May 2008

ALUMNI PROFILE

Michele Handlir with her niece, Katie, on vacation.

You may not know Michele Handlir, SIS/BA ’87, CAS/MA ’91, personally, but you do know her work by the mere fact that you’re reading this article via AU’s Web site. Handlir has been the university’s webmaster for the last decade and is celebrating her 20th year working at AU.

Her work at AU began innocently enough. She accepted her first AU job at the library circulation desk when she was a grad student at CAS, in Russian. After that came jobs in the Registrar’s office as a classroom scheduler, a registration counselor, and then an Internet coordinator. [Former registrar] “Don Bunis and Linda Bolden-Pitcher had the great idea that the Internet was important,” she laughs.

“I thought it would be really interesting, then Filemon Palero [SOC/BA ’97], who used to work in the registrars office, told me he could teach me how to do it; he really encouraged me to take the job.” 

It was the then-new Internet position that launched Handlir’s career, and as one might expect with the instant nature of all things Web-related, she has not had much time to look back.

A typical day as one of the university’s top Web experts is all about project management, says Handlir “I may be seeing where different applications are with each project, checking on user testing or deliverables…or handling some maintenance with the Web.”

Handlir hadn’t thought about how much her experience working in other offices before joining OIT has helped her, until recently. “It’s funny, I was just in a meeting and it came up that I’ve worked in the Registrar's office before. It triggered me to ask, ‘did you check with X to do Y?’. My background really helps. I can see things from the perspective of an academic or student service.”

Handlir’s portfolio includes not only developing AU Web sites, such as the new Strategic Plan site, the Provost and President search sites, the Board of Trustees site, and President Kerwin’s Inauguration site, but development and maintenance for applications such as online alumni event registration, the online giving process, and the Washington Semester internship database. She also oversees the AU “portal” that faculty, staff, and students rely on daily for everything from new account creation and orientation registration to student surveys, university awards, and the online form through which seniors order their cap and gown. In short, if someone at AU needs a special Web function not already available, Handlir makes it happen. 

Having gone from a hands-on developer in her first few years as AU webmaster, to managing such positions, she’s not ashamed to say she misses that part of the work. “I like to get my hands in there, but the guys who work for me don’t like it,” she notes.

Still, it’s not like Handlir doesn’t have plenty to do. For more than a year now, she has lead the technology group for AU’s massive Web redesign project, which, when launched, will present an entirely new look, feel, and functionality for http://american.edu as the world knows it. Her related work has included working with dozens of internal staff and the New York-based firm, HUGE, contracted to assist in the redesign; selecting the content management system through which much of american.edu’s news, images, videos, podcasts and more will be generated; and overseeing the migration of all content selected for transfer from the current American.edu Web site to the new one. "The american.edu site currently receives more that 1 million visits per month and we want to ensure that each visitor has a constructive and memorable experience," says Handlir.

When she’s not in a meeting discussing the finer details of AU’s Web presence, Handlir likes to paint, watch old movies, visit with her nephew and nieces, and travel. She tries to take at least one trip to a new, unique place each year.

As soon as the new http://american.edu site goes live, she plans to head for Lebanon, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain, to visit and travel with – notsurprisingly – a friend and fellow alumna, Hadia Barre, SOC/BA ’95, KSB/MS ‘03.  

“I’ve made life-long friends at AU,” she notes. “Although we may not work together today, I value the friendship of those I have met along the way.”

-Melissa Reichley

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