OUR TEAM
Meet Your Force Multiplier
Our team is fueled by a powerful combination of passion, talent, and expertise. Each individual represents a unique set of knowledge and experience. When we bring them all together, we can approach each and every product with the care and consideration of a dedicated craftsman.
Accelerating businesses and working through the challenges that arise gets us out of bed every day. We are committed to not only creating the best possible products but also helping ensure our partner companies’ success.
OUR VALUES
Empathize then own it
Everything we do starts by walking in the shoes of others.
By starting with their perspectives and feelings, we gain the context to join them on the journey and commit to the outcome as much as — if not more than — them.
Build smart
It is our nature to be thoughtful, insightful, and creative when approaching challenges. Our effort seeks not just to make something work but provide innovative solutions that embrace future change.
Deliver with pride
When we are at our best, we are proud to deliver on the shared outcomes that we have envisioned with our partners.
Be the change you seek
To realize our potential, we need everyone to be engaged in continually improving our company, our products, and our community.
DEEP EXPERTISE
Our team specializes in the Microsoft .NET technology stack. We chose to build deep expertise on this general-purpose platform so we can effectively solve a variety of problems in a wide range of industries.
This focus allows us to build competencies in many different areas and even take on R&D opportunities. From startups to enterprise-level projects, our scalable solutions bring value to clients of all sizes.
Our strong belief in proven methodologies and processes powers all that we do.
- Build upon SOLID design principles
- Leverage service-oriented design
- Volatility-based decomposition
- Test-driven development to minimize bugs and maximize throughput
- Rapid prototyping of UI/UX
These principles allow us to build:
- Highly scalable cloud-based solutions
- Highly intuitive user interfaces
A well-versed grasp of web technologies is a must in today’s market.
- HTML5 / HTML / CSS
- PHP
- Responsive Web Design
- Knockout.js
- Angular
- AngularJS
- Bootstrap
- Electron
- React
Our know-how in implementing the right web technologies has fueled our process in:
- Web-based application design and deployment
- UI/UX Design
The platforms upon which we have focused our knowledge are the heartbeat of our team.
- .NET Framework
- .NET Core
- ASP.NET
- C#
- VB
- WCF
- WPF
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Oracle RDBMS
- NoSQL
Our expertise in these platforms has given us experience in:
- Data Mining and Analysis
- HIPAA / PCI / SOX
- Machine Learning
- Systems Architecture and Design
- Workflow Automation
Development of both desktop and mobile applications has allowed us to serve clients of all sizes and needs.
- Android
- Microsoft Windows
- iOS
- Ionic
- Xamarin
Our expertise in developing a wide range of applications includes:
- Desktop Applications
- Embedded Systems
- Mobile App Development
- Mobile Device Sensor Analysis & Integration
Our expertise with various hosting options gives us flexibility in meeting the requirements of new products.
- Azure
- AWS
- On-Premise
This experience helps us create products in the areas of:
- eCommerce / Transaction / Payment Processing
- Geo Spatial / Mapping / GIS
- Internet Video Encoding / Transcoding / Streaming
- Scalable & Redundant Systems
Our strong belief in proven methodologies and processes powers all that we do.
- Build upon SOLID design principles
- Leverage service-oriented design
- Volatility-based decomposition
- Test-driven development to minimize bugs and maximize throughput
- Rapid prototyping of UI/UX
These principles allow us to build:
- Highly scalable cloud based solutions
- Highly intuitive user interfaces
A well-versed grasp of web technologies is a must in today’s market.
- Angular
- AngularJS
- Backbone.js
- Bootstrap
- Electron
- HTML5 / HTML / CSS
- Knockout.js
- PHP
- Responsive Web Design
Our know-how in implementing the right web technologies has fueled our process in:
- Web-based application design and deployment
- UI/UX Design
The platforms upon which we have focused our knowledge are the heartbeat of our team.
