Staff Spotlight – Page 2

Staff photo Jay Hatcher on a dark blue background

Coding a Brighter Future. A staff spotlight on Jay Hatcher

Posted on October 13, 2023 | by Glen Jennings

There’s an alchemy to coding, a place where art meets science, a perfect fusion of technical know-how and creativity. Jay Hatcher has lived in that space since he was a kid.

“I’ve been a software engineer for about 17 years, but I’ve been learning to program computers since I was 10,” Hatcher said. “I’ve always enjoyed the creative artistry and technical challenge of getting a computer to do what you want it to. I like figuring out how to translate real-world problems and goals into a working application, either to meet a need or just to see what’s possible. It’s the most complex and creative field of engineering I know.”

Hatcher is a software engineer at HDI. He’s been here for more than a decade, and during that time he’s been involved in web design, software engineering, and software tools for HDI projects. Lately, he’s also been working on a project called Ucalculia, which seeks to provide a resource for an often-overlooked disability known as dyscalculia.

“I’ve been at HDI since 2011,” Hatcher said. “I was drawn to HDI’s mission to help people of all abilities and a focus on meeting real human needs rather than just producing a consumable product like so much of the software industry.”

Hatcher also sees some overlap in HDI’s mission and his own work.

“I like that we focus on enabling and empowering others,” he said. “In my mind, software engineering is about empowerment, making new opportunities and possibilities a reality for people.”

Within HDI itself, Hatcher also finds a lot of internal systems that focus on empowering people as well – including a highly collaborative environment filled with people that bring out the best in one another.

“I’m proud of the team I’m a part of and the way we work together to figure out solutions to problems,” he said. “I’ve done some neat projects, big and small, but my ability to learn new approaches to software development, try out creative solutions to problems, and learn what challenges need solving wouldn’t be possible without the great team we have here at HDI.”

In his personal life, Hatcher loves spending time with his family, including his two sons, Eli, age 9, and Liam, age 6. He’s a heavy reader, focusing on non-fiction and speculative fiction. A couple recent favorites include The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler and Galileo’s Error by Philip Goff. He’s also a longtime fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He considers his faith a major guiding star too – one that he feels deeply relates to his work at HDI.

“Living out my faith is the most important thing to me. Acting with compassion, striving to understand others, and learning to connect to people along life’s journey has enriched my life and helped me to avoid the tendency to live in my head. I’m glad I can work at a place where our values align so well with my personal convictions,” he said. “I could not ask for a more rewarding place to work, and I’m thrilled to see the great things HDI will do in the future.”

People make her happy! A staff spotlight on Richelle Gabbard

Posted on September 13, 2023 | by Glen Jennings

Richelle Gabbard calls herself a people person.

She considers herself an extravert. She loves to learn about people, and loves to help them solve their problems. And as a part of HDI’s HR team, those are good traits to have.

“When I’m around people and I get to talk to people and get to know them personally outside of their position…I get to know them for them,” she said. “For me, that’s important. I love that I get to do that.”

Gabbard is HDI’s Human Resources Payroll Assistant. That means that she helps ensure that everyone receives their paychecks in a timely and orderly manner. But that’s far from all she does.

“I am the go-to person for STEPS positions, temporary positions, student positions,” Gabbard said. “Any type of HR question, you can come to me. Any payroll question, you can come to me…I’m basically the person to go to other than Jessica [Whiting, HR Manager].”

Gabbard started working with UK through a STEPS position, which refers to a type of temporary position filled through the university’s staffing agency. Prior to that, she’d worked in management, a very different place from where she ended up. At the time, she’d been off work for eight months following the birth of her son.

“I wanted to find something that was more suited to his schedule. I wanted to not work weekends. That was a big thing for me,” Gabbard said. “I started shopping around on the jobs posting at UK. I ended up landing a position with STEPS.”

She started working in an accounting setting in the administrative team, starting part time at 10 hours a week. She steadily graduated to 20 hours a week, but then COVID hit.

“My position completely changed because I was doing filing. Obviously you can’t do filing from home,” she said. “That’s when Jessica started changing things…She became my supervisor and my position has done nothing but grow since then.”

Gabbard has liked the experience she’s had working at HDI. She feels like it’s a good, supportive workplace where people respect one another.

“I feel like we’re all connected. Nobody really feels higher than anybody else,” she said. “I feel like I can have a conversation with anyone here…I don’t feel like I’m a number.”

She also feels like HDI is a diverse workplace – something that is to its advantage.

“We have our own projects and our own needs, but I feel like it’s all one unit,” she said. “At the end of the day, we’re here for one mission.”

At home, Gabbard is working on finding balance in her life. With her son headed to preschool, she finds herself with a lot more free time and is using that time to discover new hobbies, find a balance in her life, let herself be introspective, and spend more time with her friends. And that’s a good life for her.

“I’m a minimalistic person. I don’t need a lot to make me happy. I definitely don’t think financial success is a motivating factor,” Gabbard said. “I would rather love what I do and not be a billionaire than have all the money in the world and be unhappy.”

Quilting a Life of Learning. A staff spotlight on Sally Dannenberg

Posted on September 6, 2023 | by Glen Jennings

Sally Dannenberg loves to learn and watch people learn. Maybe that has something to do with why she enjoys working with children so much – after all, for them, every day is an opportunity for new lessons and new adventures.

