Welcome to the INETA Community Champions (Champs) Program

Program OverviewCommunity Champion AwardChampion Award RecipientsMy ContributionsInvite a Peer

What is the INETA Community Champions (Champs) Program?

INETA has partnered with Microsoft and Community Credit to offer INETA members the Community Champions Program. We want to recognize, encourage and reward the developers who routinely devote their time, expertise and passion to the benefit of the community.

As we all know, volunteers are the heart of INETA and of our user groups. We all benefit from their passion for technology and their dedication to helping others. People like our officers, newsletter contributors, presenters and all those who pitch in to make the meetings run smoothly. Every person makes a difference ... YOU make a difference.

If you take a moment to add it all up, you would be surprised by what it takes to make things happen ... and by how much INETA members are doing every day. That is where the INETA Community Champions program comes in. The Champs program is designed to help recognize what volunteers are doing, including the many tasks that others may not even be aware of. It allows volunteers to record their contributions, to see what others are doing, and to be inspired by the results.

Community Champions Award Winner Benefits

Once a quarter, INETA will recognize leading contributors as Community Champions. In addition to claiming this prestigious title for twelve months, awardees also receive a letter of commendation, a certificate of achievement, much deserved online recognition, and a few great prizes. Of course, we want this award to motivate even more involvement, so we encourage everyone, including winners, to record your activities. After all, you are eligible to win every twelve months. Find out more and see what others are doing.

Getting Started

The Community Champions Program is about YOU; it will grow and evolve along with your involvement in the developer community. Whether you are user group leader, a key volunteer or want to see what others are doing, it is time for you to get started!

Record/View Your Contributions: Click on the "My Contributions" tab to record your efforts in the development community.
Invite a colleague to participate: We are all part of the community, so help us capture just how much our community is doing! Click on the "Invite a Peer" tab to tell a friend about the INETA Community Champions Program.

INETA Community Champion Award Recipients

Third Quarter 2008Second Quarter 2008

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Member Bio

Antonio Chagoury is the CEO and Chief Software Architect of Inspector IT Inc (www.inspectorit.com), a .net and DotNetNuke solutions provider based in the Washington DC Metro Area. As a member of the DotNetNuke Core team and project lead of the Blog module as well as the Installer utility, he is an active contributor and supporter DotNetNuke and Open Source. Antonio Chagoury is the Co-Founder and President of the Capital DotNetNuke User Group (www.capitaldug.org) an effort intended to get DotNetNuke Enthusiasts in one room once a month to discuss a wide range of topics as well share ideas knowledge and experience on the platform. Antonio’s technical specialties range from Enterprise Software Architecture and Engineering, Business Systems Integrations, SOA, and of course all development based on the .net framework. He considers DotNetNuke Software Development and Consulting, Web 2.0, Office 2.0, and Enterprise 2.0 his hobbies. Antonio has lived and travelled extensively in Europe, Africa and the Middle-East and settled in the Washington DC area in 1999. He speaks English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. He blogs (in English) regularly at www.cto20.com.

Chris Williams is a Technology Evangelist for Magenic. He is the founder of several .NET User Groups on the east coast, and most recently the Twin Cities XNA User Group and Twin Cities Developers Guild, both in Minneapolis, MN. He is a rabid blogger at BlogusMaximus.net, author of the very popular NINE Questions series and owner of the VB Community site www.ILoveVB.net. His most recent project is the Charity Fragathon, a fundraiser event for Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. He's also a Visual Basic .NET MVP, MCT, MCSD (.NET) Early Adopter, MCAD, freelance game developer, occasional author, tech editor, conference speaker, vintage arcade game collector and most recently received the INETA Community Champion award. He also plays a pretty mean guitar in Rock Band. Lastly, yes, the rumors are true, he loves Visual Basic so much he even named his dog VB.

Dan Rigsby is a Lead Software Engineer for Interactive Intelligence in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dan has been an avid .Net developer since late 2001 starting with ASP.Net, but today concentrates on SOA, WCF, Smart Client applications, and a host of other areas. Dan is very active in the community as a developer, speaker, blogger, officer at IndyNDA, and moderator on the MSDN forums. He is always eager to help out others when he can and has been awarded the Microsoft MVP award for his work with Connected Systems in Wcf. As a certified ScrumMaster, Dan has been involved in agile techniques and project management. Read more about Dan and development adventures at http://www.danrigsby.com/ or connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.

David Hockenberry is the Lead Software Engineer at VertaSource in Buffalo, NY. He is a graduate of Binghamton University with a degree in Computer Science. David has been working professionally with .NET since 2003 when he was a junior in college. In January 2008, he started to lead the Western New York .NET Users Group (WNY DNUG). The WNY DNUG has been very successful in the last year, having between 40-75 developers at each monthly meeting, giving away a ton of swag, and bringing in speakers from all over the United States. In the coming months his main focus is to line up speakers, sponsors, and venues for the upcoming year of WNY DNUG meetings. Outside of work David is engaged to his beautiful fiancée Katie and is a volunteer wrestling coach at his graduating high school. On the weekends you may find him riding his ATVs, working on a Dirt Modified racecar that he sponsors, or watching his beloved Buffalo Bills.