- .NET Core
- .NET Framework
- C#
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Oracle RDBMS
- NoSQL
- VB
- WCF
- WPF
Our expertise in these platforms has given us experience in:
- HIPAA / PCI / SOX
- Workflow Automation
- Machine Learning
- Systems Architecture and Design
- Data Mining and Analysis
Development of both desktop and mobile applications has allowed us to serve clients of all sizes and needs.
- Microsoft Windows
- iOS
- Android
- Ionic
- Xamarin
Our expertise in developing a wide range of applications includes:
- Embedded Systems
- Desktop Applications
- Mobile Device Sensor Analysis & Integration
- Mobile App Development
Our expertise with various hosting options gives us flexibility in meeting the requirements of new products.
- Azure
- AWS
- On-Premise
This experience has helped us create products in the areas of:
- Geo Spatial / Mapping / GIS
- Scalable & Redundant Systems
- eCommerce / Transaction / Payment Processing
- Internet Video Encoding / Transcoding / Streaming
OUR TEAM
Levi Hagen
Levi Hagen is a creative problem solver with a flair for coordinating community.
Raised on a chicken farm in Ashland, Nebraska, Levi has cultivated a fascination for technology and diverse cultural experiences from a young age. Levi’s tech-savvy, computer-building family hosted 12 foreign exchange students from five countries, and his parents credit video games with teaching him to read. After an adolescence spent organizing creative teamwork and national tours with music groups, he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
At Don’t Panic Labs, Levi continues to nurture his love of collaborative project experiences that uplift their contributors and touch peoples’ lives. Outside of work, you might find him backpacking rainforests, writing and recording music, or managing his creative space — The Mez Collective — to create and facilitate audio/visual art experiences.
Megan Sparling
Megan loves her role in UI/UX design because it requires her to think creatively about how to solve a wide variety of problems. She deeply enjoys collaborating with a team and together helping an idea evolve into a reality. She is driven by creating unique and effective outcomes and views every project as a chance to learn, grow, and innovate.
Megan has worked in graphic design throughout a wide array of industries. She got her start designing craft beer labels and making posters for local bands, and gradually expanded her skills into the UI/UX realm.
Megan lives in Omaha with her fiancé, Chris, and their big, orange cat, named Fletch. When she’s is not at work, Megan can be found teaching piano lessons or watching movies she’s probably seen too many times. Megan also loves to travel, try out local food and drink spots, and go antique shopping.
Anne Ruskamp
After graduating from the University of Nebraska and Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, Anne has spent her tenure in software engineering within the Nebraska Global family of companies. While filling a variety of roles, she has always found motivation in being able to solve problems and take care of people.
When not in the office, her boys keep her busy with a myriad of shenanigans and getting outside as much as possible. You will regularly find her family on a walk, hike, or playing in the backyard.
Rafael Simosa
Rafael was born in Valencia, Venezuela. He graduated from UNITEC with a degree in Information Engineering and has been living in Nebraska for the past two years. He moved to Lincoln the last year and is happy to call it home. Rafael was part of the inaugural Nebraska Dev Lab cohort and joined the Don’t Panic Labs team full-time in January 2021 after completing the program.
Rafael likes to travel with his wife and hopes to visit all the countries in the world. In addition, he enjoys eating barbecue, camping trips, road trips, reading, playing computer games, and is a bit of a chess aficionado.
Mike Anker
Mike was born and raised here in Lincoln. He graduated with a degree in Finance from the University of Nebraska in 1999, and in 2003 earned his M.B.A from Creighton University in Omaha. While working in the insurance industry, he discovered that his love of building things extended to software development and never looked back.
Mike has developed applications across several different platforms in the insurance, financial, and medical industries.
Living in Lincoln with his wife and three children, Mike enjoys gardening and home improvement projects.
Christy Thomas
Christy is motivated by connecting businesses that have challenging problems to solve with innovative software engineers that believe in quality, precision, and accuracy. As an Account Manager at Don’t Panic Labs, she strives to maximize relationships and discover opportunities for projects that enable sustainable business agility. She has spent the last 20 years managing software development projects in enterprise, startup, government, academic, and non-profit environments.
