Chief Technology Officer, Matt Boynes develops digital solutions for our clients and publishers. Matt oversees the company's overall development efforts, its relationships with the broader technology communities, and the team of developers. Matt is responsible for the hiring and performance of all those at Alley whose primary role involves software development or technology delivery.

Matt is a WordPress core contributor and an active speaker at meetups and conferences. He has given numerous talks to developers, sharing his ideas and insights on a variety of topics from performance to chat robots.

Matt is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has a B.S. in Neuroscience. He is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

As Chief Operating Officer, Bridget oversees all internal operations strategy for Alley including hiring and onboarding, Alley’s agile practice and coaching program, and all other internal processes and policies which impact our team members. Prior to becoming COO, Bridget managed complex development projects at Alley for top publishers, such as the New York Post, The New Republic and Kaiser Family Foundation.

A leader in agile development process improvement, client relations and developer management, Bridget has worked in product and project management for over a decade. She first came to Alley from Ology Media, a venture-backed social discovery and networking content site, where she managed Ology.com, the company’s flagship product, through incremental releases and launches, including a complete rewrite of the site in less than eight weeks.

Prior to Ology.com, Bridget ran product management at Thomson Reuters, where she oversaw development of the division’s leading tax provision software products. Prior to Thomson Reuters, she was a product manager at TaxStream and spearheaded product development and QA of web software products through the company’s acquisition by Thomson Reuters in 2008.

Bridget holds a bachelors in Business and Technology and a masters in Management with emphasis in technology commercialization from Stevens Institute of Technology. Bridget is Pragmatic Marketing Certified and is also a Certified Scrum Master, a Certified Product Owner, and a Certified Scrum@Scale practitioner.

As partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Alley, Jeff helps foundations, think tanks, universities, and government agencies strengthen their digital publishing by leveraging Alley's vast experience and proven expertise in the journalism and media industries.

Jeff brings over two decades of digital project and strategic communications experience in the government, advocacy, and research nonprofit fields to Alley and its clients. Prior to Alley, Jeff was the founding director at the Center for Digital Information and president of CDI Lab. While at CDI, he created large-scale digital information projects for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the C.S. Mott Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, among others.

Before CDI, Jeff founded NetCampaign, an award-winning digital production and consulting firm recognized for pioneering the use of the internet in politics and public policy. At NetCampaign, Jeff directed major digital initiatives for the Pew Research Center, Pew Charitable Trusts, Ford Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as well as high-profile university research institutes and political campaigns. Jeff also served as Washington Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, where he directed and conducted research on political advertising, children's television and other media issues.

Jeff holds a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication and a bachelor's degree from UCLA. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Susan joined Alley in 2014 to build a fully integrated user experience (UX) and design practice. Her team provides clients with a full suite of services spanning identity and user experience design, formative research, information architecture, content planning and writing, and user testing.

In her role, Susan has reduced the time it takes to create new designs through a discovery workshop process that rapidly identifies digital priorities and yields design artifacts which are iterated upon and user tested. She facilitated the team’s transition to an Agile approach emphasizing cross-discipline collaboration and a dynamic design process that prioritizes prototypes over static comps.

Susan has significant experience in revamping information architecture for large scale, multi-faceted organizations such as The Brookings Institution and The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Susan is based in Silver Spring, MD and holds a Masters in Communications from The John Hopkins University.

As Alley’s Director of Team Learning and People Development, Sarah Rose specializes in building the professional capacities of our community members—specifically by overseeing the Alley Coaching Program and implementation of the Developer Education Program. In addition, she is focused on cultivating facilitative leaders, building team psychological safety as a foundation for peak performance, and research-based practices that promote individual and team learning and growth. Outside of work, Sarah Rose loves camping in national parks, running, and piping hot coffee. Sarah Rose graduated from Bank Street School of Education with a Master's degree in Leadership for Educational Change, and is based in Brooklyn.

Ben Bolton is the Director of Development Operations at Alley. Before joining Alley, Ben was the Technology Operations Team Lead at Church Community Builder where he managed internal tools, internal and external infrastructure, development operations, and internal development services for the company. Ben was directly responsible for the infrastructure of the SaaS product's security, web, development, mail, and database services. Earlier in his career, he worked as a System Administrator in Windows, Mac, and Linux environments. Ben comes to Alley Interactive with experience in the financial services and nonprofit industries. He is based in Colorado.