Will Strohl is an ASP.Net architect and developer based in the Orlando Area. Having been in the web development field for over 10 years, he began professionally in 2000. Currently, Will is the Technology Director for an exciting new online travel company called RezHub.com. He is also an active member and President of the Orlando DotNetNuke® Users Group, and a member of the reformed DotNetNuke® Media Module Project Team. He regularly speaks at local events about DotNetNuke® and the various ways it can be used and managed. Most recently, Will has been publishing DNN videos on JumptStartTV, and is a contributing editor for Professional DotNetNuke 5 by Wrox.

Lori McKinney is a Software Consultant for Intergraph Corporation's Process, Power & Marine division where she works developing web applications. She has 20 years experience developing software. Before joining Intergraph, she worked as a research engineer at Amoco Research Center in Tulsa, OK, modeling cuttings distribution for various drilling fluid/bit/geology combinations for a engineering simulator for drilling. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa.

Lori is a member of HUNTUG, Huntsville VS.NET User Group, and MOSSMOSIS Huntsville as well as INETA and Culminis. She served three years on the Board of Directors for HUNTUG and currently volunteers on the INETA Technology Team. She was named a Microsoft MVP in 2007 for Windows Server Customer Experience.

Lori lives with her husband and son near Huntsville, AL.

Michael Paladino is a software developer for EagleOne in Fort Smith, AR. He has over 6 years of experience developing web and desktop applications based on mostly Microsoft technologies. He started his career using classic ASP and moved into Windows Forms and ASP.NET within the last 4 years. He has also been increasingly involved with creating and maintaining SQL Server databases and has experience with a number of open source toolsets and frameworks such as SubSonic, DotNetNuke, and Umbraco. Michael is passionate about building the .NET community and is one of the co-founders and current president of the Fort Smith .NET User Group. You can contact Michael through his blog at http://www.mpaladino.com, via email at paladinomichael@gmail.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/mpaladino.

Jason Townsend has been developing professionally for over 10 years. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and a M.B.A with Specialty in Information Technology Management from the University of Tulsa. He currently works for ConocoPhillips as a Sr. Analyst in Global Web Application Services where he helps in mentoring junior developers as well as developing applications using the latest Microsoft software stack. Before joining ConocoPhillips, Jason led a team of developers in developing natural language speech applications using proprietary platforms and the Microsoft software stack. Jason is also the President of the Bartlesville .NET User Group (http://www.bdnug.com) and routinely accepts speaking engagements ranging from Windows Communication Foundation to Microsoft Speech Server 2007. When he isn’t busy mentoring budding developers, or learning the newest technology Jason is spending time with his wife and four kids. Jason routinely blogs at http://www.okcodemonkey.com and can be reached via email at okcodemonkey@gmail.com.

John Baird began his computer programming career while in the US Navy. In 1982, he helped form and direct the first PC-based computer processing department for training and manpower in the Department of Defense. After leaving the military in 1988, John began a varied career as a consultant developing business applications ranging from computer-based training to vertical market software for resellers. Today, John is working for the industry leader in financial software for fund administration. In response to a Microsoft proposal, John started the Northern Delaware .Net User Group (www.nodenug.org) in September 2007. For his community service and dedication to mobile technologies, John was recently awarded MVP status for device application development.

Vishal Shukla has been programming since 1991 mainly on Microsoft technologies from GW Basic, Turbo Basic to .net 3.5. Vishal works as a System Architect for the Palm Beach County. He has been actively involved with local user group communities. He has been giving presentations at code camps, TechEd Tweener and various user group events. He also contributes by publishing technical articles on sites like codeproject, vbdotnetheaven and his own site. He started "Connecting Islands" user group for Palm Beach county employee, and has helped arrange various .net community events in Palm Beach area.

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Member Bio

Adnan Masood works as a Sr. Software Engineer / Tech. Lead in a Monrovia-based financial institution where he builds SOA-based enterprise applications using Microsoft .NET Framework. He is a regular speaker to technical conferences and code camps, is attributed and published in print media and on the web, and holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science. Adnan is actively pursuing his doctoral degree in Machine Learning and is highly involved in the .NET community as co-founder of the San Gabriel Valley .NET Developers group. He holds various technical certifications including MCPD.NET, MCSD.NET, and SCJP-II and is also a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). His blog can be found at www.AdnanMasood.com and he can be reached via email at adnanmasood at gmail.com.

Brian Hendrson works at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (http://www.fhcrc.org) in Seattle as a Software Engineer. He is passionate about software design and developing inspiring user experiences. Beyond the office he is involved in both the .NET and Agile developer communities as a contributor and a speaker. Brian's software expertise covers UI/UX, design, patterns and crafting software components. He enjoys playing with RIA (Rich Interactive Applications) and RESTful services. When not in front of a flat screen you can find Brian in the sky (flying), in the mountains (hiking), or on the water (kayaking).

