Lisa Lees at work After six years at home with my kids, I returned to work at Michigan State University in 2006 as the administrative assistant in the LBGT Resource Center. I am obviously overqualified for a Secretary II position, but the work needs to be done and I'm able to use many of my skills to apply technology in support of the mission of the Center. When I'm not on campus or bussing and walking to and fro, I read manga, write, draw comics, watch anime and 'cult classic' movies, maintain four or five other websites, play my guitars, do a little gaming and occasionally sleep.

Other Activities/Information

My two children (ages 16 and 18) have grown up in the Clonlara School Home Based Education Program. They have never been to school, never took a test (until driver's ed). Their primary learning activities included computers, reading, theater, model rocketry, electronics and robotics. They know how to learn, without any false idea that they actually know everything.

My kids and I became involved with All-of-us Express Children's Theatre in 1995. I helped teach and supervise stage makeup for some forty mainstage shows, was President for four years and am serving again on the board since 2005. I created and maintain the web pages; have written press releases, show flyers, programs and the membership Newsletter, and with my son, do most of the still photography.

I began writing, doodling and taking photos when I was in my single digits. In 2005 I began self-publishing books on Lulu.com, the world's fastest-growing print-on-demand marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. I have continued my young adult Queer Circle novels as a web comic titled A Queer Turn of Events.

I have a six-string steel acoustic guitar, an electric bass (Fender Batz Maru, of course!) and a USB keyboard. I love music, but have some dyslexia type problems dealing with the head-to-finger thing. I just have fun amd do a little 'tuning'.

I have celiac disease, which makes life a bit more interesting than I would wish. My eyesight is not very good, which is one of the reasons I don't drive. (The other is that I think it's a silly waste of money and is bad for the planet.) I read and understand French pretty well, am working hard to do my best to learn to read and understand Japanese and some Korean, and have an I'm sure to be unfulfilled ambition to learn more Welsh and Zulu. I know a zillion computer languages, and was once involved with the Loglan project.

Writing / Speaking / Training

Many of my articles, book reviews, columns and tutorials have been published. I have spoken at events and conferences, facilitated groups, and done various types of instruction and training. Please see my lists of publications and workshops for more information.

Employment History

Secretary II. Administrative assistant in the LBGT Resource Center, Michigan State University. This is a small office: Director, Assistant Director and myself are the full-time staff. During the academic year there are one or two graduate student assistants, an undergraduate program assistant, and perhaps an intern. In addition to answering the phone and making appointments, I designed and maintain the website, take care of the computers and do some publications and photography.

Systems Analyst II. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University. Senior System Administrator, departmental Unix systems, 1995-1999. Manager of the Pattern Recognition and Image Processing research laboratory, 1991-1995.

Instructor. Computer Science Curriculum Coordinator, Lyman Briggs College, MSU. Taught undergraduate computer courses: Computer Literacy, C Programming and FORTRAN Programming. Did the transition to semesters planning for LBC computer courses.

Systems Analyst III. Manager of System and Network Software Services, College of Engineering, MSU.

Senior Analyst. MABC-Select Sires Cooperative, East Lansing. Data processing manager with a staff of two programmer analysts. Designed an Oracle database to replace a COBOL application system running on a PR1ME minicomputer.

Programmer Analyst II. Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, MSU. Helped design a Nomad mainframe database to replace a FORTRAN application system, implemented several database systems on PCs, and installed the first Unix system in the College.

Technical Writer. COSI, Ann Arbor. Designed, wrote and edited technical manuals. Maintained the Unix typesetting software.

Technical Writer. Tec-Ed, Ann Arbor. Estimated, quoted, designed, wrote and edited documentation for major vendors.

Systems Research Programmer III. ICPSR, Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. FORTRAN programming and system administration on networked PR1ME computers; assembly language and FORTRAN programming on the new IBM PC.

Lecturer. Department of Computer Science, The University of Michigan-Flint. Developed and taught undergraduate courses, including Programming Concepts (ALGOL and PL/I), Computer Organization (hardware and machine language programming), Data Structures, Operating Systems, and Systems Programming. Created and ran the minicomputer lab (DEC LSI-11 and Burroughs B1830) and the digital logic hardware lab.

Associate Editor, Reviews Editor. Creative Computing magazine. Education oriented magazine in the early years of personal computing.

Education

Work towards M.A. in philosophy, The University of Michigan

M.S. in computer science, minor in psychology of higher education, Missouri University of Science and Technology

B.A. in philosophy, minors in physics and psychology, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri

Holland Hall School, Tulsa, Oklahoma; newspaper and yearbook photographer

Gilcrease Museum high school program in North American Archaeology and Ethnology; site photographer

Honors & Achievements

Prism Award Certificate of Honor, "in recognition and appreciation of significant contributions to the LGBT community"

National Merit Scholarship Finalist

Sometimes I'm a member of Mensa, but usually I let my membership lapse because I'm pretty much antisocial.