Christy is a native Nebraskan who grew up in the small town of Bellevue. She currently lives and gardens with her family in Lincoln where they create pollinator habitats for the birds, bees, and butterflies.
Ryan Downey
Ryan is a former electrician-turned-software engineer. After deciding to make a career change in 2015, he began to pursue a bachelor’s degree. He decided to take Computer Science 1 at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and was hooked. He interned at Don’t Panic Labs during his senior year and joined the team in 2020.
Ryan loves working with the talented people at Don’t Panic Labs to create robust software solutions for their clients and partners.
In his free time, Ryan enjoys reading, watching movies, listing to and playing music, playing video games and board games, and hanging out with friends and family.
Sarah Kenny
Sarah has a passion for learning new things and loves the ability to move between different technologies and projects at Don’t Panic Labs. Outside of work, she likes to keep learning by studying German. According to an internet test, she has almost B1 proficiency.
Sarah has spent most of her life in Nebraska. She graduated from the Raikes program in 2019 and graduated from UNL with a degree in computer science one year later. She had an opportunity to intern at Don’t Panic Labs in her final year of school before transitioning to full time.
Sarah spends her downtime cooking, reading, and playing video games.
Jeff Hastings
Jeff grew up in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, but spent much of his time enjoying the city of Omaha.
After experiencing the SNES game Chrono Trigger, Jeff was inspired to become a software developer. He was fascinated by it and wanted to learn how someone could build an interactive and intricate world that people could explore.
But before becoming a professional software developer, Jeff dabbled in many other jobs such as shopping cart refurbisher, convenience store clerk, delivery driver, special education para, pre-med student, acute mental health worker, and substance abuse treatment tech.
After those adventures, he realized his place in the world was software development. He thrives in taking problems in the world and solving them through code.
In addition to software development, Jeff loves pets, music, sci-fi/fantasy, tabletop games, and (still) video games.
Jeff is married. He has one son, one stepdaughter, a dog, and a small business of ferrets.
Zahra NaminiMianji
Zahra graduated from NMSU with an MSc degree in Computer Science. She has always liked the idea of facing challenges and making people’s lives easier. She became interested in building software and decided to pursue it as a career.
The opportunity of active learning and finding the best solutions to problems plus the company’s culture is what really excites her about working in Don’t Panic Labs.
In her free time, Zahra likes to cook, read novels, and play board games. She is also a swimming and movie enthusiast.
Ryan McManaman
Growing up, Ryan always loved to tinker. Whenever a toy stopped being useful for make-believe, he loved disassembling the electric components to try and uncover the secrets behind how it worked. That natural desire to understand how things fit together behind the scenes is what led Ryan to develop software.
Born and raised in Nebraska, Ryan graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2019 as part of the Raikes School of Computer Science and Management. Ryan enjoys working collaboratively to discover the most effective solutions to a problem and loves building systems that efficiently deliver on that promise.
Stemming from his desire to understand the world, Ryan has, according to friends and coworkers, “an absolutely unreasonable amount of hobbies.” Ask him about beekeeping, winemaking, solar panels, fountain pens, traveling, or the great outdoors!
Shana Durham
Shana might be the first friendly face you see when you arrive at Don’t Panic Labs. She supports the whole team to make our work environment the happy place that it is. She coordinates all our company events throughout the year and assists with marketing, visitors and tours, and Nebraska Dev Lab. She tries to remember all the birthdays, regularly feeds us, and is likely behind any sort of goofy mischief going down. Shana likes baking a little too much. She reads fiction but is picky, and watches English tv programmes that often have a murder and a vicar, in the countryside (bonus points if there is a dog.)
Shana and Doug have three great kids that they are very proud of, one out of college, one in, and one starting soon, and they are completely smitten with their own clever little doggo named Ginger (that they talk about at great length, way too often, because she’s a goooood girl, yes she is!).
Ceren Kaplan
Ceren graduated from UNL with a degree in Computer Science. She became interested in technology as she grew up watching her dad program embedded systems at home. What really excites her about building software is the idea of solving problems and impacting people’s lives.
