Education

School of Information, University of California, Berkeley   •   2008 – 2010
Masters in Information Management and Systems, with a focus on Internet law and policy and a certificate in Management of Technology  |  Theoretical coursework in information privacy, policy and economics, intellectual property law and technology strategy  |  Technical coursework in security, networking, programming paradigms and distributed computing

University of California, Berkeley Extension   •   2005 – 2008
Unix/Linux fundamentals  |  System administration programming, with focus on scripting and Python  |  Advanced Java programming

Pitzer College   •   2000 - 2004
Bachelor of Arts in English and World Literature  |  Minor in Spanish Language and Literature  |  Relevant coursework in economics, mathematics and programming

Experience

Technology Intern
Center for Democracy and Technology   •   Summer, 2009
Wrote design specification and began implementation of location privacy enhancements on the Android operating system

Systems Analyst and Researcher
Contra Costa County Community Services Bureau   •   2007 – 2008
Coordinated, analyzed and wrote statistical reports on education outcomes and program metrics  |  Worked with contractors to administer departmental databases and systems  |  Analyzed and streamlined existing and planned systems  |  Tracked and reported enrollment of more than 2,000 children

Program Assistant
Contra Costa County Community Services Bureau   •   2005 – 2007
Generated and submitted monthly state and federal reports  |  Administered standardized testing of over 1,000 children  |  Researched and updated federally mandated assessment of community needs  |  Analyzed reports from online database

Leadership

President, School of Information Student Association   •   2008 – 2009
Tracked and managed association members and projects  |  Facilitated work of other members through meetings and planning sessions  |  Worked toward greater staff, faculty, and student interaction  |  Wrote bylaws which were adopted by the group

Pacific Crest Trail   •   Summer, 2005
Led a group on a 3,000 mile trek from Mexico to Canada  |  Planned five-month itinerary and food supply  |  Completed in-depth research on long-term and extreme-distance backpacking considerations, including off-trail navigation, back country first aid and ultra-light gear techniques

Political Involvement, Pitzer College   •   2000 – 2004
Intercollegiate Student Senate Representative  |  Social Responsibility Trustee Committee Member  |  Mead Hall Dormitory President  |  Sexual Assault Panel Member  |  ACT/SAT Focus Group Student Senate Liaison  |  Campus Aesthetics Committee Member

Projects

Policy and Security Papers
The Layered FTC Approach to Online Behavioral Advertising  |  Technology Revolution and the Fourth Amendment  |  Transparent Panacea: Why Open Email is Fraught with Problems  |  Proactive Methods for Secure Design  |  Breaking reCAPTCHA  |  Facebook’s Battle Sign

Thanatosensitive.com
A mashup project, this Web site is an early prototype of an extensible system that can be used after a person’s death to manage their online estate. The proof of concept was built in Django and has modules for Facebook, Twitter and Google Contacts.

Pacific Crest Trail Temperature Visualization
During my hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, I carried an iButton device which recorded the temperature each hour during the entire five-month journey. In the next year, I received support from Maxim Integrated Products, and was able to supply ten other hikers with iButton devices. Upon the hiker’s return, I created a Java visualization to display the nearly 20,000 data points.

TuneRepublic Democratic Jukebox
In this team project, we designed a system that could be used in coffee shops to allow patrons to upload, share and choose the music that is played in the shop. The idea was to leverage the many songs on each patron’s laptop, and to promote democratic election of popular music in a public space.

Websites
michaeljaylissner.com  |  charityhikers.org | thanatosensitive.com | ischoolpapers.com

Additional

Technical
Java and Python | Django  |  Drupal  |  Web programming, including CSS, Javascript, XHTML, XML and PHP  |  Unix/Linux administration  |  Microsoft Office  |  Graphical design basics

Languages
Fluent in written and oral Spanish