“I’ve always been interested in working with children,” she said. “I enjoy all the things that they’re learning every day all the time, and every day is kind of like a challenge for them. It’s something new. They see things a lot differently than we do.”

Dannenberg, a research and development associate with HDI’s Child Care Aware program, has been involved in childcare across multiple states for about 15 years. She started as a pediatric nurse before getting involved with childcare, including the Child Care Aware program in Minnesota. It’s part of what brought her to HDI – she saw a lot of the good work that the program did there, and saw a chance to continue the good work she’d already been doing.

“My original position was with Race to the Top, which was a grant to improve child care in Kentucky,” she said, adding that there were a number of equivalent grants across the US. “I was interested in that because I’d seen some of the changes they’d made in Minnesota through this grant.”

By now, she’s been with HDI for nine years. She’s been involved in a number of childcare-related projects within HDI, including courses for childcare providers – something she says she’s really proud of. Part of what’s kept her here is that she has the chance to constantly learn and grow as she works.

“There’s always something new to learn,” she said. “I learn constantly from all the other projects at HDI.”

The other part? She says it’s the people.

“They all have the same focus,” she said. “We care about people from birth to death…Childcare Aware is trying to help people get that best start that we can.”

While Dannenberg gets plenty of chances to learn on the job, she also loves to learn at home. She has a list of skills she wants to learn. One she’s best known for is quilting and sewing, to the point where she created a quilt that was raffled off as part of HDI’s 50th anniversary. If you ask her about it, though, she’ll tell you she’s not talented, she’s persistent. She’s stayed persistent since junior high.

She has a list of skills that she wants to learn beyond that. And through her persistence, she has learned a few – caning chairs, upholstering furniture – including a chair that was falling apart. Currently, she’s working on learning stained glass.

“It’s just kind of like a bucket list,” she said. “Usually, it’s something I want around my house that I couldn’t go out and buy. I want to say ‘I did that.’”

She also mentions that her family is the most important thing to her – and with them, she can put all that childcare experience to use to make sure they get the chance to grow up right.

“Even though my grandkids live far away, I still make the time to drive or fly to see them,” she said. “Just letting them know about how I grew up and teaching them things they can use the rest of their life too.”

Quilt with blue and white UK branding — Quilt by Sally Dannenberg

man wearing a striped shirt, sunglasses, and a hat standing in front of trees

From Hollywood to HDI

Posted on July 14, 2023 | by Glen Jennings

Gregory Bow loves using his art to tell stories.

For a while, that meant working in Hollywood in the animation industry. Now, it means working at HDI.

It might be surprising to learn that animation has a role at HDI

“I create video content that acts as supplemental materials for students to take their standardized testing. So far, I’ve worked to create animations that tell a story with the hopes that these videos will help visualize the story for the student to understand,” he said. “I also work as an illustrator creating picture boards and response options for the tests. Each test has five questions with three answers to choose from. Each of these answers has an illustration to go with it to aid the student in understanding the answers when making their choice.”

Bow got into the arts young. He started young and grew into his passion for art, taking as many classes on art as he could throughout his education.

“I’ve always had an interest in the arts ever since I was a child. I was fortunate to have a supportive family who encouraged me to work on my talents and develop my skills, and I took as many art and creative classes as I could in school,” he said. “I knew in some way I wanted to get into the world of animation. I loved Studio Ghibli films, and they really inspired me to go on that path.”

Bow studied at UK for two years, then transferred to the Savannah College of Art and Design. After three years, he had completed a bachelor’s degree in animation. He called his college career fun and formative. After he graduated, he had dreams of making it as a background artist for Cartoon Network and moved to Hollywood to make it happen.

It was difficult, though. Bow spent time unemployed and working at a movie theater before he finally found work in his dream job.

He did manage to make it though – he worked as a color stylist for Bento Box Entertainment on Legends of Chamberlain Heights and briefly did background art for another project from the same studio and then as a background artist for more than two years on Cartoon Network’s Mighty Magiswords. His work on Mighty Magiswords, bolstered with a little bit of freelance art, continued until the show didn’t receive a third season.

Bow again found himself without a job, and felt burnt out from his work in the industry. He returned home to Kentucky in 2019, shortly before the pandemic, and remembered a project at HDI he had worked for right after he graduated college back in 2009.

Now, he’s back, and he’s embracing a new story that he and his art can tell.

“Working on these animations brings me back to my college days when I created short films, working on all aspects from background art to character designs, animation and sound editing,” he said. “It’s really satisfying to see it all come together! The extra layer that these videos are not for entertainment, but for the sake of education and helping students pass their tests makes the work that much more satisfying.”

In his free time, Bow enjoys video games and playing with his beloved cockapoo, Willow. He has started caring for plants and developed quite the green thumb. On a final note, Bow noted that he feels we can learn a lot about how to take care of ourselves from plants.

“I think people are like plants, we all have our specific needs, and we enjoy and prefer certain environments,” he said. “Growing as a person, it helps to know what you personally need to be happy and healthy and build your life and environment around those things. You can’t serve the world if you yourself are withering away.”