Cary Institute

The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies needed a modern Drupal website to showcase their environmental research, science communication, and educational initiatives. I led the full Drupal build, creating a platform that supported a wide range of content types, editorial needs, and visually rich storytelling.

Component-Driven Architecture with Paragraphs

A major focus of the project was giving the Cary Institute team the ability to create highly customized pages without developer intervention. Using the Paragraphs module, I built a system of flexible, reusable components—hero sections, callouts, media blocks, research highlights, article layouts, and more. Editors could mix and match these pieces to build unique pages while still maintaining visual consistency.

Designed for Science Communication

Because the site features scientific work, data-driven content, and long-form articles, the architecture prioritized readability, clarity, and structured storytelling. Views, taxonomy, and custom fields were organized to support complex resource libraries while still being easy for non-technical teams to manage.

Performance, Responsiveness & Modern UX

The front-end theming emphasized clean typography, strong imagery, and a responsive design system that translated equally well on desktop and mobile. Performance considerations were built in from the start to support media-heavy pages and large news archives.

This project is a solid example of my ability to deliver a complete Drupal platform with a flexible, component-based editorial system tailored to a research-focused organization.