Eric Wagoner
78 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
78 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
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title: About Eric
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menu:
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main:
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weight: 3
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---
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## Hello, I'm Eric Wagoner
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I'm a software developer, agricultural innovator, creative maker, and accidental entrepreneur living in Athens, Georgia.
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### The Tech Side
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I'm a Staff Software Engineer at [Natera](https://www.natera.com), where I build internal tools that help scientists in the oncology labs deliver better genetic-based cancer tests and treatments. There's something deeply satisfying about writing software that sits quietly behind the scenes while clinicians and researchers do work that genuinely saves lives.
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Before Natera, I spent nearly a decade at [Infinity Interactive](https://iinteractive.com) as part of their "hired gun" developer team, working my way from Senior Software Engineer through Team Lead and Manager of Software Delivery to Vice President of Technology. I love that team and the wildly varied work they do: lab management systems for cutting-edge bio-labs, touchscreen interfaces for lab robots, tax filing applications, data collection tools for blasting crews, legal news archives, financial document storage systems. There's no place quite like Infinity for the sheer range of problems you get to solve and I highly recommend them to anyone in need.
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I've been doing web development since 1996, working primarily in Node.js and JavaScript, but comfortable across the full stack with Ruby, Python, PHP, Dart/Flutter, and whatever else the project needs.
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My career in tech spans over 30 years, beginning at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory where I turned data from a homemade radio telescope in India into a searchable graphical sky map. I spent 18 years at Partner Software, joining just months after its founding and experiencing every role a software startup has to offer—from building web-based configuration tools to creating PDF reporting systems that replaced expensive enterprise solutions.
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But my most personally significant tech work is [LocallyGrown.net](https://locallygrown.net)—a platform I accidentally created in 2002 that became the world's first online farmers market. What started as a PHP project evolved into a Ruby on Rails platform that has processed nearly $16 million in direct farmer sales. Running this as a one-person operation for over 20 years, I handle everything from coding to system administration to customer support. In 2025, I completed a herculean six-month migration from dying Rails 3 to modern SvelteKit, [saving the platform from extinction](/posts/locallygrown-origin-story/). The migration is behind me now, and I've settled into a satisfying rhythm of improving the platform and adding features that help the markets using it do their work better.
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### The Unconventional Path
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My journey to tech wasn't typical. I started with a BS in Astrophysics (with Honors) from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where I was a member of Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society. Socorro still pulls at me no matter where I am.
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After college, I've been a middle school math and social studies teacher (the only male teacher on staff), an engineering tech at Socorro Electric Cooperative managing their GIS and materials warehouse and doing field work designing new power lines, worked on radio telescope data at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and directed live theater. I took trapeze classes for almost four years. I've even had an alter-ego as a nerdy burlesque dancer. Each experience taught me something valuable about systems, people, and problem-solving that I carry into my work today.
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### The Agricultural Roots
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I grew up on a small homestead with gardens, poultry, and milk goats—a "back to the land" childhood in the 1970s that shaped everything that came after. That sensibility led me to create LocallyGrown.net, combining my software skills with a deep understanding of local food systems. For 19 years, I also ran the Athens Locally Grown market, the flagship that started it all, before closing it in 2021.
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### Recognition for Impact
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My work with LocallyGrown.net has been recognized by leading agricultural and environmental organizations:
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- **Barbara Petit Pollinator Award** (Georgia Organics, 2015) - Honored for creating a national model for connecting growers to consumers. As their Executive Director said: *"No other person has facilitated revenues for farmers and connected consumers with local produce quite like Eric Wagoner. He is truly Mr. Farm to Fork."*
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- **Alec Little Environmental Award** (Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, 2012) - Recognized for environmental responsibility in the Athens area, joining a distinguished group of individuals and organizations working to protect Georgia's environment.
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### The Creative Pursuits
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When I'm not writing code or thinking about sustainable agriculture, you'll find me:
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- Creating episodes for my YouTube cooking show, the [Random Recipe Project](https://www.youtube.com/@RandomRecipeProject)
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- Sewing elaborate costumes (currently working on a corset vest)
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- Planning leather working projects
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- Podcasting at [Eric Says Hi](https://podcasts.kestrelsnest.social/@EricSaysHi) and [Brothers Grimm Lunch](https://grimmlunch.org)
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- Serving as Costuming Track Director for [CONpossible](https://www.conpossible.com)
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- Photographing my cats and sharing them on [Pixelfed](https://pix.kestrelsnest.social/@eric)
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### The Digital Presence
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After Twitter's implosion, I've embraced the federated web:
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- [Mastodon](https://toots.kestrelsnest.social/@eric) for thoughts and updates
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- [Pixelfed](https://pix.kestrelsnest.social/@eric) for photography
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- [BookWyrm](https://books.kestrelsnest.social/user/eric) for reading logs
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- This blog for longer-form writing
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### The Philosophy
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I believe in building practical technology that helps us achieve more—software that takes the drudgery out of tasks and is a pleasure to use. Whether it's helping farmers sell directly to their neighbors or creating touchscreen interfaces for lab robots, I focus on human-scale technology that makes a tangible difference.
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As I've learned through my varied career, the best solutions come from turning odd skills into paychecks and finding creative ways to solve real problems. Technology should serve real communities, not abstract metrics, and the best way I know to stay grounded in that is to keep building things that matter to real people.
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### Want to Connect?
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- Email: [eric@ericwagoner.com](mailto:eric@ericwagoner.com?subject=Blog)
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- Mastodon: [@eric@toots.kestrelsnest.social](https://toots.kestrelsnest.social/@eric)
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- GitHub: [ewagoner](https://github.com/ewagoner)
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- LinkedIn: [Eric Wagoner](https://www.linkedin.com/in/wagonereric/)
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---
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*This blog is where I share thoughts on technology, local food systems, creative making, and whatever else catches my interest from my corner of Athens, Georgia.*
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