Jori: President and Founder of Ascend Training

Jori is an Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop. She has been teaching Photoshop since 1995, and using it since version 2.0. In additon to teaching, she has been a Technical Advisor for publishing companies, and a presenter at such conferences as the Creative Suite Conference, the Pixel Vector Conferece, and the Photoshop LIVE Conference.

Jori designs all the graphics for Ascend, and is an active user of Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver also.

Jeremy: Technology Specialist

With his extensive IT background and iPhone development hobbyist, Jeremy is a huge asset at Ascend. In addition to handling our IT issues, he also assists students with class issues and customer service.

Ron: Flash, Actionscript 3.0 and Dreamweaver

Ron migrated from early versions of Director to Flash, which makes him uniquely experienced to teach the ins and outs of animation for the web. His constant quest for knowledge makes him an ideal instructor to answer questions on a multitude of applications, such as Flex and ColdFusion.

Ron is an is an Adobe Certified Expert, Adobe Certified Instructor and Developer in Flash and Dreamweaver. He has a passion for new knowledge and improving workflows. Ron has been teaching for Ascend since 1999.

Rich: Dreamweaver, Flash, Actionscript, Fireworks

Rich is an Adobe Certified Expert, Adobe Certified Instructor and Developer in Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks. He has been teaching Flash since its inception, and Dreamweaver since 1999. His attentive, hands-on approach taken with his students is second to none. He also is an avid freelancer both in web design and sculpture. Rich has been teaching for Ascend since 2000.

Rob: Premiere Pro

Rob is our resident video expert who scored a perfect 100% on the Premiere Pro exam!

He has taught Adobe Premiere and television production at the college level for over 10 years. He has 25 years experience in television studio management. Rob is also an independent shooter/editor who travels the country shooting programs for television.

He has video taped everything from motor sports, to a Billy Idol Concert and Supreme court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Laurie: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop

Laurie started out teaching Quark and Illustrator in the early 90's. She has been an Adobe Illustrator user since 1988 (version 88), Photoshop version 3, QuarkXPress since 1990, version 2.0, and InDesign since it was released in 1998, version 1.0! In the past, she has taught 16 different applications, including Vector: Illustator, Freehand and CorelDRAW!; Raster: Photoshop, PhotoPaint and Painter; Desktop Publishing: QuarkXPress and PageMaker, and Presentation programs: PowerPoint, Persuasion and Harvard Graphics.

She is an is an Adobe Certified Expert, Adobe Certified Instructor in both InDesign and Illustrator. She consistenly is involved in many projects that allow her to bring a wealth of real-world knowledge to the classroom. Laurie has been teaching for Ascend since 1998.

Michelle: Training Coordinator

Michelle comes to us from a robust background in the video industry. In addition to her experience with multiple creative apps, she has a stong background in customer service.

Michelle is happy to assist clients in choosing and registering for classes at Ascend Training.

Jim: InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Acrobat

Jim is an Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor in InDesign and Illustrator. He is the author of A Designer's Guide to Adobe InDesign and XML and Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Classroom in a Book.

Jim also runs the Chicago chapter of the Adobe InDesign User Group. He has been teaching for Ascend since 2005

Katie: Photoshop

Katie is the author of Photography for The 21st Century, a pioneering book offering insight to photography and the digital darkroom.

Katie Miller has her IMA from Antioch University McGregor and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an active member of the Society for Photographic Education and involved in the Professional Photographers of America group.

Zach: Flex, Flash, Dreamweaver, AIR, ColdFusion

Zach has an insatiable appetite for all new technologies. He has a passion for motivating his students and improving the quality of their experience. He is one of the authors of AdvancED AIR Applications, and is an Adobe Certified Expert, Adobe Certified Instructor and Developer in Flex, ColdFusion, AIR, Flash and Dreamweaver. Zach has been teaching for Ascend since 2008.

Michael: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Michael is an Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. His extensive backround in the Ad Agency business enables him to bring a wealth of real world experience to the classroom. Michael has been teaching for Ascend since 2007.

Elaine: Dreamweaver, Fireworks

Elaine is an Adobe Certified Instructor along with an Adobe Certified Developerin Dreamweaver and Fireworks. In addition to being a developing, Elaine has been teaching for over 10 years.

She has a wide range of exposure to web development, and brings her vast expertise to the classroom.

Gretchen: Client Relations

Gretchen has worked for Ascend for 11 years ensuring students receive personal attention, and assistance. An avid user of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, she is aptly able to steer students to the right classes to fit their needs.

Kevin: Flash, Flex, LiveCycle, AIR

Kevin has an extensive 20+ year history in the internet and graphics field. He has consulted with companies such as IBM, Sears and Spiegel over the years.

Kevin brings a full range of expertise to the classroom by his extensive experience in Flash, Flex and AIR.

Louis: After Effects

Louis brings 28 years of professional television broadcasting experience to his work. His career in the television industry has included television production work as broadcast engineer, editor, camera man, graphic designer, and animator. He is also an Emmy Nominee and IBA (Illinois Broadcasters Association) award winning recipient.

His passion and excitement for merging art, design, and current technologies goes back to the early 1980s where his work was featured at SIGGRAPH, and various fine art galleries and publications throughout the Unites States and Europe.

Louis currently works in developing digital multimedia productions and is also a Adobe Certified Expert, Adobe Certified Instructor in After Effects and Premiere Pro and Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+).

Patty: Photoshop

Patty has been teaching Photography for over 10 years, and Adobe Photoshop for over 6 years. She has spent time as an Artist in Residence, Akiyoshidai Arts Village in Yamaguchi, Japan. She has her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois, and completed her graduate degree at the Institute of Design at IIT.

Michael: Flash

Michael has been instrumental in the formation of the Chicago Macromedia User Group,(which is a SIG of the Association for Multimedia Communications) and serves as the Chair of this group. He also runs the local Chicago Area Adobe User Group which meets at Ascend Training. Michael has been teaching for Ascend since 1998.

Gene: iPhone/iPad Development

Gene is the author of Professional iPhone and iPad Application Development. He has a vast history in the technology field, starting out programming for digital watches in the 1970's, writing for NeXT Computer, and has been developing for the iPhone since it's inception.

Emma: Assistant Training Coordinator

Emma has been involved with Ascend Training since she was 9 years old, and we are fortunate to have her involved with customer service and training coordination.