CV

[ employment βˆ™ service βˆ™ writing βˆ™ talks βˆ™ interviews

 

Education

Ph.D., Musicology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007

M.A., Musicology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001

B.A., Music, magna cum laude, Bemidji State University, 1998

 

Employment

2022-present, Yoga Teacher, The Marsh (Minnetonka, Minnesota)

2021-present, Yoga Teacher, Minnesota Arboretum

2020-present, Yoga Teacher, Spirit of the Lake Yoga (Excelsior, Minnesota)

2014-present, Lead Engineer (2021-present), Senior Developer (2014-2021), Lullabot

2022, Yoga Teacher, Minnetonka Community Education (Minnesota)

2009, Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology, University of Iowa (Iowa City)

2006-2014, Web Developer, Wisconsin Public Radio (Madison and Minneapolis)

1999-2006, Sea Grant Project Assistant, University of Wisconsin-Madison

2003, Event Coordinator, AIDS Network (Madison)

1999, Office Manager, Madeline Island Music Camp (Minneapolis)

1998, Artistic Planning Intern, Minnesota Orchestra (Minneapolis)

1998, Substitute Music Instructor, Aspen Country Day School (Aspen, Colorado)

1997-1998, Teaching Associate, History and Literature of Music, Bemidji State University (Minnesota)

 

Service

2024-present, Social Justice Chair, Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (Excelsior, Minnesota)

2024-present, Congregational Connector, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance (MUUSJA)

2024-present, Starshot Track Chair, Drupal CMS

2023-present, Member, Community Health Team, Drupal Community Working Group

2022-present, Organizer, Mental Health Working Group, Lullabot

2020-present, Host, Pretty Good Meditation (podcast)

2011-present, Organizer, Twin Cities Drupal Camp (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

2010-present, Core Contributor, Drupal

2010-present, Web Developer, Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (Excelsior, Minnesota)

2022-2024, Board Member, Board Chair (2023-2024), onelove.yoga

2013-2023, Maintainer, Drupal Configuration API

2019-2022, Drupal core initiative coordinator, Olivero

2017-2022, Facilitator, Prison Meditation Group, Minnesota Department of Corrections

2022, Co-organizer, Burnout and Mental Health in Open Source, GitHub’s Maintainer Month

2016-2022, Host, Hacking Culture (podcast)

2021, Yoga Teacher, DrupalCon North America

2020-2021, Organizer, Spirit of the Lake Community Discussions & Book Club

2020, Volunteer, 86th Annual Meeting, American Musicological Society (AMS)

2019, Program Committee Member, International Conference on Live Coding (Madrid, Spain)

2014-2016, Instructor, Minnewashta Elementary Coding Club (Shorewood, Minnesota)

2014, Mentor, Tonka Coder Dojo (Minnetonka, Minnesota)

2014, Member, Tonka <Codes> Design Team (Minnetonka School District, Minnesota)

2013, Instructor, Drupal Developers Unite! Inaugural Pub Media Drupal Developer’s Clinic, Integrated Media Association Conference (Austin, Texas), March 6

2010-2012, Board Member, Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists

2004-2006, Member, State of Wisconsin HIV Prevention Community Planning Council

2004, Producer, Positive Music: an AIDS Benefit Concert (Madison)

2002, Founder & Coordinator, Wisconsin AIDS Ride (formerly AIDS Network Cycles Together)

1993, Eagle Scout

 

Writing

β€œDiscover the Best Types of Yoga for Stress Relief: 6 Science-Backed Options,” matthewtift.com, 18 January 2024.

β€œCan Yoga Reduce Stress?,” matthewtift.com, 11 January 2024.

β€œHow We Compare: Leaderboards and Related Comparison Metrics in the Drupal Community,” Lullabot.com, 21 September 2021.

β€œContribution Recognition and the Drupal Project,” Drupal.org, 12 July 2021.

β€œDrupal Accessibility: Why It’s Worth It,” Lullabot.com, 24 July 2020.

β€œLoving-Kindness and Yoga,” Spiritofthelakeyoga.com, 28 May 2020.

β€œImpact and Generosity in the Drupal Community,” Lullabot.com, 13 May 2020.

β€œUsing Drupal in a Pandemic,” Lullabot.com, 18 March 2020.

β€œInterpreting the Drupal Core Commit History,” Lullabot.com, 5 June 2019.

