Brittany McCrigler

I am Brittany, a native Californian who came to the world of repair from the world of science, specifically research as a chromospheric structures specialist (an astrophysicist who studies the features and evolution of the Sun’s atmosphere). I started at iFixit in 2012 and have grown to love our community of fixers.

My job title? Director of Education Services, Senior Technical Writer, and Resident Astrophysicist at iFixit. As my side-job I am a massage therapist focusing on medical massage.

What do I do around here? Technical writing, advocacy, conference planning, project management, spreadsheet wrangling...a little bit of everything. Mostly I support our team of educators and students who are teaching the world to fix their stuff. I also serve as the stress police—issuing hugs and high-fives when duty calls.

All funny-business aside, I run our education efforts which teach technical communication to thousands of university students. Throughout the process our students learn about the social, environmental, and political impacts of electronics design, preparing them to be better future engineers and technical writers. Our program has created over 30,000 repair manuals on iFixit. Check out more about our education programs at: https://edu.ifixit.com/

My day-to-day responsibilities include:

• Manage education department including hiring, developing, and supervising staff
• Project management, resource allocation, scheduling, and evaluations
• Develop and run a service learning program teaching technical writing to more than 20,000 university students at 80 universities
• Develop curricula, act as instructor liaison, curate and maintain educational websites
• Teach complex concepts surrounding global social and environmental issues
• Forecast, track, and report on budgets
• Develop and execute contracts with corporate partners
• Conduct data analysis evaluating over 50 metrics of program efficiency and performance
• Present research findings through academic papers and technical communication conferences
• Host an annual  technical writing symposium/training workshop for 30 higher education faculty
• Write technical documentation for electronics, including repair procedures and teardowns
• Interface with engineering teams to develop the platform including in-depth UX/UI analysis, bug reporting, feature development, release notes, and internal procedures

I have the privilege of coordinating our iFixit Women in Tech group, as well as a local women in tech group—SLO WIT—through Softec, where I podcast and lead discussion around diversity and inclusion in technology. We focus on practical take-aways for individuals, organizations, and communities to help support and develop women and other minorities in successful tech careers.

When I am not in the office, I keep myself out of trouble with a million and one passions. Topping the charts we have solar physics, cheese-making, puppet-making, gardening, reading, cooking (and eating!), sewing, power-tool-weilding, armchair neuroscience, backpacking, painting, black and white photography (you know, with "reel" film), and balloon sculpting.

Result-oriented, diligent, and efficient individual demonstrating synergistic blend of social and investigative skills. Broad program and team management experience. professional experience in digital documentation. Detail-oriented mathematical, analytical, and research background with strong written and verbal communication skills. Displays quick ability to learn and organize data. ''Highly computer literate. Independently motivated, cooperatively invigorated.

Academic training and qualified skills in the following areas:

● Program development ● Management/Team Development ● Technical Communication ● Cost/Contract Analysis ● Technical Presentations ● Academic Research ● Mechanical Aptitude ● Electronics Background ● Advanced Data Analysis ● Database Management ● Website Maintenance ● Photography ● Brand Management ● Instructional Design ● UX ● SEO ● Organizational Development

• McCrigler, B. & Rippens, M.  (2018). “Human-centered service learning in the online environment: A model for building relationships between industry and academic partners to enhance successful outcomes in a collaborative technical writing project” Proceedings of the 36th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication.
• McCrigler, B.  (2017). “Learn by doing...it wrong: lessons from seven years of industry-led service learning” Proceedings of the 35th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication. 32 (7).
  
• McCrigler, B. & Rippens, M. (2016). “Industry innovation and classroom constraints: Infusing real-world UX into the university classroom via iFixit's Technical Writing Project.” International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development, 8 (3).
• Nelson, S. & McCrigler, B. (2014). “A service-learning collaborative project in a mechanical engineering technical writing class.” Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference.
• Alers, G., McCrigler, B. & Pemberton, D.  (2009) “Coaxing a Meade LX10 into the Digital Age.” Small Telescopes and Astronomical Research. Russ Genet (ed).
• Johnson, J., McCrigler, B., Pemberton, D. & Keller, J. (2009) “Student Estimate of Rotation Period of Pallas.” Small Telescopes and Astronomical Research. Russ Genet (ed).
  

For more research related to our academic work check out: edu.iFixit.com/research

LEGOs. Seriously, I really like LEGOs. I am also particularly fond of pumpkins, hedgehogs, and hugs. My heroes include Mr. Rogers and Jim Henson. I also have a lot of friends named Jeff, and a strong affinity for breakfast sandwiches.

I even made a fun mascot for iFixit: Meet Rosie the Repair Bear.

In my tenure at iFixit I’ve taken apart hundreds of electronics from iPhones to laptops to vacuums, and can fix just about anything.

I’m the office sewing repair guru—from Patagonia guides, to hemming pants, to stitching up a busted tent, I’ve done literally thousands of patches and repairs with a needle and thread.

I also like to tinker on old telescopes, and spend an awkward amount of time fixing my sprinklers.

La Palma is one of the most beautiful places I have been.