[ employment ∙ service ∙ writing ∙ talks ∙ 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
“Discover the Best Types of Yoga for Stress Relief: 6 Science-Backed Options,” matthewtift.com, 18 January 2024.
“Can Yoga Reduce Stress?,” matthewtift.com, 11 January 2024.
“How We Compare: Leaderboards and Related Comparison Metrics in the Drupal Community,” Lullabot.com, 21 September 2021.
“Contribution Recognition and the Drupal Project,” Drupal.org, 12 July 2021.
“Drupal Accessibility: Why It’s Worth It,” Lullabot.com, 24 July 2020.
“Loving-Kindness and Yoga,” Spiritofthelakeyoga.com, 28 May 2020.
“Impact and Generosity in the Drupal Community,” Lullabot.com, 13 May 2020.
“Using Drupal in a Pandemic,” Lullabot.com, 18 March 2020.
“Interpreting the Drupal Core Commit History,” Lullabot.com, 5 June 2019.
“Imagining Drupal,” Lullabot.com, 5 April 2019.
“Meditative Live Coding and Musicological Hindrances,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Live Coding (Madrid, Spain), 18 January 2019.
“Six Months of Tidal,” TidalCycles.org, 11 November 2018.
“Drupal as a Political Act,” Lullabot.com, 7 December 2016.
“Who Sponsors Drupal Development?” (with Dries Buytaert), Drupal.org, 6 September 2016.
“Why Paid Drupal Modules Fail: Drupal as Art,” Lullabot.com, 7 April 2016.
“Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Open or Closed?,” Opensource.com, 6 April 2016.
“AMPing up Drupal,” AMP, 2 March 2016.
“Configuration Management in Drupal 8: The Key Concepts,” Lullabot.com, 4 November 2015.
“Better, then Bigger: Cultivating the Drupal Community,” Lullabot.com, 16 September 2015.
“The Cultural Construction of Drupal,” Lullabot.com, 7 May 2015.
“Grateful 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
“From Community Initiative to a Drupal CMS Track: the Dashboard Module” (with Christian López Espínola), DrupalCon Atlanta, 26 March 2025.
“Drupal Starshot Panel Discussion: Shaping the Future Together,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 13 September 2024.
“Principles of Configuration Management,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 12 September 2024.
“Principles of Configuration Management,” Drupal GovCon, 15 August 2024. [video, slides]
“Community Working Group Roundtable” (with Mark Casias and April Sides), DrupalCon Portland, 7 May 2024.
“Teaching Yoga in Schools,” Minnesota Yoga Conference, 20 April 2024.
“How Old Are Yoga Poses?,” Minnesota Yoga Conference, 21 April 2024.
“Introduction to Yoga History & Philosophy,” Spirit of the Lake, 3 December 2023.
“How Old Are Yoga Poses?,” The Marsh, 4 November 2023.
“An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Yoga,” Lake Fellowship, 8 October 2023.
“Habits of an Effective Drupal Contributor,” Twin Cities DrupalCamp, 15 September 2023. [video, slides]
“Habits of an Effective Drupal Contributor” (with Owen Bush), DrupalCon Pittsburgh, 6 June 2023.
“Reclaim Your Attention,” Minnesota Yoga Conference, 16 April 2023.
“Building Radical, Ethical Websites,” Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly, 22 June 2022.
“Drupal’s Credit System and Evidence-Based Open-Source Sustainability” (with Tim Lehnen), All Things Open, 17-19 October 2021. [video]
“Contributor Leaderboards to Incentivize Good Community Citizenship” (panelist), Open Source Summit, 29 September 2021.
“Evidence-Based Open-Source Sustainability” (with Tim Lehnen), GitLab Commit, 4 August 2021. [video]
“Cultivating the Drupal Community Mindfully,” DrupalCon Global Community Summit, 15 July 2020. [slides]
“Layout Builder in the Real World” (with Wes Ruvalcaba), Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 7 June 2019.
“The Imaginary Band of Drupal Rock Stars,” DrupalCon Seattle, 11 April 2019.
“Meditative Live Coding and Musicological Hindrances,” International Conference on Live Coding (Madrid, Spain), 18 January 2019.
“Drupal and the Music Industry,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 8 June 2018.
“Drupal in the Public Sphere,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 23 June 2017.
“Drupal in the Public Sphere,” DrupalCon Baltimore, 27 April 2017.
