Resume

William (Bill) Heldman, Ph.D.

Denver Metro Area, CO • bill@williamheldman.com  

Experienced Educator and Technical Content Creator with Vision and Drive

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

  • Nineteen years Career and Technical Education (CTE) classroom experience
  • (Colorado Department of Education (CDE) Career and Technical Authorization #24430039)
  • Twenty years of Information Technology (IT) experience, moving up through increasingly responsible positions.
  • Worked with CDE on computer science standards for the state (2017)
  • Worked with community college stakeholders on STEM standards subcommittees. (2014)
  • Created a cybersecurity program, now in its 11th year.
  • Created a game development program at Warren Tech, now in its 16th year, with a new teacher.
  • Member of various school leadership committees
  • Significant adult training experience (Xcel Energy, Executrain, Parks College, RockCS)
  • Strong focus on STEM as pertains to academic and career achievement
  • Appropriate application of technologies to increase and enhance learning
  • Author, co-author, or contract writer of 14 technical certification study guides (Sybex) and numerous articles for technical magazines.
  • Presenter at Jeffco Schools’ annual Jeffcon conference for students, in which I speak about the importance of technical certifications and Python programming.
  • Due to the COVID pandemic, I started a YouTube channel called TechTalk Education so that I could provide students with remote lessons. I have continued with that channel, and I try to upload a video a week to it.  

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

WARREN TECH • 8-9-05 to 6-1-2024• 40 hours/week • Lakewood, CO

Secondary Teacher – Computer Science, Cybersecurity and Machine Learning

Warren Tech (WT) is a CTE option school in the Jeffco School district, the largest school district in Colorado with 86,000 in 155 schools. 

  • I have two classes: AM, 7:30 AM – 10:30 AM, and PM, noon – 3:45 PM. Students are brought to WT via 19 feeder high schools throughout the district, and some mountain communities. My program is a two-year program: Students can come in starting in their junior year. If a student is a senior, but this is their first year with me, I consider them a first-year student in terms of my class. Seniors who are starting their second year with me write a Senior Capstone Project Plan that they use to gather more training in the type of Information Technology (IT) subjects in which they are interested, and which prepares them for college and career. I usually have over 25 students in each of my classes.
  • I teach the CompTIA suite of IT Pro certifications (IT Fundamentals, A+, Network+, Linux+ and Security+). My class is a CompTIA Academic Alliance partner. I routinely attend the CompTIA Partner Summits each year.
  • I am also a member of Cisco Academy and offer my students several different Cisco Academy classes. For example, the US CyberPatriot competition in which many of my students participate has a Cisco Packet Tracer segment. I require students to go through the Packet Tracer Essentials class as a part of their coursework.
  • I also teach students Python programming, as well as web development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Students have the option of going through Machine Learning (ML) training in my class, which earns them a second math credit.
  • The last five years I have been focused on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and data science (DS). I use a combination of books (e.g., Jake VanderPlas’ Python Data Science Handbook), Python programming, statistics training, and hardware such as the Nvidia Jetson Nano, and the AWS Deep Racer autonomous cars.
  • My best coders participate in an annual coding competition that happens in the spring and is hosted by Lockheed Martin. It is called CodeQuest. We have placed several of the years in which my students have participated in this competition.
  • Students that are deeply interested in cybersecurity have an opportunity to participate in the annual Lockheed Martin CyberQuest competition, which is essentially a red team/blue team kind of thing. We took first place in the 2023 competition in Colorado.
  • We participate in the US Air Force Association CyberPatriot competition on a regular basis. In previous years we have placed in the top 10% of teams.
  • In addition to students participating in various competitions such as Lockheed Martin’s CodeQuest and CyberQuest, and the US CyberPatriot competitions, students also compete in the annual Colorado School of Mines programming competition. In its inaugural year, my students took first place, and we took first place again in 2023.
  • Additionally, I teach a lot of cybersecurity-oriented content, including Kali Linux, and hacking electronics using HakShop’s Rubber Ducky, Bash Bunny, LAN Turtle, and WIFI Pineapple.
  • I have a strong articulation agreement with Red Rocks Community College (RRCC), which is just down the street from my school. I have been in the capacity of adjunct instructor there for the last 15 year. Students can earn up to 20 college credits because of this articulation agreement. Additionally, in the past RRCC has provided wonderful mentors who have been helpful to the students participating in the CyberPatriot competition.
  • I am a member of the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and have been actively involved with this organization for several years.
  • I enjoy teaching capture the flag (CTF) sessions. I am a member of Cyber.org, Hack the Box, and Try Hack Me.

IT CONTRACTING • 10-4-04 to 8-31-05 • Boulder, CO

Analyst

Wrote impact analysis briefs and whitepapers for technology companies such as IBM, HP, and Microsoft.

CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER • 10-2-00 to 10-31-04 • Denver, CO

IT Section Manager – Technology Services

Responsible for 24/7 management of the City’s central datacenter including mainframe, server farm, storage area network (SAN), databases (Oracle, SQL), security, helpdesk, PC technicians, enterprise applications. 

  • Fifty+ employees, budgeting, conflict management, strategic planning, negotiation, team building

EchoStar Communications Corp. • 9-6-99 to 10-31-00 • Denver, CO

Windows NT Server supervisor

Supervised a team of five Windows NT server administrators managing 200 servers running a variety of enterprise applications such as Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) and Exchange Server.

Vision Technology Systems, Inc., VP • 9-7-98 to 10-1-99 • Golden, CO

Vice-president and co-owner of a computer consulting business.

