About Joseph Dickson

I’m a font-end web developer and designer working with WordPress, Drupal and other platforms.

WordPress Projects

    • Staff Directory – Built and maintained using Custom Post Types & Custom Fields.
    • Community Updates – News site linked across a Multisite Network.
    • Open Graph – Added metatags for improved sharing on social media websites.
    • Custom Theme Development – Crafted and maintained custom Parent and their Child Themes.
    • Custom Plugin Development – Built and maintained project specific plugins.
    • Multisite – Created and managed a large Multisite Network of over 100 subsites and its users.
    • Accessibility – Built Section 508 complaint user interface features.
    • Block Editor – Customized the block editor to maintain styleguide requirements.
    • Plugin and Theme Audits – Curated the use of third party and custom themes and plugins.
    • Proactive Debugging – Test plugins, themes, and hosting environment against upcoming releases for deprecated features and conflicts.
    • Hosting – Actively maintaining WordPress across various cloud hosting platforms and local environments.

  • Drupal Projects

    • Drupal Migration – Assisted in a migration from Drupal 8 to 9 by testing themes and modules for deprecation and dependency support.
    • Taxonomy Filter – Created a dynamic taxonomy filter menu.
    • Paragraphs Module – Built and maintained enhancements using the Paragraphs module.
    • Theme & Module Development – Maintained custom Twig templates and PHP modules.
    • Hosting – Maintained three Drupal installations using Git, Composer using Pantheon.io

Technical Skills

    • HTML/CSS
    • PHP
    • JavaScript
    • Hosting via LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)
    • Composer
    • Responsive Web Design
    • Search Engine Optimization & Google Web Development Tools
    • Accessibility & Section 508 Compliance
    • Web Governance Platforms: SiteImprove, Monsido
    • Hosting Platforms: Pantheon, WPEngine, Digital Ocean, cPanel
    • WordPress site maintenance
    • WordPress Theme and Plugin debugging
    • WordPress backups
    • WordPress migrations
    • WordPress training and client support

Cal Poly Pomona
IT Communications Specialist

    • Cascade CMS content editing
    • ServiceNow content editing
    • General communications and documentation

February 2023 – Current

Freelance
WordPress Development

    • Theme Customization
    • Plugin Management
    • Hosting Management
    • Customization

September 2022 – Current

Pomona College
Web Developer (Drupal)

    • Responsibilities and accomplishments:
    • Maintained and enhance Drupal website, modules, themes using PHP and Twig
    • Maintained web host using cloud provider’s Develop, Test, Live workflow.
    • Client support, documentation and maintenance.
    • Improved functionality of a vendor created module.
    • Upgraded Theme and Modules for Drupal 8, 9 and began preparations for 10.

October 2021 – September 2022

Pitzer College
Web Developer (WordPress)

    • Built and maintained a large WordPress multisite network.
    • Managed three redesigns of the college’s website.
    • Created custom responsive themes using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and the frameworks as Foundation, Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS and CSS Grid.
    • Created custom WordPress Plugins using Custom Post Types, Custom Fields, WP_Query and other core WordPress features.
    • Integrated third-party APIs and plugins for calendars, Google Analytics and Custom Search, and web governance software.
    • Maintained and improved search engine optimization (SEO) using web developer tools provided by Google, Bing, Yandex and plugins.
    • Maintained compliance with Section 508 and WCAG accessibility standards.
    • Built custom child themes to inherit parent theme branding for campus initiatives.
    • Provided client training and documentation of WordPress workflows for content producers.

Earlier Roles

  • Online Editor (In-house CMS) at Long Beach Press Telegram, 2005 – 2009
  • Online Content Producer (In-house CMS) at Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 2002 – 2005

Education

  • Digital Badges

Faculty and Staff Summer Conference 2024

Awarded: Jun 5, 2024

VERIFY

2024 Artificial Intelligence Fair

Awarded: May 15, 2024

Awarded To: Joseph Dickson

VERIFY

Digital Badging: Cal Poly Pomona Faculty and Staff Summer Conference 2023

Awarded: Jun 1, 2023

VERIFY

WordPress Community

In 2021 and 2019 I spoke at WordCamp Santa Clarita on creating a portfolio website as well as preparing old themes for WordPress’ block editor.

I have also spoken at WordCamp Los Angeles and a member of WordCamp Riverside‘s team of organizers. I’m also a member of my local Inland Empire WordPress meetup community.

Additional information can be found on my WordPress.org profile.

Volunteer Projects