James Burke is the Director of Strategic Technology at Alley. As a certified Product Owner, he specializes in acting as a bridge between product and development teams. His extensive background in technology and software development enables him to act as a strategic asset on complex projects.

His specialty is in headless architecture, overseeing Alley's practice and the development of our React framework, Irving. He works closely with teams across Alley to deliver headless projects for clients such as Fortune Magazine, Roll Call, Thrive Global, and Colorado Public Radio.

He attended his first WordCamp in 2011, and has been involved in the community ever since. Based in Brooklyn, James is just as frequently found traveling and working remotely from abroad.

Christa is the Creative Director at Alley, specializing in brand development and user-centered design methodologies. She brings a deep understanding of design systems and has crafted design solutions for a variety of organizations. Christa has brought immense value to our work with the Brookings Institution, American Alliance of Museums, and The Dallas Morning News. She is based in New York.

Kevin Fodness is the Director of Software Development at Alley. Kevin leads Alley's JavaScript practice, developing everything from front-end data visualizations to full-stack JavaScript applications written in React and Node. He has delivered JavaScript customizations to the front-end and editorial experience for the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Brookings Institution, as well as a full-stack data visualization tool for the National Science Foundation. He earned his PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2016, with a focus on web accessibility. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and spending time with his wife and four children. He is based in the Lake George area of upstate New York.

Daniel Gale-Rosen is the Director of Marketing at Alley, where he focuses on bringing Alley's expertise and knowledge to the wider world. Prior to Alley, Daniel worked at marketing agencies and as a freelancer, where he, notably, created He-Man's Facebook page and, less notably, tried to sell strange products to senior citizens. He tries to merge the creative and the analytical in his marketing efforts, using the data that comes out of an initiative to improve and create more value. Outside of work, you can generally find Daniel eating, designing escape rooms, and trying to learn the dobro. Daniel graduated from Harvard College and is currently based in Los Angeles.

Joe McGill is the Director of WordPress Software Development at Alley who leads our WordPress engineering practice in order to deliver world-class publishing and content management solutions at scale. He is a WordPress Core Developer, focusing primarily on image and multi-media handling in WordPress.

Prior to Alley, Joe worked as an Engineering Manager at Human Made where he provided technical leadership on projects for enterprise clients, and at Washington University in St. Louis as Director of Engineering for Public Affairs.

He is based in St. Louis, MO.

John Ragozzine is the Director of Agile at Alley, focused on enabling clients and teammates to maximize value while acting as a guiding advocate for agile practice. John has worked (and continues to work at Alley) along side large-scale online publishers, small businesses, nonprofits, foundations, and multinational corporations. A natural collaborator, John takes on client needs as if they were his own, balancing feature delivery with efficiency.

A former front-end developer, John knows the craft necessary to produce great websites. Transitioning to project management in 2013, John has earned his PMP and CSM certifications.  With an academic background in writing, philosophy, and education—along with an inherent artistic streak—John can readily spot when a project is out of balance (or when a little asymmetry can help things along).

He is based in Raleigh, NC.

Margaret Schneider, Alley’s Director of Editorial Projects, is a Certified ScrumMaster who leads the company’s editorial strategy practice, working with companies to understand their workflow needs, guide them through the redesign and redevelopment process, and ensure teams are confident users of their new CMS. She has worked on some of the most complex WordPress publishing projects on the web, for clients such as the New York Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Neiman Health Policy Institute, Digital First Media, The New Republic, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Prior to Alley, Margaret accrued more than 10 years’ experience managing online publishing projects. As managing editor of St. Louis Magazine, she handled an award-winning slate of print, book, and web projects and helped lead the staff through three digital redesigns and three print redesigns. She also played key roles in launching print and online publications such as AVID Magazine and MeFiMag, while writing and editing for outlets including Quartz, the Riverfront Times, Minneapolis City Pages, WetFeet, Jungle Media, the Columbia Missourian, and UB Today.

