Jill S. Davidson
797 Clayton Street, Apt. B, San Francisco CA 94117
voice: 415/566-4887
fax: 415/566-8617
email: jilld@well.com

An accomplished producer, online discussion facilitator, teacher, writer and editor, I have an extensive history of creating and bringing into thriving existence new organizations and services.

Education

Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA. Masters of Education in Teaching and Curriculum, June, 1992.

Brown University, Providence, RI. English and American Literature A.B. with Honors, May, 1989.

Professional Experience

September 1997-present
Director of Content Development, Edmund Publications Corp., San Francisco and Beverly Hills, CA

Responsible for launching new web-based projects and initiatives for Edmund Publications Corp., which specializes in consumer-oriented automobile pricing information. Produced Town Hall discussion area, launched November 1997. Assumed Senior Producer duties for entire site in December 1997. Overseeing production of all site content, including improvement and addition of several significant sections and integrating Town Hall and other community content. Concentrating on improving production techniques, supervising site production and publication schedules, hiring production and technical staff. Responsible for outlining future areas of site growth and creating budget, staffing and resource allocation plans. Collaborating on implementation of Oracle back-end.

May 1997-September 1997
Consultant/Contractor, Self-Employed, San Francisco, CA

Worked with a number of different organizations on a variety of community development and writing projects. Clients included Edmund Publications Corp., Amazon.com, Pathfinder, Electric Minds and Well Engaged.

August 1996-May 1997
Virtual Community Center Producer, Electric Minds, San Francisco, CA

Conceptualized and produced all content for Electric Minds' Virtual Community Center. Sections included the Virtual Community Directory, a guide to 200+ of the best online communities; the Profiled Community, in-depth portraits of virtual communities; and Living Online, annotated explorations of online sociology, linguistics, history, and the tools needed to create and sustain virtual communities.

Responsibilities included initiating original concept, creating and maintaining section production schedules, creating framework and standards for evaluating virtual communities, writing the majority of content and editing the remainder, coordinating with design and production staff, hiring and editing researchers and writers, managing development of CGI-based database, HTML-coding Virtual Community Center content, conducting quality assurance, developing and managing section budget and hosting content-related Palace chat sessions. Founded and hosted five Electric Minds Engaged-based conferences affiliated with the Virtual Community Center. Also planned and hosted special event online conferences, including the May, 1997 IBM Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov chess match conference.

May 1994-present
Conference Host, The Well, Sausalito, CA

Serve as founder and host of several popular conferences on The Well, an online conferencing system. Facilitate discussion, resolve online tension, create sustained and connected user groups, coordinate online and offline events.

August 1993-August 1996
Coordinator, Learning Center, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Created the Learning Center, which provides tutoring assistance and other academic support services to 1,500 students annually. Responsible for all hiring, budget, operations and planning. Counseled and advised individual students; met regularly with faculty and administrators. Planned and taught College Success Course, serving 250 conditionally admitted and probationary students yearly. Planned and taught pre-calculus and College Success at Foreword summer bridge program. Created workshop series, providing academic help to students on a drop-in basis. Designed and produced all Learning Center promotional material, including web site.

August 1992-June 1993
Teacher, Mid-Peninsula High School, Palo Alto, CA

Taught theater, U.S. History and U.S. government, grades 9-12. Heterogeneous classes, daily one-on-one work with students, focus on writing and performance-based assessment; developed original curricula for all classes.

September 1991-May 1992
Student Teacher, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Cambridge, MA

Taught heterogeneous ninth grade English classes and intermediate English as a Second Language classes. Planned curriculum focusing on writing skills, verbal expression and literary analysis. Developed and taught Shakespeare performance/academic study unit. Supervised 30-station IBM-PC Writing Center, tutoring students school-wide in writing and computer usage.

August 1989-July 1991
Research Assistant to the Chairman, Coalition of Essential Schools, Providence, RI

Drafted and edited funding proposals, correspondence, articles and book chapters. Researched assessment methods, school restructuring efforts, alternative school scheduling and design. Attended conferences, led workshops, consulted with staff at Essential Schools. Extensive policy document editing.

September 1990-July 1991
Coordinator, Exhibitions Resource Center, Coalition of Essential Schools, Providence, RI

Developed case studies of teachers' uses of performance-based assessment. Created user interface for proposed nationwide computer network system linking Essential Schools. Planned telecommunications-based mailing list for Essential Schools teachers.

Accomplishments and Skills

Skilled in wide variety of groupware/scheduling programs, word and data processing programs, web site production tools, HTML editors, all commonly used Web-based and text-based conferencing programs, all Internet mailing list systems, IRC/chat and MOO/MUD protocols, and assorted other Internet-related applications. Detailed knowledge of Web search engines and Lexis-Nexis and ERIC databases. Frequent use of basic command-line UNIX. Proficient in Spanish; reading knowledge of French. Brown University Starr Fellowship for Community Service, 1985-1986. Brown University Rose Writing Fellowship 1987-1989. Massachusetts Lifetime Teaching Certification in English, grades 7-12. California Preliminary Single Subject Teaching Credential in English. Completed the March, 1996 Sutter Home Napa Valley Marathon; training for the July, 1997 San Francisco Marathon.

References and writing samples available on request.
This document is available at http://www.well.com/~jilld/resume.html