Résumé

PDF version

ALEX V. COOK

2121 Ovid St.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
(225) 205-5662
cookalexv@gmail.com

OBJECTIVE

I am seeking ways to channel my experience, curiosity and zest for life into meaningful, innovative and challenging endeavors that benefit the customers I serve and the community in which I live.

PUBLICATIONS

(forthcoming) Gas Station Boudin: Where to Go and What to Eat in South Louisiana. LSU Press, expected publication date 2015.
(with others) Confidence or the Appearance of Confidence: The Best of the Believer Music Interviews. McSweeney's, 2014.
(with others) The Louisiana Field Guide: Understanding Life in the Pelican State. LSU Press, 2014.
Louisiana Saturday Night: Looking For a Good Time in South Louisiana’s Juke Joints, Honky Tonks and Dance Halls. LSU Press, 2012
Darkness, Racket & Twang: Essential Listening from the Fringes of Popular and Unpopular Music. SideCartel Press, 2006
(with others) The First Annual outsideLeft Hardy Annual. SideCartel Press, 2006


MAGAZINE/INTERNET PUBLICATIONS

The Oxford American. Conway, AR
225 Magazine. Baton Rouge, LA
Country Roads Magazine. Baton Rouge, LA
OffBeat. New Orleans, LA
The Believer. San Francisco, CA
WIRE. London, UK
DownBeat. Chicago, IL
Baton Rouge Parents. Baton Rouge, LA
PasteMagazine.com. Decatur, GA
The Front Porch. San Marcos, TX

WEBSITES/BLOGS/SOCIAL MEDIA

Alex V. Cook, sole contributor, http://alexvcook.com, 2005—Present
The Record Crate, sole contributor, http://225batonrouge.com/blogs/record-crate, 2006-2010
outsideLeft, Music Editor, http://outsideleft.com, 2007—Present
Chicken Fried (archived), sole contributor, http://chickenfried-old.blogspot.com/, 2006—2007
GeoCities website (deleted), solo contributor, 1995—2000

Active, coordinated social media presence on a wide array of platforms all under the user name cookalexv.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

LSU Office of Student Media
Presentation/Technology Adviser, 2012 – 2015

Developed and mentored an in-house student-run new media agency within Student Media.
Served as art director for the student advertising and marketing staff.
Mentored a staff of 100+ on creating and maintaining web content.
Taught journalism students big data research and presentation skills as well as HTML and CSS.
Converged disparate student media websites into one converged sit with a sophisticated CMS and focus on creating a strong brand from that converged media presence.
Lsureveille.com, the converged site, was awarded finalist for Best Affiliated New Site for a College Media outlet for 2012 and 2013.
Recruited, mentored and supervised a digital journalism team to guide the efforts to convert a 125-year-old newspaper into a digital-first news agency.
Developed with my colleagues a foundation for creating an in-house media agency within Student Media's advertising and marketing departments.

LSU Manship School of Mass Communications
Adjunct Professor, 2011 – 2015

Co-taught MC 4971 (#DigitalBranding), I co-taught the original version with Dr. Lance Porter and it eventually became part of the core curriculum to the department.
Taught MC 2015 (Visual Communication) and was made coordinator of the department curriculum for the course.
Taught MC 2010 (Media Writing).
Taught MC 2000 (Introduction to Mass Media), a general education requirement course with upwards of 300 students.

LSU Honors College
Guest Lecturer, 2011

LSU Continuing Education, Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Instructor, 2/2006 – Present

Conducted Microsoft Office training classes for a variety of business professionals ranging from office professionals to factory and manufacturing personnel, both on-site and at LSU.
Tailored course materials to fit the needs of general students and corporate clients.
Offered real-life examples of software usage and issues.
Received a consistent good/excellent rating on all student evaluations.
Developed and taught a week-long video game design camp for high school students to create their own games using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio (the technology behind Windows Phone and XBOX software design)

Baton Rouge Community College, Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Instructor, 2006—2007

Conducted Microsoft Office training classes for a variety of business professionals ranging from office professionals to factory and manufacturing personnel, both on-site and at LSU.
Tailored course materials to fit the needs of general students and corporate clients.
Offered real-life examples of software usage and issues.
Received a consistent good/excellent rating on all student evaluations.

BROADCAST EXPERIENCE

WNYC, New York City, NY
On-Air Guest, 2010—Present
Returning guest on Soundcheck, hosted by John Schaefer.

WRKF, Baton Rouge, LA
Guest/Reporter , 2009—Present
Frequent guest on The Jim Engster Show.
Produced and perform segments for All Things Considered.

KBRH, Baton Rouge, LA 
Announcer, 1997—1999
Produced and performed a weekly specialty show The Happy Hour.

KLSU, Baton Rouge, LA
Announcer, 1987—1992
Produced and performed weekly radio shows.
Produced and performed Something Else, a specialty show that was continued on WLUW in Chicago from 1992—2011.

TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE

Greater Baton Rouge Association of REALTORS®, Baton Rouge, LA
Information Technology Director. 2015 - present


Perform all web, database and application programming for the Association.
Plan, scope, test and implement software initiatives for the Association.
Maintain in-house server network and SQL and web servers.
Maintain remote servers in off-site network farm.
Develop and teach classes on MLS software to our members.
Coordinate all data transfer in and out of the MLS, including commercial real estate sites (Zillow, Realtor.com, etc.)
Answer help desk calls on MLS software, keybox software and commercial databases.
Developed integration system between out in house database and MailChimp.
Cover for any other member of staff in case of absenses


LSU Continuing Education, Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Information Technology Coordinator 2008 – 2012

Designed and implemented streamlined solutions for correspondence courses.
Consolidated disparate database services throughout the division.
Consolidated reporting solutions throughout the department.
Implemented a user-maintained website solution to empower department units to manage their own content using an open-source CMS for the Internet and SharePoint for intranet sites.
Implemented and utilized the MediaSite video capture service to
Investigated mobile and tablet based implementations of LSU CE’s education content.
Served as lead developer and team supervisor on numerous enterprise projects.

Greater Baton Rouge Association of REALTORS®, Baton Rouge, LA
Contract Software Developer, 2/2006 – 2015

Designed, coordinated and developed the revamped association web portal using Microsoft .NET 2005
Maintained and improved existing GBRAR applications.
Provided database management and support for the association.

Lamar Advertising (contractor employed by Strategic Staffing Solutions), Baton Rouge, LA
Software Developer 11/2004 – 1/2006

Designed, developed, implemented and maintained .NET application for an enterprise-wide tracking system for the vinyl billboard production plant, utilizing smart-client, framework-based web service technologies.
Designed, developed, implemented and maintained enterprise-wide queuing system to be used by multiple applications.
Implemented testing modules and mentored QA technicians on automated testing procedures.
Maintained internal smart-client based accounts/payable system.

Public Systems Associates, Baton Rouge, LA
Senior Developer 3/2004 - 11/2004

Gathered business requirements and modeled system architecture for a legislative tracking system using .NET Framework and VisualStudio Enterprise Architect.
Designed, developed, implemented and maintained .NET application for a legislative tracking system with ASP.NET front end and VB.NET object-oriented business tier.
Developed ActiveReports.NET based reporting solution for this system.
Responsible for taking business requirements for legacy ASP application and porting them to a new system built on the .NET Framework.
Mentored small team of junior and senior programmers (6 developers) and testers in the successful on-time implementation of this application using the .NET framework and ASP.NET.
Designed and developed Oracle 9 database and stored procedures for the data tier of this application.
Created detailed test scripts and assisted test engineer in developing a test plan for this application.

lock\line, Prairie Village, KS
Lead Application Developer 3/2000 - 3/2004

Designed (using Rational Rose Enterprise Suite), developed and implemented an N-tier, web-based customer service application capable of taking enrollments, processing claims and researching customer information from a variety of data sources using ASP.NET front end and C# and VB.NET business tiers.
Developed SQL 2000 stored procedures and packages for this system and served as a backup DBA for the system.
Developed and maintained the company website using ASP.NET, ASP and a VB.NET business tier.
Developed a number of web-based client extranet applications built on the .NET Framework with C# and VB.NET business tiers.
Developed .NET development standards on enterprise-wide projects for the entire IT staff (60+ developers.)
Developed a flexible, user-managed, XML-based corporate intranet.
Initiated and led the IT initiative to convert from client/server architecture to N-tier.
Was hired as the company's first full-time web developer and was promoted to lead developer over all new development in under a year.

Microsoft (contractor employed by Volt Services), Redmond, WA
Software Engineer in Test 5/1999 - 3/2000

Designed and implemented test plans for SQL 7.0 and SQL 2000.
Developed backup system for MSNBC/Dateline viewer voting process.
Designed and implemented test plans for MSN International web sites.
Designed and implemented test plans for new MSN International sites and the content development software.

United Companies Financial Corporation, Baton Rouge, LA
Intranet Application Programmer/Analyst 5/1997 - 5/1999

Designed and developed websites for United Companies and subsidiary companies.
Designed the web-based intranet credit scoring system, using ASP, Visual InterDev, and MS SQL Server.
Designed and developed web sites for enterprise wide management ad-hoc reports.
Trained a staff of web developers in HTML, DHTML, Active Server Pages, SQL, Visual InterDev, and Visual Basic.
Developed software for data analysis and ad hoc reporting using Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Visual Basic and Crystal Reports.
Designed and developed an ActiveX interface to deliver Crystal Reports over the web.
Provided technical support for all Internet/intranet applications.
Set up company intranet for training and testing purposes.

Louisiana Department of Revenue, Baton Rouge, LA
Application Programmer/Analyst 5/1995 - 5/1997

Designed and developed re-factored core business system of the department.
Managed a small team of developers to maintain severance tax information for the department.
Designed and developed first public website for the department.

Louisiana Division of Administration, Baton Rouge, LA
Application Programmer/Analyst 8/1991 - 5/1995

Designed and developed state employee payroll and information system.
Designed and developed auditing reports of employee payroll and information.
Designed and developed US Census reports for the State of Louisiana.

EDUCATION

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
B.S in Computer Science (minors in Philosophy and English)
Graduated 8/1991, 3.2 GPA, full academic scholarship all 4 years.