JOHNNA ARMSTRONG

Johnna Armstrong is the owner of Business Technology Source (BTS), which works with small businesses and non-profit organizations, creating websites, blogs, online stores and other aspects of their online presence.

Before starting her own company in 2002, Johnna worked for the Bureau of National Affairs/BNA Tax Management (1995-1998) in Washington, DC, managing the electronic publishing of the company's suite of tax resources, offered first on CD-ROM and then on the web. She then worked as an independent consultant with Patuxent Software from 1999-2002. (In 1998, she took a year off to travel around the world.)

Johnna believes that companies should be able to manage their websites themselves, if they so desire, and provides training and tools to make that possible. She favors simple and intuitive websites that provide a compelling and informative user experience. To that end, she has become well-versed in website application development, usability, responsive web design and accessibility (web standards for people with disabilities), as well as easy-to-use website maintenance tools and hosted solutions. Work in the exciting, often chaotic, deadline-driven world of legal publishing convinced her that predictable workflows, managed processes and a phased approach to projects are the keys to success. That and a little bit of old-fashioned organization.

Johnna graduated from the University of Albany (New York) in 1987 with a degree in German and Political Science. In 1993, she obtained her MBA in International Business from Thunderbird - The American Graduate School of International Management. It was while attending Thunderbird that Johnna discovered a passion for computers and technology; after doing well in a required computer class, became her professor's graduate assistant and helped pay the bills by working in the computer lab as a tutor. Later at BNA Tax Management, manager and mentor Pam Brophy not only gave her the opportunity to learn website technology on the job (well before the company was thinking about web-based subscriptions), but encouraged her to go as far as possible with it.

Johnna lives in Shepherdstown with her husband and two disreputable dogs. When she's not building websites, she is doing genealogy research, responding to inquiries at Historic Shepherdstown & Museum and at the Jefferson County Historical Society. She is also the Webmaster and Co-Coordinator for the Tompkins County NYGenWeb website.