Lara L. Schenck

Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing

• Advisor: Dr. Betsy DiSalvo
• Focus: learning sciences, broadening participation in computing, workforce development

Bachelor of Fine Arts

• Focus: animation, educational game design
• Internship in open source web development

Graduate Research Assistant working on DataWorks.

Independently organized research into programming languages and gatekeeping in CS. Collaboration with Dr. Felienne Hermans.

• Presented research at conferences internationally.
• Designed a survey with Dr. Hermans and collected responses to understand how developers construct their understanding of what is and is not programming.

Lara L. Schenck and Betsy DiSalvo. "From Data Work to Data Science: Getting Past the Gatekeepers".

Full stack web engineering and technical leadership on a product and engineering team of 80 people maintaining a network of 25+ high traffic websites.

• Conceived of and developed UI system, build tools, testing, and standards to speed up front-end development, reduce technical debt, and deploy shared modules across the network.
• Developed tools to improve product and design communication with engineering.
• Led and deployed re-platform and upgrade initiatives across the network.
• Advocated for diversity, equity, and inclusion in team culture, hiring, and compensation.
• Promoted from Senior Software Engineer.

Developed curriculum and instructed web development courses for adult learners with nontraditional backgrounds.

• University of Southern California, WordPress Development – Los Angeles, 2018
• Girl Develop It, multiple workshops – National, 2015-2018
• Pratt Institute of Design, UI/UX Prototyping in Code and Coding I-II – NYC, 2015-2016
• Decoded, Code in A Day – NYC, 2014-2016
• Tacklebox School, online courses, 2015-2016
• Noble Desktop, WordPress.org – NYC, 2015
• General Assembly, Front-end Web Development Lead Instructor – NYC, 2014

Contract front-end and WordPress development and training for startups and small to large businesses and web development agencies.

Supported the development of game-like curricular materials at a public middle and high school. Collaborated with game designers and educators to produce digital and non-digital game cv/assets.

Advise CEO of a membership network empowering formerly-incarcerated people with financial and mentorship opportunities.

Provide instructor support twice per week for Intro to Computer Science at Westinghouse Academy, a public school in an underserved neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Active member, organizer, and contributor in open source WordPress communities.

• Facilitated weekly Core CSS team meetings to oversee and contribute code to long-term projects improving the maintainability of the WordPress Core CSS code-base – 2019-2022

Participate in the core organizing group and mentorship program of the local Pittsburgh chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice. Co-organized group session focused on racial justice in tech.

Development, ongoing maintenance, and technical advising for the C4AA on their WordPress website and donation platform.