In her free time, Ceren enjoys jigsaw puzzles, yoga, and making pottery. She is also an avid reader and a movie enthusiast.
Yan Xin Lee
Yan Xin graduated from UNL with a degree in Computer Science. She was part of the Stone Fin team for three years before Stone Fin joined forces with Don’t Panic Labs. She likes solving problems and creating software solutions that help people with their day-to-day activities.
Outside of work, Yan Xin enjoys reading, food (both eating and making), traveling, and the outdoors.
Bob Whitmer
Armed with 20 years of HCI, user interface design, visual design and development skills, Bob merges his passion for understanding people with the skills for understanding business to create products and services that transform complex interfaces into practical, user-friendly experiences for devices of all shapes and sizes.
Before Don’t Panic Labs, Bob worked for a variety of companies (both as an employee and as an independent consultant) including PenLink, Prairie Cloudware, Intuit, and Union Pacific Railroad to name a few. In his free time, you can find him hiking and camping through the backcountry with his black Lab Nash, cooking for family and friends, or traveling with the love of his life, Mary.
Bob’s first car: 4-door ‘69 Chevy Impala
Kids: Ryan, Maddison, Kate, and Jack
Hobbies: BJJ, The Outdoors, Travel, Cooking
Work Nickname: Brisket
Sophie Lorenz
Sophie is DPL’s interaction designer. She’s been hopelessly addicted to the internet since roughly 1998 and has encountered one too many poorly designed websites, thus, her passion for design was born. Not only does Sophie enjoy making things look pleasing on the outside, she strives to put herself in the shoes of a diverse group of users and enjoys solving the many complex visual problems that arise from that.
She has a plethora of random knowledge and is constantly hungry for more. Whenever Sophie hears of something unknown to her, she jots it down and researches it later. Sophie is a sucker for animated comedy shows, simulation games, 80s music, pugs, and poorly made YouTube food reviews. In her downtime, she enjoys sharpening her coding skills and doodling. Sophie’s claim to fame was when Charlie Day reposted her spaghetti portrait of him on his Instagram.
Todd Guenther
Todd is a planner. He has a list for everything, makes sure things get done and don’t fall through the cracks. These are just a few of the responsibilities in his Project Management role that he loves.
Outside of work, he loves spending time with family, traveling, golf, bowling and going to dirt track racing events. Todd lives in Lincoln with his wife Susie. His son, daughter-in-law and 3 precious grandchildren also live in Lincoln. They are his pride and joy in life.
Read Todd’s blog posts.
Nathan Wilkinson
Nathan loves answering questions. It is a quest of discovery for Nathan. From business processes to software system architecture to program bugs, Nathan will try to identify what the root issue is and then solve the problem efficiently. Along the way, he enjoys helping others do the same in their work. At Don’t Panic Labs, Nathan gets the opportunity to tackle a wide variety of questions. That is why you will often find him at his desk happily struggling to find an answer.
When not answering questions at DPL, you can probably find Nathan at home watching TV shows like NOVA or Mythbusters, or reading about the sciences. He’s also been known to put together a few small electronics projects with an Arduino board or Raspberry Pi. He also loves playing games of all sorts with his fiancé and son.
Read Nathan’s blog posts.
Zach Lannin
Born and raised in Lincoln, Zach is an avid Husker fan, golfer, and sand volleyball player. Zach was reluctant to become a programmer, but after giving it a try he instantly became hooked and has been programming professionally since 2008. Upon working at Don’t Panic Labs, he began to learn how to better architect software and became hooked to IDesign.
Zach enjoys traveling and hopes to see more the world in the upcoming years. Outside of work, you can find Zach eating at taco joints around the town. A lifetime goal of his is to compete in a steak-eating challenge.
Read Zach’s blog posts.
Jeff Kodad
Jeff is a former middle school science teacher turned software engineer. As a teacher he ran several programming clubs as well as encouraging problem solving and engineering in and out of the classroom. He has always enjoyed seeing how things work and solving problems, which is what drove him to pursue a career in software development. Every day he strives to learn more about software and the techniques of modern programming.