“AMPing up Drupal” (with Karen Stevenson and Marc Drummond), DrupalCon New Orleans, 11 May 2016.
“Configuration Management for Developers in Drupal 8” (the most attended session at DrupalCon), DrupalCon New Orleans, 10 May 2016.
“Configuration Management for Developers in Drupal 8” (with Alex Pott), BADCamp Configuration Management and DevOps Summit, 23 October 2015.
“Introducing Drupal 8,” Open Source North, 3 October 2015.
“Teaching Kids to Code,” NYC Camp, 18 July 2015.
“The Cultural Construction of Drupal,” NYC Camp, 18 July 2015.
“Teaching Kids to Code,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 27 June 2015.
Keynote, “Teaching Kids to Code,” DrupalCamp Colorado, 21 June 2015.
“Open Source Unitarian,” First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis, 4 January 4 2015.
“Open Source Culture and Unitarian Universalism,” Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 21 September 2014.
“Introducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 8 August 2014
“Introducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” DrupalCon Austin, 3 June 2014.
“Introducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” Twin Cities Drupal User Group, 23 April 2014.
“Introducing the Drupal 8 Configuration System,” BADCamp, October 26, 2013
Keynote, “Drupal 8: What You Need To Know,” DrupalCamp Wisconsin, 23 July 2013.
“Drupal 8: What You Need To Know,” Twin Cities Drupal Camp, 19 June 2013.
“WordPress, Drupal, and APIs, Oh My!” Integrated Media Association, 7 March 2013.
“How ttbook.org Uses Drupal,” Invited Speaker, PRI: Public Radio International, 27 February 2013.
“Drupal in Public Media,” Twin Cities Drupal User Group, 22 February 2012.
“Music, Musicians, and AIDS,” Invited Speaker, State of Wisconsin AIDS/HIV Program staff meeting (Madison), 2 June 2005.
“Positive Music: Women, Music, and AIDS,” Women’s and Gender Studies Conference – InterACTIONS: Activism, Research, Scholarship, Teaching (Madison, Wisconsin), April 16, 2005
“‘Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls’: Music, Black Women, and HIV/AIDS,” Society for American Music (Eugene, Oregon), 10 February 2005
“Musical AIDS: On the Popularity of American Musical Responses to HIV/AIDS in the 1990s,” Midwest Graduate Music Consortium (Chicago, Illinois), 28 February 2004.
“Excuse Me, Where Can I Find Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto?” Midwest Graduate Music Consortium (Madison, Wisconsin), 23 February 2002.
“How Do the Grateful Dead and Deadheads ‘Mean’?” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association (Albuquerque, New Mexico), 9 March 2001.
“Grateful Dead Musicking,” Society for American Music, “Toronto 2000: Musical Intersections,” 6 November 2000.
“Playing in the Band: The Grateful Dead and Musicking,” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association (Albuquerque, New Mexico), 11 February 2000.
Interviews
“Healthy Minds @Lullabot,” Lullabot Podcast, 30 April 2022.
“Drupal Credit System,” Talking Drupal, 16 August 2022.
Leaderboards and Metrics at Drupal.org," CHAOSScast, 16 July 2021.
“Episode 36,” TEN7 podcast, 8 August 2018.
“Drupalcon Baltimore Edition,” Lullabot Podcast, 20 April 2017.
“Past, Present, and Future of Drupal with Dries Buytaert and Matthew Tift,” Lullabot Podcast, 24 November 2016.
“Selling Drupal Modules and Distributions,” Lullabot Podcast, 7 April 2016.
“Drupal AMP,” Talking Drupal Podcast, 9 March 2016.
“Coding in Schools,” interviewed along with Eric Schneider (Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Minnetonka Public Schools), Drupalize.Me Podcast, 12 December 2014.
“Minnetonka Molds 21st-century Thinkers” by Stephanie Helseth, Sun Sailor, 7 April 2014.
“What <audio> Means for Public Radio,” Public Media Innovators Webinar, 30 May 2012.
KBOO (Portland, Oregon), interviewed by Andrew Geller about “Grateful Dead Musicking” chapter in All Graceful Instruments, 8 November 2008.
Interviewed on the “Morning Show” on WKOW (Madison) about Positive Music: Musical Responses to HIV/AIDS benefit concert, 3 December 2004.
“Concert to Benefit AIDS Network of Madison” by Jacob Stockinger. Wisconsin State Journal, 2 December 2004.