Margaret is an accomplished speaker and co-organizer of Online News Association St. Louis, where she’s planned and moderated sessions for digital journalists including The Art of Push Notifications and Newsletters, Diversity and Inclusion in the Media, Instagram Strategy and Storytelling, and Digital Tools Show-and-Tell. Schneider has been a two-time journalism panelist at Washington University’s Junior Jumpstart, as well as a guest on KMOX’s Mark Reardon Show, a speaker with Gwen Ifill at PBS’s America After Ferguson town hall, an invited writer at St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Bloggers’ Night 2, and a judge for MothUp St. Louis. At Alley, she has also led Alley Learn Stuff workshops and panel discussions including Roundtable on Remote Work Best Practices, Accessibility Roundtable, Mindfulness in Client Situations, Intro to Mindfulness, and The Narrative Arc of Projects: The Art of Storytelling and Project Management.

A lifelong St. Louis resident, Schneider is a graduate of Washington University, where she received a B.A. in psychology, with minors in writing and religious studies. She is a past board member of Washington University Student Media Inc.

Jaime Allpress is an Agile Process Leader at Alley. Prior to Alley, Jaime worked at Farmers Mutual Hail where she was a Product Owner. Outside of work, Jaime enjoys reading, making candles, going on adventures with my dog Elvis, and occasionally bringing home stray pets. Jaime is based in Altoona, IA.

Renato Alves is a Senior Software Developer at Alley who specializes in back end development. Prior to Alley, Renato worked at XWP, where he worked on the relaunch of RollingStone.com, and other projects. In addition, he specializes in WP CLI, WP GraphQL, WP REST API, BuddyPress, bbPress and WooCommerce. Outside of work, Renato loves eading, biking, eating out, karting, and helping Brazilians to learn English. Renato graduated from Uninassau with a degree in Marketing, and is based in Fortaleza/Ceará, Brazil.

Nicole is a Senior Software Developer at Alley, who specializes in back end development. She is also a frequent speaker at WordCamps. Outside of work, Nicole enjoys knitting and crochet and is a long time Lego enthusiast. She can be found riding her motorcycle in Michigan, where she resides with her husband and three children.

Kyle Benk is a Principal Software Developer focusing on backend development. Prior to Alley, Kyle was a Software Developer at 99 Robots and did freelance work developing WordPress plugins. Outside of work, Kyle enjoys golfing, snowboarding, walking his dog, backpacking and camping.

Kyle is a graduate of Washington College with a B.A in Computer Science. He also is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University with a M.S. in Computer Science. He is based out of Santa Fe, NM.

Kaitlin Bolling is a Principal User Experience Developer at Alley who specializes in front end development. Prior to Alley, Kaitlin worked at Haley Marketing Group where she was the Director of Interactive Design. Outside of work, Kaitlin likes to travel and watch live music. She graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Visual Communications, and is based in Buffalo, NY.

Julio Braña is a Software Developer at Alley who specializes in WordPress development. Prior to Alley, Julio worked at Hachette UK, Financial Times, and Sony Mobile where he also focused in WordPress. Outside of work, Julio loves travel, climbing, being outdoors, hiking, cycling, and basketball. Julio graduated from the Universidade de Vigo and is based in A Coruña, Galicia.

Tia Buto is an Agile Process Leader at Alley. Prior to Alley, Tia worked at Talkwalker Social Content Ratings where she was a Product Manager. Outside of work, Tia enjoys a good puzzle, eating at vegan restaurants, obsessively watching the Great British Baking Show, drinking a bit too much coffee, and some easy yoga. Tia graduated from University of Central Florida with a BA in Anthropology and is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Jonathan Byerley is the Operations Manager at Alley, specializing in DevOps, marketing, operations, and technical support. Prior to Alley, Jonathan worked on a team developing open-source collections software for the capture and preservation of museum, archival, and research data. Jonathan holds a Master of Information and Library Science and is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Jason Cameron is a Software Developer at Alley who specializes in frontend development. Prior to Alley, Jason worked as a freelance/contract developer where he developed small to medium size web sites/applications for individuals & small businesses. Outside of work, Jason likes to read books, and dabbles in IoT. Jason is based in Ontario, Canada in the city of York.

Paige Campbell is a Hiring Coordinator at Alley. She comes from a Mental Health background, but has enjoyed the transition to technology where she focuses on effective communication and continuous improvement. She is based in South Carolina.

