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Kim Melson

SKILLS SUMMARY

  • Technical Writing:  Long-term experience writing successful proposals and design specifications, developed and conducted training and wrote user guides.  Proficient in Madcap Flare, Snagit, Word, Excel, Open Office, Photoshop, Sky Indexing software, XMind, ePubChk, ePubPak, and additional software packages.
  • Ideas to Products:  Extensive experience conducting successful interviews then translating the client’s ideas and needs into detailed specifications.  Excellent listening, verbal and written skills.  Ask questions to both elicit information and confirm understanding of the information.  Able to adapt to an audience, to reframe information, for the highly successful transmission of ideas.
  • Management and Project Development:  Skilled manager experienced with a wide variety of projects and audiences.  Customers have included government agencies, large business organizations and sole-proprietor companies in NM, CA, AZ and HI.
  • Financial:  Created and managed project budgets and schedules.  Performed accounting tasks; billing, accounts receivable and payables, payroll and budgeting.
  • Customer relations:  Maintained long-term client relationships by providing responsive, quality support to build customer loyalty.   Helped the client feel good about the project and the work.
  • IT: Full stack developer.  Specified, installed and managed LANs, intranets and web hosting services. Setup and managed local windows networks including use of Dropbox.  Web Host Services: HostGator, Opensourcehost; VPS plan, eHostpros (now FastWebHost), Directnic.  Extensive use of CPanel.
  • Programming: Full stack developer. Extensive programming experience of custom database packages including local and web systems; intranets, CMSs, CRMs, and e-commerce sites.  Experienced in data analysis, production of reports, graphs and graphical analysis of data.
    • Languages: PHP, SQL, HTML5, Javascript, jQuery, XML, Java, Pascal, Fortran, Basic, 8085 Assembly, Z8000 Assembly.
    • Packages: Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Apache, Aamps, SQLYog, MySQL, RBase relational database, JGraph, authorize.net, Novell Netware.
    • Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, DOS, CP/M.
  • Working style:  Independent, self-starter, able to work well with others.  Creative and tenacious problem solver.  Organized, detailed and comfortable working on multiple projects in parallel.  Committed to providing an exceptional product on time and on budget.  Constant learner, willing to research and learn new skills.

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Technical Writing

  • Writing Assistance, LLC on assignment to Rhodes Group / Tricore, Albuquerque, NM
    • Prepared and did, docs in Word, PDF and website
    • Utilized Madcap Flare, Word, Excel and XMind
  • Evolution Web Development, Santa Fe, NM; WIT/Microsystems, Inc.     Santa Fe, NM
    • Conducted interviews, developed and presented project proposals.
    • Developed and conducted user training for software packages, web sites and content management systems. Wrote user guides for many different projects and audiences.
  • McDevitt Law Firm, P.A.     Santa Fe, NM
    • Drafted, proofread and edited documents.
    • Filed pleadings, prepared documents and notebooks for court hearings.
  • Beckman Instruments     Brea, CA
    • Created and presented project proposals and reports both technical and financial.
    • Researched and created a document on CP/M operating system functionality and viability for integration into medical products.
    • Composed employee reviews and conducted interviews.
  • Westinghouse Hanford assigned to Los Alamos National Laboratory     Los Alamos, NM
    • Created and presented project proposals and reports both technical and financial.
    • Presented the co-authored paper “A High-Energy Beam Transport System” by K. E. Melson, J. A. Farrell, D. J. Liska and P. Meads at the 1979 Particle Accelerator Conference (paper M-l), San Francisco, CA, March 12-14, 1979
    • Co-authored the paper “High-Energy Beam Transport in the Hanford FMIT Linear Accelerator,” IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS-26, No 3, pp. 3050-3051 (June 1979).

Management and Project Development

  • Evolution Web Development, Santa Fe, NM; WIT/Microsystems, Inc.     Santa Fe, NM
    • Managed project specification and development.  Tested and installed products, trained users.  Consistently delivered projects on time and on budget.
  • McDevitt Law Firm, P.A.     Santa Fe, NM
    • Managed office services including copier, phone, internet, and merchant account services.  Installed, configured and managed all computers, backups and intranet.
    • Performed accounting tasks; billing, AR and AP, payroll and budgeting.
  • Beckman Instruments     Brea, CA
    • Managed a group of software engineers while developing firmware for circuit boards, developing CP/M-like operating system for Z8000-based PC in medical instruments.
    • Managed a group of employees while selecting and supporting third party software (word processing, spreadsheets, databases, utilities) standards for the company division.

Software Development & Customer Support

  • Evolution Web Development, Santa Fe, NM; WIT/Microsystems, Inc.     Santa Fe, NM
    • Wrote software products for a wide variety of projects and audiences.
    • Custom systems included government systems such as Welfare, Food Stamps and AFDC, for county Assessor, Auditor and Property Taxes, Family/Child Support tracking, Sales and Tracking systems for real estate, Concierge system for luxury resort, Title Company sales tracking, inventory, AR, AP and GL, and horse race handicapping.
  • Beckman Instruments     Brea, CA
    • Developed software to evaluate medical instrument performance based on its specs.  Concept adopted by company for front-end of product design and development.
    • Worked as an internal consultant or freelance programmer farmed out to different projects within the company.

Scientist

  • Westinghouse Hanford at LANL     Los Alamos, NM
    • Physicist on particle accelerator design, specifically high-energy beam transport.
  • Purdue University   West Lafayette, IN
    • Responsible for accelerator operation, ran experiments, managed accelerator operators.

 

WORK HISTORY

  • Technical Writer, Writing Assistance, LLC. on assignment to Rhodes Group, Albuquerque, NM   Jan 2016 – Sept 2016
  • Office Manager & Legal Assistant, McDevitt Law Firm, P.A., Santa Fe, NM   2009-2015 full-time, 2015 to present part-time
  • Principal, Evolution Web Development, LLC, Santa Fe, NM   2002-2009
  • President/Owner, WIT/Microsystems, Inc., Santa Fe, NM   1983-2002
  • Vice-President of R&D/Co-owner, The Issaquah Group, Orange, CA   July 1984-July 1985
  • Supervisor, Scientific Applications, Beckman Instruments, Brea, CA   July 1982-July 1984
  • Senior Microprocessor Engineer, Beckman Instruments, Brea, CA   March 1982-July 1982
  • Independent Consultant, Laguna Beach, CA   October 1981–March 1982
  • Scientist, Westinghouse Hanford, Los Alamos, NM   Held Q Clearance   June 1978-October 1981
  • Research Scientist, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN   July 1974-May 1978

 

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

  • Certificate in Technical Writing, University of California, Riverside, 2015
  • Embedded Indexing & Indexing of E-Books Course, University of California, Berkeley, 2014-2015
  • Indexing: Theory and Application Course, University of California, Berkeley, 2013-2014
  • Grammar Refresher, Ed2Go, 2014
  • Fundamentals of Technical Writing, Ed2Go, 2014
  • Mediation Training, Common Ground Mediation, Santa Fe, NM  2011
  • MS Physics, Purdue University, 1977, BS Physics, Purdue University, 1975

 

RELATED EXPERIENCE

  • Kyudo, Zen Archery.  Jinko Kyudojo, Santa Fe, NM.  Head of Dojo, Head Instructor, 2000-2011. Student since 1997.

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • Society of Technical Communicators
  • Sigma Pi Sigma, Physics Honor Society