About Graham

I’m a full-stack web developer and Applications Programmer at UC Santa Cruz, where I design, build and maintain accessible websites and web apps for departments across campus.

Graham at sunset at the Getty Center art museum in Los Angeles, holding a film camera on a yellow strap, in front of a stone wall and red flowering bushes, with the city skyline in the distance

Sunset at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, fall 2022, with my Nikon FE2.

How I got here

I grew up in Western Massachusetts and studied Informatics, a mix of art and computer science, at UMass Amherst. I still care as much about how something looks and feels as about how it works.

I started in 2019 at Bartlett Interactive, a Concord agency building sites for Boston-area nonprofits and public institutions, then moved in-house to The Predictive Index, a workplace analytics company, to build its marketing site and a virtual conference platform. I joined UC Santa Cruz in 2024.

Photo by Graham Hagenah: waves breaking against a sandstone sea cliff under a deep blue sky, with purple ice plant flowers in the foreground
The coast
Photo by Graham Hagenah: looking straight up through a ring of tall redwood trunks to a sunlit canopy
The redwoods
Photo by Graham Hagenah: a young black-tailed buck with two-point antlers standing in dry grass, looking at the camera
A local

I still work for UC Santa Cruz, now from Somerville, closer to friends and family.

How I work

People usually bring me a problem, not a spec: a slow process, a repetitive task, a half-formed idea. I help pin down what they’re really solving, then build it with them, whether that’s an automation, an app on AWS, an accessibility fix, a design, or an extra hand before a deadline.

What I’m looking for

A team that designs, tests, ships and maintains its own tools, internal apps or open-source projects. I like owning both the design and the JavaScript, testing with real users, and building things that last, especially for the public.

What I care about

  • Accessibility from the start. Built in, not fixed at the end. I’ve led accessibility work at two jobs and trained staff to keep content accessible.
  • Speed. Fast pages work for everyone, especially on a phone.
  • Plain interfaces. The best ones don’t make you think.
  • Making things I use. Most of my projects began as tools for myself.

Outside work

I hike, bike, shoot film, read science fiction, and go to Boston’s old independent movie theaters. I also have an English setter named Philly.

Graham Hagenah in a red jacket and cap, holding the leash of Philly, a black-and-white English setter sitting beside him, on the Rose Kennedy Greenway with Boston's Custom House tower behind them
With Philly on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston.
Photo by Graham Hagenah: orange and white hoodoos, tall eroded rock spires, dusted with snow among a few pine trees
Hoodoos in the snow, Bryce Canyon, Utah.
Graham Hagenah in a bike helmet, smiling and holding his silver road bike with its packed bags over his head at the railing in Battery Park, the harbor and the Statue of Liberty behind him under a cloudy blue sky
In Battery Park after biking the Empire State Trail.
Photo by Graham Hagenah: a coastal highway in hazy golden light, telephone poles leading toward the ocean and layered hills
Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu.
Graham Hagenah in a sun hat with a backpack and camera, smiling on a rocky trail, with the snowy peak of Mount Hood behind him
On the Timberline Trail around Mount Hood, 2022.
Photo by Graham Hagenah: a blue jay perched on a branch among orange fall leaves
A blue jay in the fall.

Get in touch

I’m looking for web development and design roles in Boston or beyond. Email me at gwhagenah@gmail.com, see my code on GitHub, or read my work history.

Download my resume (PDF) ↓