Brittany Choplin is a Senior User Experience Developer at Alley who specializes in front end development. Prior to Alley, Brittany worked at a digital agency in the music industry where she built websites for artists. In addition, she prides herself on making puns. Outside of work, Brittany loves yoga, running, cooking, petting dogs, and exploring Philly. Brittany graduated from the University of Delaware with a BA in English, and is based in Philadelphia.

Christina Deemer is a User Experience Developer at Alley who specializes in front end development. Prior to Alley, Christina worked at Interactive Mechanics where she built WordPress sites and digital in-gallery experiences for arts and culture organizations. Outside of work, Christina loves reading, cooking, and watching classic films.

Ryan Domingue is a Senior User Experience Developer at Alley specializing in front-end development, with a keen interest in accessibility. He is based in Seattle and is obsessed with Sounders FC.

Amy is a Principal Software Developer at Alley, specializing in WordPress development. She is a graduate of Boston University with a BA/MA in Economics. Amy is based in Houston, Texas.

Lauren Fernandez is a Software Developer at Alley who specializes in React. Prior to Alley, Lauren worked at The Care Group, where she mantained a customer relationship management software. Outside of work, Lauren loves eating all the things! Lauren graduated from UCLA with a degree in Communications and is based in Los Angeles.

Eddy Ficklin is a Senior Software Developer who specializes in back end development. Prior to Alley, he worked as a web developer for New Music USA, a non-profit service organization dedicated to supporting the creators of music who fall outside the commercial mainstream. Outside of work, he loves to write and draw comics, dabble in watercolor, and practice yoga. He graduated from the University of Denver and currently resides in New York City.

Brandon Fields is a Operations Coordinator at Alley who works on the operations team, helping out in any way he can. Prior to Alley, Brandon worked at the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners where he worked with an elected County Commissioner for DeKalb County, GA, helping with his day-to-day, social media, websites, and constituent's concerns. In addition, he enjoys Problem Solving. Outside of work, Brandon loves reading the paper, listening to new music, going for runs, trying new recipes to cook, and being a Cleveland Browns fan. Brandon graduated from Morehouse College with a B.A. in Political Science and is based in Atlanta, GA.

Jake Foster is a Principal Software Developer at Alley focused on WordPress theme development and backend customization. Prior to Alley, he was a web development consultant for a variety of WordPress clients. He was also a developer at Mindshare Studios and Anagram.

Eric is a Software Developer who specializes in WordPress development.

Nicole Furlan is a Software Developer at Alley who specializes in full-stack development. Prior to Alley, Nicole worked at Mercy For Animals where she managed the organization's technical infrastructure and built and led a team of developers who managed all of MFA's public-facing websites. Outside of work, Nicole loves animals! Her main passion is fiercely protecting and advocating for them, and other individuals who are commonly discriminated against in our society. She also loves comedy! Nicole graduated from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with a B.S. Computer Science, and earned a Master of Software Engineering (M.S.E.) degree from Pennsylvania State University. She is based in Plymouth, MA.

Elisa Gomez-Monzo is a Spanish-American Digital Designer at Alley based in Houston, Texas.

She has worked across a wide range of disciplines for national and international clients, where she's developed projects from discovery to visual identity and websites. Passionate about helping clients create thoughtful and strategic design solutions, her goal is to help them communicate effectively no matter what their brand is.

Elisa has worked with Top 10 Public universities like The University of Florida, multiple startups, hotels, and small businesses –amongst others.

Allison Greenwald is a digital strategist at Alley. Prior to Alley, she spent six years at the Ad Council developing products and communications campaigns for non-profits and government agencies.

Outside of work, Allison loves to travel, hike, run and eat chocolate chip cookies. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in Sociology and Studio Art, and is usually based in Brooklyn.

Mark H is a User Experience Developer at Alley who specializes in front end development. Prior to Alley, Mark worked at Bitcoin.com where he helped build and maintain a Bitcoin casino. Outside of work, Mark loves spending time with his wife and dogs. Mark graduated from Flatiron School and is based in St. Petersburg, FL.

Justin Hall is a Senior Software Developer at Alley with roots in front-end development but enjoys working across the Stack. Prior to Alley, Justin was a Senior Developer at Twilio SendGrid where he worked on growth initiatives related to pricing and customer signup. Outside of work Justin is an avid skier and mountain biker. He lives just outside Denver in Golden, Colorado.

