About

• Review proof print and digital communication pieces produced by the team, including articles, brochures, ads, posters/banners, the annual report, wraps, giveaways, the website, monthly electronic communications and social media. 
• Recommend new communication strategies and methods to supervisor and participate in team brainstorming/discussions related to strategy and crisis communications.
• Develop and implement best practices and documentation to assist other staff in planning for programming and in communications.
• Continually improve workflow and processes using a content management system, (Asana).
• Plan and manage the video process for in-house produced videos. Create/update print and digital communications as needed for the team.
• Collaborate with Library IT on Library webpage planning and manage specific pages.
• Provide performance goal planning and reviews for direct reports.

I began working with Kris Raser in January 2013 when he enrolled in my Media on the Internet course. He entered the course with web design experience and a positive attitude, and quickly became a role model for the class. In that course and my subsequent course, Web Development, Kris quickly picked up web programming and showed a natural aptitude with any web technology I threw his way.

His diverse work at Goucher came together during his capstone project, Gather, which featured Kris’ knowledge of a wide array of digital art skills: graphic design, visual art, web development, product design, online distribution, songwriting, and audio production. While most students choose to focus on one or two of those areas, Kris showed his mastery of them all.

Lastly, I cannot talk about Kris without mentioning his attitude, which is a huge strength. His unwavering positive attitude has been a benefit to our community and has made Kris a pleasure to know. Kris is appreciative, courteous, and always puts his best foot forward. His strong character, along with his extensive digital media skills and devotion to growing, make Kris an excellent candidate for any higher education staff or faculty position.

I had the pleasure of having Kris as a student in my Multimedia Art History course and my Audio Post Production course during his time in the Digital Arts graduate program at Goucher.

Kris is a uniquely talented individual with a broad based skill set that set him apart from his colleagues. This skill set was often on display in the projects that he completed for my classes as well as projects that I was able to observe from other classes.

In my Multimedia Art History course, Kris did a very ambitious website that was well designed and had a strong interactive component. I was impressed with the fact that he did much of this site with hand-coding HTML, which was quite shocking considering the extent of the projects interactivity and media integration. His web design and programming skills were honed through his job at NorthBay Adventure.

Also relating to his time at NorthBay is his extensive background in video editing and production. Kris is quite knowledegable of most contemporary video production and post production tools including Apple’s Final Cut as well as Adobe’s Premiere and AfterFX. Although Kris had a pretty extensive music background, he was still in need of some work with audio post production when he enrolled in my post class during the fall semester of 2013. Kris ended up producing a very high level final project, which brought together his interests in music and video. The audio edit and mix of this project reflected that he was paying attention to what I offered in that class. Kris ran with this relatively new skill set and did a great job with his “Raser | Gather” collection of songs that were used for his Capstone project. The fact that he went outside of his comfort zone in web design and video , emerging with a high quality audio project was a reflection of his work ethic and dedication to his craft.

As a student, Kris always handed in projects on time and was an enthusiastic participant in class discussions. My Multimedia Art History class sessions are always very early in the morning during our often grueling 10 day residency. Kris always showed up on time and was fully engaged in the course material.

For over seven years, I served as the Executive Director of the organization for where Kris worked from 2005-2017: NorthBay. NorthBay is a residential environmental education center focused on serving underserved students throughout the mid-Atlantic area with a message combining environmental stewardship and character education.

Kris directed the media team and media is an integral part of the program. It is one of the main ways the NorthBay message is communicated to students. He was also a part of the Leadership Team. Kris did an outstanding job keeping the media arts projects moving forward and relevant for the students who come to NorthBay. He was a key member of the team that initially created the entire 4-night NorthBay Live! production and continued to oversee it and work on its improvement. He also directed all NorthBay websites and social media presence.

In the summer of 2013, we raised enough money to update and shoot a core piece of our night show (NorthBay Live!), a movie called Toobie. Kris was the primary producer on the movie (while we still also hired a producer from LA, and a Director from LA & Vancouver). He lead and directed everything from the initial creation of the characters, writing the story, converting the story into a script, selecting the actors, rehearsal, shooting, composing and producing the score, and finally, post-production. This new movie had animation integrated into it – which Kris suggested and helped create. It has become a huge success in the program.

The key to NorthBay’s success (NorthBay serves well over 10,000 students per year in its 5-day/4-night residential program) has been constantly striving to be on the cutting edge of what is happening – in schools, in the lives of middle-schoolers, and in the world of media. Students receive an enormous number of messages through media so it has become a significant means of communicating the NorthBay message. Kris, and the media team he helped to develop, keep NorthBay on that cutting edge, in order to stay fresh and relevant.

In addition he did an outstanding job of working with me to complete new initiatives and projects. He was able to translate my ideas and needs into something that effectively and creatively communicated the various messages to the many different constituencies to which I needed to communicate: politicians, teachers, school administrators, the Board, the general public, etc…

Lastly, Kris is a joy to work with and always has a super attitude. He is very creative and an excellent communicator. He is someone who was very valuable to NorthBay and was to me as I carried out my many and varied duties. I would highly recommend him.

“A great instructor! From the beginning was communicative, active in the learning process, provided clear instruction and grading criteria & great feedback on assignments. His passion for the subject and student’s learning is inspiring. I really hope to have him as an instructor again in the future. Really great class. I learned so much.”

“A pleasure to have taken his class! Found it very informative and interesting. He provided excellent feedback & got back to you within a reasonable timeframe which is more than I can say about 90% of my previous professors. He grades fairly and his assignments are not particularly hard but they will challenge you to think outside the box.”

“Wonderful class. I honestly had serious doubts about me liking Illustrator, but the curriculum was absolutely engaging, fun, and extremely inspirational. I feel like Professor Raser gave meaningful feedback in a very prompt manner and highlighted constructive encouragement for us to pursue on our own that aided our class activities/assignments.”