Toni Husbands

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

RedVentures 

Staff Writer II

5/2022 – 11/2024

Personal finance writer for several web properties including CNET.com. I pitched weekly stories, maintained financial tracking data for savings account rates, wrote featured stories, updated general posts, and responded to media requests as required.

Freelance Professional 

Digital Content Production

5/2010 – 12/2020

• Passionate freelance writer with primary focus on personal finance. Experienced SEO content developer. Additional freelance writing topics include business development, WordPress, and Social Media management.
• Podcast host. Produce, edit, and promote a weekly podcast.
• Email/Social Media marketing. Developed a social media network that includes 17,000 users and another 5,000 email subscribers. I produce regular email blasts and maintain an active social media presence across multiple platforms.

Everest University 

Adjunct Faculty

1/2010 – 2/2013

Computer Applications instructor. I facilitated 2-4 classes each term. Managed weekly course communication, maintained active class participation, and graded assignments.

His Will, Inc. – Chicago, IL

Owner

8/2005 – 12/2014

This entrepreneurial endeavor seeks to create jobs for chronically unemployed/underemployed Chicagoans. My responsibilities include:

• Human resource management, training, and recruitment
• Payroll and account management
• Strategic planning and marketing promotions

Honors: 2005 semi-finalist, City of Chicago Treasurer Department Business Plan Competition

Caxy, Inc. – Chicago, IL

Operations Director

9/2007 – 11/2009

Caxy, Inc. is a custom web-based application development consulting firm. We partnered with marketing firms to provide technology solutions for marketing campaigns. As Operations Director, I managed a team of 8 onsite and offshore developers using the agile development methodology. I routinely managed 6-7 projects and updates simultaneously with budgets ranging from $30k – $125K.

My duties included:

• Business requirements analysis:

Supervised developers and defined project specifications, developed project schedules, and assigned resources.

• Quality assurance and testing phase management

• Client relationship management:

Served as the point person for client communication for the full duration of the project. Presented client demos and managed any change requests and/or defect resolutions.

• Internal admin support:

This responsibility dealt with the internal data management and report generation needed to analyze a variety of metrics. Revised the Caxy Development Process and instituted a project communication standard using our project management tool, Basecamp.

LCDC – Chicago, IL

Tech Center Manager

6/2003-6/2005

LCDC is a community development corporation that provides housing and other supportive services to North Lawndale residents. I served as the Tech Center Manager and provided infrastructure support for the business office.

Responsibilities included:

• Developed and implemented community-based technology classes.
• Managed the after school program. I increased the program’s capacity by 50% without increasing the program budget by partnering with universities to provide 12 – 15 paid staff and volunteers.
• Managed program budget.
• Contributed to proposal development and quarterly reporting for Freddie Mac and Microsoft grants; the tech center’s major funding sources.
• Helped secure a Cisco grant that provided an updated network installation for the tech center and business office.

DePaul University – Chicago, IL

Technical Director

9/2001 – 6/2003

I served as project manager for a technology assistance initiative that served small to midsize businesses. My duties included project management and resource allocation, designing professional development curriculum, software development in a J2EE environment using an Oracle 8i backend, and maintaining a development and production environment for web-based projects.

Sprint – Dallas, TX

Software Engineer

6/1997 – 8/2000

My roles included Software Architect, Web Site Administrator, and Deployment Coordinator.

• Developed, tested, enhanced, and maintained frameworks that made up Sprint’s web architecture used by internal web applications. I constantly applied Sprint’s OO design methodology and various design patterns.

• Mentored developers and worked closely with the Human Factors team to locate or develop reusable UI components for web enabled applications.  I specialized in presentation frameworks.

• Coordinated activities between development and product distribution groups for application release dates.  I ensured that application code and related components were installed or updated correctly on client machines during a software deployment process.