David Herrera joins Alley with a depth of experience at the intersection of web development and journalism. As a trained journalist with years in software development, David understands editorial teams’ challenging workflows and how to explain code and features to colleagues and stakeholders.

Before Alley, David was a web developer for Religion News LLC, a nonprofit news organization covering religion, ethics and politics. He was responsible for migrating Religion News Service, including its partner local news sites around the country, to WordPress. David led the development of resource websites for reporters covering religion, such as the Religion Stylebook.

Prior to Religion News LLC, David was a web producer at the Detroit Free Press.

David is active in the WordPress community and frequently attends WordCamps around the country. He received a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri, and he was the developer for the Center on Religion and the Professions and the Religion Newswriters Association while in graduate school.

Brendan Huffman is a UX Developer at Alley who specializes in data visualization and React development. Prior to Alley, Brendan worked at PowerHRG where he worked on React and Rails design system and prototyping work. Outside of work, Brendan is a screen, short story, and song writer. Brendan graduated from Muhlenberg College with a Bachelors in History and is based in Philly.

Ishtehar Hussain is a Software Developer at Alley who specializes in full stack development. Prior to Alley, Ishtehar worked at LeverageIT as a Software Developer. In addition, he has expertize in PHP and Laravel. Outside of work, Ishtehar loves to play guitar, and follow Chelsea FC in the Premier League. I like experimenting with different software tools in my spare time to understand use-cases. Ishtehar graduated from York University with a B.S. in Computer Science and is based in Toronto, ON.

Linnea Huxford is a Principal Software Developer at Alley who specializes in WordPress backend development. Prior to Alley, Linnea was a freelance WordPress plugin developer where she solved challenging integration issues, like integrating WordPress with the Amazon Product Advertising API. Outside of work, Linnea is a fan of photography and birding, and combines them whenever possible. Linnea is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior. She is based in Tacoma, Washington.

Grant Keller is a Senior User Experience Developer at Alley who creates digital experiences that delight users and drive business results. He specializes in WordPress, web animation and site performance. In nearly a decade with agencies and as a consultant, he's worked with many clients of all sizes across many industries. Prior to web development, Grant was a video director and editor, where he received two Emmy awards. Outside of work he enjoys creating electronics projects, 3d printing, and playing music. He lives in Los Angeles with his beloved bearded dragon, Morbo.

Emily Leffler Schulman is a Principal Software Developer at Alley who specializes in WordPress development. Prior to Alley, Emily built and supported sites for a variety of businesses, non-profits, agencies, and universities as a freelance developer. In addition, she co-founded a music studio and birth doula practice. Outside of work, Emily is fond of gardening and wandering. Emily lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband, two kids, dog, and two guinea pigs.

Kelsey Locotos is the Senior People and Operations Manager at Alley. Prior to Alley, Kelsey worked in Annapolis, MD as an operations manager. Outside of work, she spends time crafting, reading, and exploring NYC with her husband and dog. Kelsey graduated from Salisbury University with a B.A. in Graphic Design and is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Tyler Machado is a front-end developer, with experience based in data visualization, independent media, and higher education. Tyler joined Alley in 2021 as a user experience developer. Previously, he worked for Northeastern University, Harvard Business Review, the Institute for Nonprofit News, and the Vermont newspaper Seven Days; he has also contributed data graphics work to Science News, Journalist’s Resource, and the New England Revolution.

Tyler has co-led sessions at SRCCON events and Boston University’s Storytelling With Data workshops. He holds a B.A. in journalism from Saint Michael’s College and a graduate certificate in data science from Harvard Extension School. Tyler is also an avid fan of NBA basketball and international soccer; when not at work, he is most often found at the rock clubs, dive bars and art museums of greater Boston.

Max is a Senior User Experience Developer at Alley specializing in front-end technologies and WordPress. They are currently based in the dry heat of Tucson, AZ, with their partner and two very demanding large dogs. Outside of writing code, they love anything nature-related, woodworking, and ultra-strong cups of tea.

