Bio
My name is James Richardson and I was born and raised in New York City, specifically the village of Harlem. Currently I am an Assistant Professor at LaGuardia Community College and the Program Coordinator for the New Media Technology program.
Prior to coming to LaGuardia, I worked for a number of years in the fields of Information Technology and Interactive New Media. While my experience within the private sector was exciting, it did little to offer me the opportunity to effect change on an individual basis. It is my hope that my time at LaGuardia will enable me to share my experience and knowledge with the next generation of digital media professionals.
The majority of my professional career was cultivated at MetLife where, for 13 years, I served as a project manager and senior network designer in the Voice and Data Communications departments. During this time I was in charge of implementing voice and data technology to support the various lines of business that comprised MetLife’s 30,000-person workforce. One of my major accomplishments was in spearheading the rollout of multiple SONET rings to enhance the network infrastructure at 10 of MetLife’s mission-critical locations. SONET can best be described as an ultra high speed network that can protect itself against service outages by intelligently rerouting traffic around problem areas. The implementation of this technology greatly enhanced MetLife’s ability to continue to process insurance claims and conduct business even under extreme conditions.
While at MetLife I earned a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The program at NYU trained me in various aspects of Internet technology, digital audio and video production, e-commerce strategy, and web design. Upon graduation from NYU, I was offered an opportunity to help develop an Internet startup company called Arc: eConsultancy. Arc was a “pure” Internet based consultancy firm dedicated to advising Fortune 500 companies on how to migrate their business models to the Internet. For approximately two years I served as the Director of Implementation Architecture and managed the deployment of Internet initiatives for companies such as ADP (the nation’s leading payroll processing company) and Suze Orman Inc. (best selling author and CNBC financial commentator).
Currently I am developing a interactive application for the web and mobile devises to help African American and other urban youth find their voice in the information age.
