Karen Smallwood

Karen is the vice president and a web developer using a Drupal interface, and she is also an instructor at our sister school, Q College, teaching the Drupal Open Source Development course. Karen, herself, is a graduate of Q College's (formerly VSBT) Web Designer course and the Open Source Development course! Karen’s role as web developer for northStudio means that she helps build Drupal websites for clients.

Her contribution to a project involves information architecture and figuring out how the back end of a website will be structured. Karen’s tasks also include fine-tuning a site’s details, such as customizing features and theming. What invigorates Karen is the investigative process that is a part of web development.

Karen’s natural inquisitiveness and love of experimentation make her amazing at implementing new modules. Her sensitivity to the user experience also helps her find ways to make website functions easier and clearer to navigate. What Karen loves most about her job is that it provides the context for her to experiment and learn new things (or learn different ways to do the same thing!). She additionally enjoys the diversity of northStudio’s team members.

In her off time, Karen loves snowboarding, canoeing, cuddling her pup, and sitting shotgun on the flights her husband pilots.