I first learned Drupal in 2008 and it was the backbone of one of my consulting service's very first sites. We used the Quiz module and built online certifications based on scoring. This feature was a huge hit for that client and carried them forward, such that they were able to get acquired and eventually retire.
Implementing sites on Drupal carried my partner and I through a decade of consulting as we built out websites for national and international public agencies, nonprofits, membership organizations, and e-commerce. Drupal fed my family through a variety of projects, paid for my healthcare, tuition, and our housing.
In my current role at Lullabot as an employee-owner, Drupal has continued to evolve. We use Drupal for our enterprise projects, for state and local governments as well as education and publishing clients: my current client, a state government, is converting their agencies into a unified platform.
From the community side, I organized the first DrupalCamp in Hawaii and am nearing the end of my elected term as a community board member for the Drupal Association, and continue to speak on panels, coordinate, organize, and present at DrupalCon and other events.
There is nothing that I do that is special: anyone else in the Drupal community can, and is welcome, to contribute, connect, and engage to the level that they have energy to do so, I recognize how fortunate I am to work at a company that invests in Drupal and also supports "internal time" so we continue to learn, grow, and develop our skills.
Because I have gained so much from Drupal, I'm very happy to encourage you to join me as a Ripple Maker—making a monthly contribution, and in my case, making an allocation to the Drupal Association as a beneficiary from my estate, helps me know that the core values of our community: collaboration, questioning and commenting, making items incrementally better, and continuing to encourage the next generation, will last.
Nikki Flores
Senior Technical Project Manager
Lullabot