I have been working as a Software Engineer at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for the past five years. In my role, I serve as the lead developer for all public-facing websites within the Department of Strategic Communications. The main website is built using Cascade CMS, and I also manage over 50 supporting sites developed in WordPress. Additionally, I oversee the maintenance of the intranet sites and the associated servers.
Throughout my time at UNMC, I have worked on a project aimed at overhauling the entire platform. This initiative has involved introducing new techniques that allow content editors to publish material more easily while meeting accessibility requirements. Thanks to my previous experience with ADA compliance from my work on Annual Credit Report and the Omaha World-Herald, I am considered the subject matter expert in the department regarding accessibility and security in web development.
When I first joined UNMC, there was no centralized management system for their WordPress sites, nor were there experienced developers available to maintain them. To address this, I created a repository for deploying custom plugins and themes through the core WordPress update functionality. One of the plugins I developed introduces a specialized role that grants content editors administrative rights while restricting their ability to install plugins and themes. This measure was implemented to prevent issues, as many sites were compromised due to a lack of oversight in plugin and theme deployment. The plugin and repository also maintain a centralized list of plugins, themes, and users, regularly checking for security patches identified through the Wordfence Vulnerability Data Feed.
In the Cascade environment, I designed a completely new theme that enables content editors to build pages using blocks, similar to the Gutenberg editor in WordPress. Prior to my overhaul, the environment only offered predefined templates with limited flexibility for creating custom layouts to cater to the needs of the various departments managing content. I collaborated with a third-party vendor to achieve the desired look and feel for Strategic Communications, then transformed that design into modular content blocks that can be reused and configured in various ways, allowing for a continuously expanding array of page layouts.