Technology Team

Rob Mercer

Rob carries the illustrious title of Employee #2 at Magnus Health and it’s hard to distinguish between which has grown more over the past 5 years, the size of the company or his ability to tackle the toughest tasks. Rob came on board during his junior year at N.C. State, launching the first tracking features and managing the website. He now handles the most complex of software engineering projects from creating a scalable server model that can handle hundreds of thousands of users to overseeing site security. Most recently, Rob built the Magnus Health application programming interface (API) and single sign-on (SSO) integration, which greatly enhances the customer experience through a seamless integration with other software products.

Originally from Durham (Go BULLS!), Rob moved to Raleigh in 2004 and obtained a BS in Computer Science in 2008. In the spirit if being a true engineer, he loves fast cars and is the proud owner of a Nissan 350Z. As our resident security expert, he helps keep the office safe, most notably by designing our earthquake evacuation plan in a matter of seconds.

Rob is currently pursuing a Master’s in Computer Science at NCSU (overachiever), so he has zero free time; however, he does enjoy the company of his fiancé, N.C. State football games, concerts, and bar-hopping in downtown Raleigh. He also stays true to his high school roots as a Mrs. Fields employee and can bake a mean batch of cookies.

Tricia LaPaglia

Tricia recently joined Magnus Health with the task of making a user’s experience as simple and comforting as a fresh batch of warm, snickerdoodle cookies. Extremely well-suited for the task, she finds amusement in trashing the “geek-speak” of developers and translating their high tech dribble into terminology that even a five-year old could understand. She employs a common sense approach to student medical records that makes parents, students, school nurses and administrators breathe a sigh of relief when navigating our suite of online applications.

An experienced entrepreneur, Tricia brings a cornucopia of professional management and customer service skills to her role as Usability Tester. After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with a terminal M.F.A. in Technical Theatre Production, she spent over ten years designing and building small history museum exhibits across the Southeast. She hopes to one day use her artistic background to design an exhibit that showcases paper medical forms alongside dinosaur fossils and antique tractors.

When she’s not volunteering at her son’s school or maxing out her library card, Tricia is often guilty of committing random acts of baking. She is currently plotting her crimes on paper in a fresh-from-the-oven, non-fat mystery novel. Spoiler alert: the bundt cake did it.

Dan Lombardi

Originally from New Jersey (yeah, we’ve got a bunch of ‘em…), Dan is the resident DJ for the technology team here at Magnus Health. He is a relatively new face at the company, having signed on as one of our Junior Developers in the summer of 2011, but he’s already worked on several major pieces of the site and is passionate about making sure the system looks “bangin’!”

While he’s not handling his work duties, Dan is finishing up his degree in Computer Science and minor in Meteorology at N.C. State University. He is also an avid scuba diver, often traveling to the Caribbean or teaching courses as a Divemaster in nearby quarries and pools.

Court Brown

As a guitar-playing, shark-taming software engineer, Court is in a league of his own.  At Magnus, he is, in his own words, “responsible for creating more sweet, sweet Magnus awesomeness!”

From Jacksonville, NC, and a graduate of North Carolina State University’s College of Computer Science, Court has held many a job title in the past, including junk remover and demolitionist, projectionist, stock boy, cook, car washer, carpenters assistant, and grease monkey.

Blake Lee

Blake has played with computers his entire life, graduating from Central Academy of Technology & Arts, in the Information Systems Academy, with a concentration in Cisco Networking.  And that was just high school.  He’s now attending North Carolina State University, majoring in Computer Science.  At Magnus, he manages internal computing issues as they arise, and assists the development team with projects and upgrades to internal networks and services.

Blake hails from Marshville, NC and is a self-professed lover of all things Apple.  He also enjoys landscape photography, cooking, and quality time with Wikipedia.  Most importantly, he’s a worldly McDonald’s eater, having consumed the healthy goodness in the US, UK, France, and Italy.