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 upcoming Photoshop LIVE Conference.

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

Debbie: Training Coordinator & Sales Specialist

Debbie joined us from Konica Minolta with a degree of Photographic Commucations. Her extensive marketing skills and top notch customer service skills make her one of Ascend Trainings' biggest assets.

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 he takes 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.

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.

Ron: Flash and Actionscript 3.0

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. He has a passion for new knowledge and improving workflows. Ron has been teaching for Ascend since 1999.

Jim: InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop

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 has served as a Technical Advisor for a recent Dreamweaver publication.

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

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 teacing 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.

Mario: Technology Specialist

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

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

In addition to working as a video editor for over 25 years currently at Fox News, Louis brings a vast array of experience in Premiere Pro, Final Cut and Avid to round out his knowledge.

Louis has received an Emmy Award Nomination 2006, and Illinois Broadcasters Association 2nd Place in Best use of Graphics and Animation 2007.

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.