Code.gov Better Know an Engineer: Rayvn Manuel
By The Code.gov Team
We’re back with another installment of Better Know an Engineer. We are pleased to feature a friend of Code.gov and all-around amazing person Rayvn Manuel of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. While COVID-19 won’t allow us to visit the museum right now, we encourage you to check it out when they reopen their doors — it’s truly an awe-inspiring experience.
Name: Rayvn Manuel
Hometown: Bronx, NY
Education: BS in Psychology, BS in Information Technology — Web Design and Development, Masters in Software Engineering — focus on Web Applications
Title/Position: Sr. Application Developer || Architect & DevOps Engineer
Tell us a little about your career as an engineer and how you arrived at the National Museum of African American History and Culture?
After I completed my time in the Army, I accepted a position as an application support technician for AOL. It was during training that I learned what a browser was. Shortly thereafter I began building my own computers and creating web sites. I taught myself PHP (general purpose scripting language) when PHP was just 2 and a half years old.
My tenure with AOL found me working roles as executive support, help desk tech, AV chick and project manager for all things conferencing for AOLTW. My last year with AOL I finally landed a role as a Junior Software Engineer on the AOL Publishing Team (the public website and video portal).
Following one of the larger AOL layoffs, I took a position as an application support engineer with a smaller company whose focus was on SharePoint. I was completing my Bachelors degree at George Mason University and accepted a part-time job as an Adjunct Faculty member teaching IT-related courses for the local Virginia Community College in my area. The industry being what it is, I decided to go back to school and get a master’s in software engineering from my alma mater to increase my chances of obtaining a job as a programmer versus support roles.
I worked for a large non-profit as a Drupal developer but found the needs of the company and the technology platform limiting. Shortly after the (NMAAHC) museum opened, I was offered the job as Sr. Application Developer and was sworn in on January 9, 2017.
The NMAAHC is currently one of the most popular museums in Washington, DC. How has open source and application development helped contribute to that success?
As the primary in-house developer for the in-premise and web-based interactives, open source technologies make up the core technology stack for almost all of our digital products. As we move forward to achieving the Smithsonian’s digital museum vision, open source technologies will continue to inform the direction we take in enhancing all visitor experiences whether it be in the museum or on the web.
How has COVID-19 affected the operations of the museum and what are you all doing to continue to reach out to the public?
Yes. While we were already seeking ways to delight visitors and enhance their learning experience, the pandemic has added a sense of urgency and opened up an opportunity for innovation and creativity that we may not have thought about at this point. We are now seeking ways to create touchless interfaces which may require us to think about creating more mobile applications or using other emerging technologies like augmented or virtual reality to engage our visitors.
Describe one of the best experiences/memories that you’ve had while working at the museum?
Wow! This is a truly tough question. I’ve had so many great experiences. In 2018, NMAAHC hosted the first E3 Summit in which Oprah Winfrey was the keynote speaker. On that day, I was meeting with my second level supervisor who happens to also be my executive mentor and my role model. She looked at her watch and said — “Hey — do you want to see Oprah?” I’m sure my look was of stunned confusion so I said — “sure” — as if she (Oprah) was always hanging out at the museum. My supervisor took me to the control room of the large museum theatre (named after Oprah) and I watched Oprah give the keynote from the booth. I am not one to be “star struck”. I met lots of ‘named’ people when I worked for AOL and for AOLTW after the merger. And I never watched the Oprah Winfrey show or followed her career but I was deeply impressed and moved by her passion and the power of her words. The auditorium was full of mostly those who identify as women of all races and ages — and you could feel the ‘sisterhood’ and oneness. It was uplifting.
As a black woman in computer science what kind of initiatives would you like to see that would allow greater access to coding for black people and communities of color?
I think about my journey as an engineer and I am encouraged by ‘open awareness’ of the skew to access resources and tools — specifically for women of color. Like all ‘step programs’ the first step is admitting there exists a problem. I think that step two — recognizing where the problems are e.g. hiring, opportunities, education has also been taken. Now it’s time for those who are empowered to take action and not just ‘speak’ about next steps. This is where I see initiatives fail.
I think that access to coding is directly impacted by those who make the decision to allow access. Because of the systematic restrictions, this means that the people in the system should be more representative or more cognitive of the issues impacting underrepresented communities. So one action-driven initiative would be to have a mixture of staff as part of the hiring or selection process for executive or board positions or any other position that directly impacts this decision.
Right now, it seems that the on-boarding process involves a homogeneous group of people who make hiring decisions. When this happens it seems that diversity of opinion, of thoughts, of questions and of needs may not be fully represented.
I also think another initiative would be mentoring programs which are not age-based. Currently, I see the push for internships and mentorships targeting high school and college but age-ism is another challenge in underrepresented communities and therefore, internships and mentorships could also provide greater access for women of color to coding.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
I totally identify as a programmer so most often I enjoy working on my own development project. My son has lots of really awesome gaming ideas so when time allows I work with him to implement his game ideas. However, anything that has to do with creating or building also ‘soothes my soul’. So I like to sew and I enjoy creating costumes for Renaissance Faires and attending faires with my friends. And I enjoy designing furniture and building them with a good friend of mine. I am also a creative writer and I have lots of unpublished written works which eventually I’ll self-publish through my company. In general, if it involves some type of ‘making’ or ‘creating’ — I probably have dabbled with it and enjoy doing it. And because I tend to be scattered in things I enjoy — the list of fun things I get to do at work and in my private life is vast.