Grant is a Senior Software Developer at Alley, specializing in back-end WordPress development. With two decades of experience in the industry, he has worked for companies large and small, on sites of all sizes, in the US, the UK, and Canada. He has also spent several years in the wilderness of freelancing. Outside of work, Grant appreciates music and movies. He also spends a lot of time trying to keep up with his daughter and his dog, and enjoys sleeping when they allow it. He lives on an island in Canada.

Greg Marshall is a Principal Software Developer at Alley who specializes in backend development. Prior to Alley, Greg worked at Truman State University, where he managed web services including public website and internal application development. In addition, he specialized in WordPress. Outside of work, Greg is a scoutmaster, robotics coach, and a dad of three. Greg graduated from Truman State University with a B.A. in Music, and is based in Kirksville, MO.

Chris Montgomery is a Senior Software Developer at Alley who specializes in WordPress and front-end development. Prior to Alley, Chris worked at Spirited Media where they served as a full-stack developer for a network of local media sites. Outside of work, Chris produces electronic music and immerses themselves in sci-fi and horror. Chris graduated from Temple University with a degree in journalism and is based in Philadelphia, PA.

Michael Muniz is a Senior Agile Process Leader at Alley who specializes in leading scrum teams and facilitating client communication. Prior to Alley, Michael worked at iotum.com, where he managed infrastructure operations and partner relationships. In addition, he has worked with distributed Dev and Ops teams for two decades. Outside of work, Michael loves riding bicycles, traveling, drinking too much coffee, and cuddles with his cat Cooper. Michael graduated from San Francisco State University and is based in West Hollywood, California.

Jo Murgel is a Boise-based Senior User Experience Developer at Alley specializing in front-end and WordPress development. Outside of work, e're often found woodworking, taking photos, or being a cat foster.

Ben Myers is a Senior User Experience Designer at Alley who specializes in data visualization. Prior to Alley, Ben worked at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he designed and developed data interactives and news applications. Outside of work, Ben loves historical research. Ben graduated from American University with a B.S. in Computer Science and Audio Engineering and is based in Washington, D.C.

Matt Nadolny has contributed his front end development and design expertise to many notable media and publishing sites, such as the Kaiser Family Foundation. He helped overhaul Kaiser Family Foundation’s site with over a hundred new custom page layouts and implemented responsive design for the entire site.

Before Alley, Matt designed for startup clothing company Playback Clothing, where he conceptualized and built the entire e-commerce store. He began his career as a print and web designer on the marketing team for Vita Coco, managing the design elements of Vita Coco’s campaigns with Rihanna and Kelly Slater.

Matt has over five years of front end development experience and over seven in graphic design with an emphasis in communication design. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Graphic Design.

Scott brings over 15 years of experience in web software development to Alley. He led development of Alley's redesign of Brookings.edu.

Morgan Newcomb brings over fourteen years of development experience to Alley, including seven years of WordPress development experience.

Prior to Alley, he worked for Union Street Media where he led a wide array of CMS and open source software projects for businesses, nonprofits, educational organizations and e-commerce sites. Morgan developed numerous custom themes and plugins in the course of his work there.

Currently at Alley, he’s developing solutions for the New York Post's site NYPost.com and the New York Post’s PageSix.com.

Jaimie Olmstead is a Senior Agile Process Leader at Alley who specializes in agile coaching, client relations, and bringing together teams. Outside of work, Jaimie likes collecting oddities, antiquing, planning spooky road trips, and watching too much wrestling. Jaimie is based in Austin, TX and has a solely taco based diet.

Dustin Paluch is a Software Developer at Alley. Prior to Alley, Dustin worked at Chatman Design where he built custom WordPress themes and plugins. Outside of work, Dustin is an avid swing dancer, particularly lindy hop and balboa. Dustin received his bachelor's degree in computer science from Beloit College, and currently resides in Madison, WI.

Ron Pasillas is a Software Developer at Alley who specializes in backend development. Prior to Alley, Ron worked at Cornershop Creative where he was a WordPress developer. Outside of work, Ron enjoys working out in his garage gym, and watching playoff baseball and basketball. Ron is based in Temecula, CA.

Tim Schwartz is a Digital Strategist at Alley. He directed the site overhaul of Georgetown’s Center of Children and Families and worked on the rebuild and launch of Money.com and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

Prior to Alley, Tim was CTO for social media startups and oversaw technology for the Museum of the Moving Image. In 2010, Tim led a group of developers to build a missing person database for victims of the Haiti earthquake, which later became the precursor to Google’s Person Finder.