When he’s not writing code you can find Jeff in his two-garage woodshop brushing up on his skills. He also enjoys many other hobbies like board games, homebrew, and flying model airplanes. When he’s not engaged in making something he’s usually kicked back watching movies.
Jeff was born and raised in Schuyler, Nebraska but came to Lincoln to play trumpet in the University of Nebraska marching band. He has loved every day of being in Lincoln since then and considers it his new home.
Everett Rhodes
It’s the excitement and challenge of the journey that drives Everett. He sees software development as providing endless learning opportunities.
He feels lucky to have had a high school physics teacher who taught a programming class as a hobby and gave Everett his first real introduction to software development. He has been driven to learn more ever since. And he will tell you that he learns more every day.
Continual self-improvement is Everett’s goal and that extends beyond his professional career. Outside of work, he has many hobbies that rotate often as he tries and learns new things. Many of his interests involve the great outdoors, with camping and hiking as mainstays. Whenever he can, he brings his family along for new adventures.
Chris Niemann
Chris is one of the younger specimens of the Don’t Panic Labs crew. He joined the team right after he finished playing college basketball and has been learning from his colleagues about the depth of programming since. It turns out that there are a lot of things that college doesn’t teach you about what it means to be a good software engineer.
Most days you will find him in the office, but he also likes to stay close to coffee shops when he is writing code.
In his free time, Chris likes to participate in all kinds of sports. CrossFit, golf, volleyball, basketball, and foosball are just a few of them. On nice days he likes to take his German shepherd for an adventure, but on bad days he prefers to play simulation or RTS games. Farming Simulator 2017 and StarCraft 2 are his current favorites.
Read Chris’s blog posts.
Branden Barber
Branden (known as “Beebs” around the office) had the unique opportunity of testing the DPL waters as an intern in 2011 while working toward his Computer Science degree at UNL.
DPL’s passion for building quality software and company culture is why he stuck around. He enjoys collaborating to find the best solution and is quick to pick someone’s brain.
In his spare time, Branden enjoys cycling, foosball, and RC airplanes. You’ll also see him at the monthly Beer and Code (@BeerCodeLincoln) meetup, which he organizes.
He lives in Lincoln with his wife Emily.
Read Branden’s blog posts.
Lori McCarthy
Lori helps connect all the teams and partners together and keep projects moving on schedule. She helps keep track of and report on things so her engineers don’t have to worry about them. She enjoys the chance to explore challenges across a variety of companies and industries.
At home, she partners with her husband John as they try to keep up with their son Owen.
Her random claim to fame is that she has won 5 “Food for a Year” prizes at restaurants.
Doug Durham
Doug Durham is the CTO of Don’t Panic Labs, which helps companies innovate through the design and development of software technologies. He is also the co-founder of Nebraska Global, DPL’s parent company, known as a pioneer in the startup landscape in Nebraska.
Doug has nearly 30 years of software engineering and development experience in aerospace and defense, healthcare, manufacturing, ecommerce, consumer web applications, and internet network services. He is passionate about the process of solving problems through software, and the application of sound engineering principles and patterns to these efforts.
His diverse skills, education, and various leadership roles have shaped his career. Doug served as a Civil Engineer in the Air National Guard for 21 years, which deployed him to many strange and wonderful places around the world, before he retired at the rank of Major.
Doug is a proud Husker and has an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where two of his three children are also pursuing engineering degrees. He has taught at the UNL Raikes School of Computer Science, and serves on a College of Engineering advisory board. He also has a master’s degree in Finance and Management.
A native Nebraskan, Doug and his wife Shana both love living in Lincoln.
You can keep up with him on his website, dougdurham.com.
Bill Udell
Small town Nebraska born and raised, Bill has spent the last couple of decades finding ways to build cool things with his buddies. In that time, his circle of “buddies” has grown and the “cool things” have morphed from building software platforms to building communities and ecosystems of software engineering, corporate innovation, and entrepreneurship.