β€œImagining Drupal,” Lullabot.com, 5 April 2019.

β€œMeditative Live Coding and Musicological Hindrances,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Live Coding (Madrid, Spain), 18 January 2019.

β€œSix Months of Tidal,” TidalCycles.org, 11 November 2018.

β€œDrupal as a Political Act,” Lullabot.com, 7 December 2016.

β€œWho Sponsors Drupal Development?” (with Dries Buytaert), Drupal.org, 6 September 2016.

β€œWhy Paid Drupal Modules Fail: Drupal as Art,” Lullabot.com, 7 April 2016.

β€œAccelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Open or Closed?,” Opensource.com, 6 April 2016.

β€œAMPing up Drupal,” AMP, 2 March 2016.

β€œConfiguration Management in Drupal 8: The Key Concepts,” Lullabot.com, 4 November 2015.

β€œBetter, then Bigger: Cultivating the Drupal Community,” Lullabot.com, 16 September 2015.

β€œThe Cultural Construction of Drupal,” Lullabot.com, 7 May 2015.

β€œGrateful Dead Musicking” in All Graceful Instruments: The Contexts of the Grateful Dead Phenomenon, edited by Nicholas Meriwether, 72-91. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007.

Musical AIDS: Music, Musicians, and the Cultural Construction of HIV/AIDS in the United States, PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007. (PDF)

 

Talks

β€œFrom Community Initiative to a Drupal CMS Track: the Dashboard Module” (with Christian LΓ³pez EspΓ­nola), DrupalCon Atlanta, 26 March 2025.

β€œDrupal Starshot Panel Discussion: Shaping the Future Together,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 13 September 2024.

β€œPrinciples of Configuration Management,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 12 September 2024.

β€œPrinciples of Configuration Management,” Drupal GovCon, 15 August 2024. [video, slides]

β€œCommunity Working Group Roundtable” (with Mark Casias and April Sides), DrupalCon Portland, 7 May 2024.

β€œTeaching Yoga in Schools,” Minnesota Yoga Conference, 20 April 2024.

β€œHow Old Are Yoga Poses?,” Minnesota Yoga Conference, 21 April 2024.

β€œIntroduction to Yoga History & Philosophy,” Spirit of the Lake, 3 December 2023.

β€œHow Old Are Yoga Poses?,” The Marsh, 4 November 2023.

β€œAn Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Yoga,” Lake Fellowship, 8 October 2023.

β€œHabits of an Effective Drupal Contributor,” Twin Cities DrupalCamp, 15 September 2023. [video, slides]

β€œHabits of an Effective Drupal Contributor” (with Owen Bush), DrupalCon Pittsburgh, 6 June 2023.

β€œReclaim Your Attention,” Minnesota Yoga Conference, 16 April 2023.

β€œBuilding Radical, Ethical Websites,” Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly, 22 June 2022.

β€œDrupal’s Credit System and Evidence-Based Open-Source Sustainability” (with Tim Lehnen), All Things Open, 17-19 October 2021. [video]

β€œContributor Leaderboards to Incentivize Good Community Citizenship” (panelist), Open Source Summit, 29 September 2021.

β€œEvidence-Based Open-Source Sustainability” (with Tim Lehnen), GitLab Commit, 4 August 2021. [video]

β€œCultivating the Drupal Community Mindfully,” DrupalCon Global Community Summit, 15 July 2020. [slides]

β€œLayout Builder in the Real World” (with Wes Ruvalcaba), Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 7 June 2019.

β€œThe Imaginary Band of Drupal Rock Stars,” DrupalCon Seattle, 11 April 2019.

β€œMeditative Live Coding and Musicological Hindrances,” International Conference on Live Coding (Madrid, Spain), 18 January 2019.

β€œDrupal and the Music Industry,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 8 June 2018.

β€œDrupal in the Public Sphere,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 23 June 2017.

β€œDrupal in the Public Sphere,” DrupalCon Baltimore, 27 April 2017.

β€œAMPing up Drupal” (with Karen Stevenson and Marc Drummond), DrupalCon New Orleans, 11 May 2016.

β€œConfiguration Management for Developers in Drupal 8” (the most attended session at DrupalCon), DrupalCon New Orleans, 10 May 2016.