Worked on-site at various customer account locations to support servers, install enterprise software such as SMS Server and Exchange Server, and develop packaging scripts.

Colo. Department of Revenue (DOR) • 9-2-96 to 10-5-98 • Denver, CO

Network Supervisor

Managed the DOR network which was spread across two primary campuses and several satellite offices. Architected and installed new networking equipment (3-COM ATM backbone), managed servers. Team lead over five other network administrators.

TomTec Imaging Systems • 4-4-94 to 8-30-96 • Boulder, CO

System administrator

Managed the network for a small hardware and software company developing 3d ultrasound imaging software for HP ultrasound machines. I managed Novell Netware and Windows NT servers, as well as an MS Mail server (running on OS/2), and the telephony servers. Also supported customers. I had one person working with me part-time.

CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER • 4-1-93 to 4-29-94 • Denver, CO

Programmer, system administrator and office manager

The City and County of Denver’s Civil Service Commission is responsible for the testing of firefighter and police recruits as well as current police officers or firefighters who are testing for promotions. I was responsible for maintaining a dBase III+ database that handled all the scheduling and reporting of these tests. I maintained a single Novell server. I also maintained a 10Base-T bus-type network that consisted of coaxial cable and coax network cards.

XCEL ENERGY • 10-20-80 to 4-24-93 • Leadville, Silverthorne, and Denver, CO

Programmer, customer support technician, computer trainer

When I first started working at Xcel, I was a meter-reader in the Colorado Summit County area. I moved into the Silverthorne office, and finally moved from there into gas and electric (G&E) dispatch. In 1982 I transferred to Denver and worked seven years as an electric distribution dispatcher, responsible for the entire Denver metro area. I took tons of mainframe classes along with PC classes such as Ashton-Tate dBase III+, WordPerfect and Lotus. I transferred out of the dispatch center to work as a mainframe and PC programmer in the building in which the dispatch center was located. I ran Mark IV mainframe reports and created dBase databases. After two years there I transferred into the Data Processing (DP) training department and began teaching Lotus 123, WordPerfect, DOS batch file creation, dBase and other classes like that. Xcel decided to close the DP training department, so I transferred first to Human Resources where I was a programmer, and then to a department that handled mainframe assembler code. Finally, Xcel decided to outsource all their IT operations to IBM, and I made the decision to separate from the company at that juncture.

MILITARY SERVICE

United States Air Force basic training

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. Biblical Studies ♦ Louisiana Baptist Univ. ♦ 2016
  • Ph.D. Work ♦ Univ. of Phoenix, Colorado State University ♦ 2010
  • Principal Licensure-JCLA4 ♦ Univ. of Colo. Denver ♦ 2008
  • Teacher Authorization Program ♦ Colorado State University ♦ 2007
  • MBA ♦ Regis University ♦ 2004
  • BSBA ♦ University of Phoenix ♦ 1987
  • Senior Management Leadership Training Program ♦ City and County of Denver ♦ Career Service Authority

CERTIFICATIONS

  • CompTIA ITF+
  • CompTIA A+
  • CompTIA Network+
  • CompTIA CySA+
  • CompTIA PenTest+
  • CompTIA Project+
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Cloud Practitioner (CCP)
  • Python Institute Certified Entry-Level Programmer (PCEP)
  • CompTIA Linux+ (in progress)
  • AWS Systems Architect Associate (in progress)
  • Microsoft Azure (in progress)

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENTS

  • CITY UNIVERSITY OF SEATTLE AND NATIONAL CENTERS OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE IN CYBERSECURITY  ♦ Cyber Security Educator Training ♦ 2023
  • PORTER BILLUPS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY ♦ 2023—CompTIA ITF+ instructor for under-privileged Denver youth.
  • ROCKCS PRESENTER ♦ (Saint Vrain Valley and Adams 12 School Districts)—Several years
  • COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES ♦ 2019—Introduction to Cryptograph 
  • COLORADO SUCCEEDS PRIZE 2019—Finalist in the 2019 Colorado Succeeds prize competition for excellence in education.
  • UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT COLORADO SPRINGS (UCCS) CS 1120 REMOTE TEACHER TRAINING—Attended a training session in which teachers work with UCCS instructors to provide C-language training to students who are demonstrably capable of handling the content.
  • COLORADO EDUCATOR FELLOWSHIP 2017—Participated with other candidates in a yearlong effort to learn about new educational ideas and to share educational strategies among one another.
  • CSAW – NYU POLY 2012—Attended a summer boot camp that piqued my interest in cybersecurity and led me to develop a full-time program for students that I started offering in the ’13-’14 school year.
  • COLORADO ASSOCIATION OF SCIENCE TEACHERS – American Vacuum Society (AVS) high-school teacher of the year 2011.
  • ACADEMIES CREATING TEACHER SCIENTISTS (ACTS) PROGRAM INTERN NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB (NREL)  2007– Selected from a nationwide candidate pool, I worked with scientists and engineers at NREL helping them define ways to show computer modeling wind data on a variety of specialized maps. Professional development in science pedagogy.
  • TEACHER GAME INSTITUTE (TGI)       UNIV. OF DENVER       2008—Worked with DU professors and teachers from various districts in teaching students to develop socially conscious games.
  • MICROSOFT CERTIFIED SYSTEMS ENGINEER (MCSE) ♦ 1994 
  • MICROSOFT MOST VALUABLE PROFESSIONAL (MVP) ♦ 2004
  • PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF 14 TECHNOLOGY CERTIFICATION STUDY GUIDES 1996 – current— Sybex Books Inc.