Team Spotlight: Mike Brown

Meet Mike, VP of Engineering

What brought you to CTA? 

I came to CTA looking to broaden and diversify my contributions to the civic tech ecosystem, building upon my mission-oriented experiences at NASA and ActBlue.

In 5 words or fewer, what do you do at CTA? 

Run the engineering department.

What’s your proudest work accomplishment?

When working on NASA’s EED-2 program, I created a metadata generation service that made NASA’s Earth Science data searchable via terms like “ice” or “soil moisture” instead of esoteric mission or instrument names like “M2I1NXASM.” I hope to realize a similar “ease-of-use” vision within civic tech movements by evolving CTA’s suite of data engineering tools.

What’s something on your desk or your workspace that inspires you?

My light therapy box keeps me from falling asleep at my desk, so there’s that. I’ve also got a gigantic 3’ x 3’ canvas print of Brandy–my favorite vocalist–on my wall, so that’s fun to look at, too. 

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

Not that into ice cream, but I’m pretty sure I once ate a quart of the limited-edition Friendly’s Summer Breeze (lemon w/ graham cracker swirls) in one sitting. A cookie dough, cheesecake, or pistachio “flavored” ice cream will do in a pinch.

Any hidden talents we should know about? 

I’ve received a few compliments here and there from musically-inclined friends about my “encyclopedic” knowledge of lyrics, runs, and ad-libs for a variety of songs–particularly R&B and pop. Take me to karaoke, if you dare.