β€œConfiguration Management for Developers in Drupal 8” (with Alex Pott), BADCamp Configuration Management and DevOps Summit, 23 October 2015.

β€œIntroducing Drupal 8,” Open Source North, 3 October 2015.

β€œTeaching Kids to Code,” NYC Camp, 18 July 2015.

β€œThe Cultural Construction of Drupal,” NYC Camp, 18 July 2015.

β€œTeaching Kids to Code,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 27 June 2015.

Keynote, β€œTeaching Kids to Code,” DrupalCamp Colorado, 21 June 2015.

β€œOpen Source Unitarian,” First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, 4 January 4 2015.

β€œOpen Source Culture and Unitarian Universalism,” Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 21 September 2014.

β€œIntroducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 8 August 2014

β€œIntroducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” DrupalCon Austin, 3 June 2014.

β€œIntroducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” Twin Cities Drupal User Group, 23 April 2014.

β€œIntroducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” BADCamp, October 26, 2013

Keynote, β€œDrupal 8: What You Need To Know,” DrupalCamp Wisconsin, 23 July 2013.

β€œDrupal 8: What You Need To Know,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 19 June 2013.

β€œWordPress, Drupal, and APIs, Oh My!” Integrated Media Association, 7 March 2013.

β€œHow ttbook.org Uses Drupal,” Invited Speaker, PRI: Public Radio International, 27 February 2013.

β€œDrupal in Public Media,” Twin Cities Drupal User Group, 22 February 2012.

β€œMusic, Musicians, and AIDS,” Invited Speaker, State of Wisconsin AIDS/HIV Program staff meeting (Madison), 2 June 2005.

β€œPositive Music: Women, Music, and AIDS,” Women’s and Gender Studies Conference – InterACTIONS: Activism, Research, Scholarship, Teaching (Madison, Wisconsin), April 16, 2005

β€œβ€˜Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls’: Music, Black Women, and HIV/AIDS,” Society for American Music (Eugene, Oregon), 10 February 2005

β€œMusical AIDS: On the Popularity of American Musical Responses to HIV/AIDS in the 1990s,” Midwest Graduate Music Consortium (Chicago, Illinois), 28 February 2004.

β€œExcuse Me, Where Can I Find Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto?” Midwest Graduate Music Consortium (Madison, Wisconsin), 23 February 2002.

β€œHow Do the Grateful Dead and Deadheads β€˜Mean’?” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association (Albuquerque, New Mexico), 9 March 2001.

β€œGrateful Dead Musicking,” Society for American Music, β€œToronto 2000: Musical Intersections,” 6 November 2000.

β€œPlaying in the Band: The Grateful Dead and Musicking,” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association (Albuquerque, New Mexico), 11 February 2000.

 

Interviews

β€œHealthy Minds @Lullabot,” Lullabot Podcast, 30 April 2022.

β€œDrupal Credit System,” Talking Drupal, 16 August 2022.

Leaderboards and Metrics at Drupal.org," CHAOSScast, 16 July 2021.

β€œEpisode 36,” TEN7 podcast, 8 August 2018.

β€œDrupalcon Baltimore Edition,” Lullabot Podcast, 20 April 2017.

β€œPast, Present, and Future of Drupal with Dries Buytaert and Matthew Tift,” Lullabot Podcast, 24 November 2016.

β€œSelling Drupal Modules and Distributions,” Lullabot Podcast, 7 April 2016.

β€œDrupal AMP,” Talking Drupal Podcast, 9 March 2016.

β€œCoding in Schools,” interviewed along with Eric Schneider (Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Minnetonka Public Schools), Drupalize.Me Podcast, 12 December 2014.

β€œMinnetonka Molds 21st-century Thinkers” by Stephanie Helseth, Sun Sailor, 7 April 2014.

β€œWhat <audio> Means for Public Radio,” Public Media Innovators Webinar, 30 May 2012.

KBOO (Portland, Oregon), interviewed by Andrew Geller about β€œGrateful Dead Musicking” chapter in All Graceful Instruments, 8 November 2008.

Interviewed on the β€œMorning Show” on WKOW (Madison) about Positive Music: Musical Responses to HIV/AIDS benefit concert, 3 December 2004.

β€œConcert to Benefit AIDS Network of Madison” by Jacob Stockinger. Wisconsin State Journal, 2 December 2004.