My name is Chris Brandsma and I am a Senior Software Engineer located in Boise, Idaho. I have been programming professionally since graduating from Calvin College 1997 -- but like many, I started programming much earlier. Currently my interests are in effective C#, Design Patterns, JQuery, LINQ, NHibernate, SubSonic, Agile, and Test Driven Development. I blog at ElegantCode.com, and I am the president of the Boise Software Developers Group (bsdg.org), and on the board of directors of the Boise .Net Developers Group (netdug.com).

Sujata Devraj is a software architect/technical lead currently working in the public safety software arena. With over a decade of experience in various environments/languages such as C, C++ (MFC/COM), VB 6.0, C#, ASP/ASP.NET/AJAX, mobile applications, XML, SQL etc. currently heavily focused on .NET 3.5 framework technologies such as WPF(XAML), Silverlight, WCF, LINQ, and BizTalk Server 2006.

Sujata is the current chairman of the .NET Users Group in Huntsville, AL and the group's liaison to INETA. She is actively involved in finding ways to get the user community more engaged and connected, by organizing events such as the first ever .NET code camp. As a testament to these efforts the membership of the user group has grown several fold in the last few years, and a bridge established with neighboring community leaders and groups.

Judy Calla assumed leadership of Central Penn .NET Users Group in December, 2003. Since her first meeting in January, 2004, the membership list has grown to over 400. From the beginning, it was her intent to share leadership of the group and form a Board of Directors. The Board has grown to nine members, all of who take an active part in the essential tasks of guiding and managing the group.

Judy has been a full-time programmer since 1989, and a Visual Studio developer since 2001. Besides leading Central Penn, she is a speaker at user group meetings and Philadelphia Code Camps, focusing on beginner topics in Visual Studio and SQL Server. She developed the Central Penn Boot Camp, a 4-week, 1-night-a-week series for programmers new to client server development, object oriented programming, Visual Studio, and SQL Server.

Jess Chadwick is the Lead Code Monkey on the Infragistics Website Team, responsible for keeping all their various web properties up and running. He has over 7 years experience with .NET technologies ranging from embedded devices in startups to enterprise-scale web farms at Fortune 500s. He is actively involved with the community, acting as Leader of the NJDOTNET Central New Jersey .NET user group, , founder of the “NJDOTNET Agile” and “NJDOTNET Dojo” spin-off groups, and actively contributing to various open source projects.

You can visit his website (with his blog and live demos) at http://www.jesschadwick.com/.

Joseph Guadagno has been very involved in his local development community. Joseph Guadagno started the Southeast Valley .NET User Group in December of 2007. This user group serves the Microsoft .NET developers of the Southeast Phoenix metropolitan area. He has organized a weekly lunch gathering of all technology people in the area. He handled the gathering of $45,000 worth of giveaways for the Phoenix hosted Scott Guthrie event and an average of $4,000 dollars a month for his user group giveaways.

Joseph is a Sitefinity CMS MVP. He has had articles published in Windows Developers Journal and CodeProject. Joseph heads up 3 open source projects for Sitefinity development and .NET plug in framework.

On a personal note, Joseph coaches his sons’ baseball team and volunteers for the Big Brother Big Sister program in Arizona.

Programmer and BI Developer Kristin Ferrier has nearly a decade of SQL Server experience and is President of the Oklahoma City Developers Group. She spent 8 years developing applications for diverse industries using PowerBuilder, VB6, and eventually .Net for the front-end languages. SQL Server always drove the back-end. During that time she obtained her MCAD, taking 2 of the exams in VB.Net and the third in C#.Net. In 2007, with her passion for database development, she jumped at the opportunity to join the Business Intelligence team at Sonic Drive-In where she works on anything from MS Analysis Services 2005 cube development, the latest enterprise database warehouse project, or any project where she can be a key problem solver.

Lou Vega is a software engineer working for CSSI, Inc. He's been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for Device Application Development and is also an MCAD, and MCSD. He's both a founding member and current president of the Greater Charleston .NET User Group and is quite active in the developer community speaking at user groups and code camps as well as helping to organize and promote events. An avid old-school gamer, he occasionally finds time to pursue that hobby. When not connected to a computer he can usually be found home with his wife and children.

Philip Wolfe, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
North Central - IA, MN, ND, NE, SD

Philip Wolfe is one of the top .NET leaders in the Midwest region. He has been the president of the Omaha .NET user group (http://www.OmahaMTG.com) off and on for the past six and a half years, assistant director of the Heartland Developers Conference (http://www.heartlandDC.com) for the last four years, and INETA Membership Mentor for Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota for the last two years. He is very involved in the community by speaking at MSDN events, conferences, teaching .NET courses at the post-secondary level, and helping to start three separate Microsoft technology-related user groups. Philip has also served as a community liaison to Microsoft.

Since 1997, Philip has been using the latest in Microsoft technology to develop key business solutions. As a leader in .NET technology, he helped start the .NET user group in Omaha in 2001 and was one of the first 100 people in the world certified in .NET by Microsoft. Since then he has helped organize the nation's largest professional user group conference, Heartland Developers Conference, for the last four years and he has helped start three new user groups in the Omaha area for SQL Server, BizTalk, and Team System. He specializes in Windows Workflow applications, web-based portal applications, and Microsoft Patterns & Practices. He has also been involved in developing four Microsoft certification exams.