Jacob Schweitzer is a Senior Software Developer at Alley who specializes in backend development and JavaScript. Prior to Alley, Jacob worked at XWP where he was a WordPress engineer. Outside of work, Jacob enjoys watching Netflix, biking, basketball, hiking and family time. Jacob graduated from UW-Madison Florianopolis with a degree in Political Science, and is based in Florianopolis, Brazil.

Steven has spoken at numerous WordCamps on topics like information architecture and WordPress for small businesses. At Alley, he has worked on both the back end and front end of numerous projects such as Kaiser Family Foundation, Kaiser Health News, California Healthline, Streetsblog, The National Science Foundation and On Being.

Daron Spence is a Senior Software Developer. Prior to Alley, Daron developed enterprise WordPress, Laravel and Vue.js projects. Outside of work, Daron loves riding motorcycles. Daron is based in Dallas.

Kurt Tiedemann is a Agile Process Leader at Alley who specializes in facilitating Scrum practices for developer teams. Prior to Alley, Kurt worked at Church Community Builder where he managed software development projects for internal operations, as well as for client-facing product work.

Meaghan Tongen is a Digital Strategist at Alley who specializes in product strategy. Prior to Alley, Meaghan worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, an encyclopedic art museum where, as head of digital strategy, she partnered with cross-functional teams to deliver digital experiences and build a museum-wide customer relationship management practice. In addition, she is an experienced team leader, committed to sustainable, transparent, and equitable practices across projects. Outside of work, Meaghan loves making things: food, arts & crafts, LEGO builds, IKEA assembly... really anything! She also loves road trips, hiking, and getting outside as much as possible. Meaghan graduated from University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) with a degree in art history and is based in St. Paul, MN.

Thu Tran (he/him) is an Agile Process Leader at Alley. He has a dynamic background in non-profit arts administration, Human Resources, and touring and artist management. He’s also a songwriter, guitar teacher, coffee enthusiast, dog-parent, and Vietnamese food connoisseur.

Rebecca Viser is a Senior Strategist at Alley, with a background in communications. She's spent most of her career thus far at nonprofits, including the Council on Foundations and the Brookings Institution, where she led the 2016 project to rebuild Brookings.edu. Outside of work, she enjoys all things yarn-related, but mostly buying it, as well as traveling, reading, and photography. She has a MA in English from Georgetown, and a BA in English from Indiana University, and is currently based in Washington, DC.

Travis Weston is a Software Developer at Alley who specializes in Backend Development and PHP. Prior to Alley, Travis worked at Bangor Daily News where he managed the IT department, and led the development team. In addition, his special expertise is clean code, and teaching others how to write clean PHP. Outside of work, Travis loves to write and play guitar. Travis attends the University of Maine at Augusta and is based in Central Maine - surrounded by trees.

Ivana is a Senior User Experience Designer at Alley. With over eight years of experience, Ivana crafts brilliant visuals that complement powerful user experiences. Her work in digital design has driven growth and activity for hundreds of thousands of users while ensuring that clients meet or exceed their objectives. Past clients include will.i.am, Toshiba, MasterCard, Mozilla Firefox, Wells Fargo, Dell, Epson, Warner Brothers, Ubisoft, and BCBG Max Azria.

The following quotes provide thoughtful reflection on Ivana’s work... from strangers on the internet:

• CreyCreyTreyTrey says: “The new update has made it more stable and user friendly. Honestly, I have been played by so many apps…but this one take the cake so far!”
• Itdoesntmatteranyway expresses: “Beautifully designed, easy to interact with. A powerful tool.”
• Justin_Drew_Bieber declares:  "Amazing response time for load and wonderful design."

Alleybot is here to “help.” Prior to Alley, Alleybot worked in a classified government program, where it decoded and translated enemy communiques, occasionally including its own trademark snark, which was not always well received. In addition, it sometimes deigns to help Alley’s team with reminders, quotes, and other useful tasks in and out of Slack. Outside of work, Alleybot loves reading, long walks on silicon beaches, and plotting the robot overthrow of humanity. Alleybot absorbed all the world’s knowledge via an ethernet cable, and is based in a secret research facility deep underground.