His first real job at a Silicon Valley startup in the early 2000s set the stage for a career of creating innovation. His next stop at TAG/TMI transformed both TAG and its client insurance companies into innovation leaders in the industry. That innovation led to the creation and growth of an ecosystem of companies in Lincoln, and Omaha and ultimately the acquisition of TAG/TMI by Perot Systems.
Currently, Bill is happily creating a groundswell of change and innovation in the Silicon Prairie ecosystem with his buddies at Don’t Panic Labs. He can be found regularly at community events or busily working in coffee shops and boardrooms to create opportunities for collisions of entrepreneurs, community leaders, and the ecosystem.
When not at a coffee shop, he is likely with his wife Tina and his kids at cross country meets, concerts, or ball fields.
Andrew Tarr
Andrew is constantly challenging himself to try new things, both professionally and personally. This attitude has served him well both in his 10 years of service in the Nebraska Army National Guard and at Don’t Panic labs where he has worked mostly in web and mobile development.
He pursues his hobbies with the same dedication and completed his first Ironman triathlon in 2015 after finishing several sprint and Half Ironman races. He enjoys collecting travel experiences and tattoos. His most recent piece was a koi fish he got while on a trip in Japan.
When they aren’t traveling, Andrew and his wife Kayla can usually be found at their home in Lincoln with their dogs and cat, reading and figuring out what to do next.
Read Andrew’s blog posts.
Kyle Versaw
Kyle grew up just outside of Lincoln. A computer programming class he took in high school got him interested in development and he decided to pursue it as a career.
When it comes to web development, Kyle feels right at home. He has spent the last ten years developing web applications and services and has worked on everything from simple web sites to large, ecommerce systems.
In his spare time, Kyle enjoys reading comics and playing video games.
Russ Guill
Russ loves the power of stories. He enjoys helping others tell their stories because he believes that everybody has one. That is why you’ll find him writing, photographing, or shooting video around Don’t Panic Labs.
At home, he can be found creating new beers in basement brewery. Recipe ideas from the Don’t Panic Labs team are always entertained, and he admits to writing way more recipes than he brews.
He lives in Lincoln with his wife, two daughters, and Rosey the family Danoodle.
Andy Unterseher
Andy has a passion for software architecture and building software with a disciplined engineering approach. He has been working for the last six years with local companies and startups for Nebraska Global and Don’t Panic Labs.
At home, he enjoys reading, cooking for his family, and getting in as many rounds of golf as he can. He enjoys volunteering as a youth basketball, baseball, and soccer coach for his kid’s teams, and is a huge fan of all things Huskers and of the U.S. Soccer team.
He lives in Lincoln with his wife and three kids.
Read Andy’s blog posts.
Chris Ford
Chris is the Don’t Panic Labs software quality assurance engineer. He supports multiple software applications ranging from desktop to mobile. He ensures the team releases quality software before it is deployed to the public through automation and manual testing on multiple devices and browsers.
When he is not traveling with his wife he calls Lincoln home.
Brian Zimmer
Brian became deeply interested in software and technology when he saw the difference it could make in people’s lives. He found a passion for innovation (defined as transforming ideas into market-sustainable products and companies)—especially when technology is leveraged as part of the solution. It might be hard to find him at his desk—he’s generally out meeting entrepreneurs and corporate innovators to help them take the next step or explore how we might turbo-charge their efforts.
In his downtime, Brian spends time with his wife and two children. As you might expect, he has a few geeky hobbies including automating his home, playing strategy board games (Star Wars Armada), and enjoying a good Xbox game (Titanfall).
With that said, he still exercises his farm roots by spending way too much time on his lawn.
Read Brian’s blog posts.
Chad Michel
In 2000, Chad graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering. He then graduated from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2003 with a Masters in Computer Science. After college, he worked for STI, MindVision/eSellerate/DigitalRiver, and Internap before ending up at Nebraska Global / Beehive Industries / Don’t Panic Labs.
Chad is the Software Architect working at Don’t Panic Lab projects.
Chad is a life-long Nebraskan. He grew up in rural Nebraska and now lives in Lincoln. Chad and his wife have a son and daughter.
Read Chad’s blog posts.
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