Services
- General Consultant/Technical Assistant;
- Food Grower Consultant/Technical Assistant (Agrohomeopathy/Biodynamics, Beginning Food Grower Consultations, Cover Crops, Insect “Pests” and/or “Weed” Troubleshooting, Soil Health, Water Health, etc.);
- Healthy Living Coach (Promoting Healthy Living through the Read the Labels Campaign);
- Public Speaker/Instructor/Teacher/Professional Development Leader;
- General IT {Information Technology} Consultant [Technical assistance with software and/or hardware troubleshooting on GNU/Linux, MAC OS X, and/or Microsoft Windows operating systems, including the set up and/or troubleshooting of laptop / desktop, monitor(s), printers, copiers, all-in-ones.
- Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) IT {Information Technology} Consultant;
- Data Analyst, Data Engineer, Data Quality Assurance (QA)/Quality Control (QC)/Data Validation, Data Visualizer {Make digital maps, charts/graphs, and other forms of data visualization}, R {Package} Consultant, R Programmer/Developer {Write R scripts and functions; Create R packages; Create custom spreadsheets; Replicate the work performed in spreadsheets, including calculations, custom functions, graphs/plots, pivot tables, the creation of custom calculators using R; etc.}, & R Trainer;
- One Stop Shop Services — Irucka Embry’s Other Businesses (Business Services, Travel Agent, Melaleuca, AmeriPlan, Financial Professional, Real Estate Wholesaler, etc.)
- Event Planner;
- Researcher;
- Create 2-D CAD drawings;
- Do-it-YourSelf (DIY) Book Creator Consultant;
- Photographer;
- General Handyman;
- Design & implement online surveys using LimeSurvey;
- Chemistry, English, Mathematics (Elementary-level up to Multivariate Calculus), el español (Spanish), and Statistics Tutor;
Using my background as an environmental engineer who has studied systems, I use my creative problem solving skills to help you locate solutions and hopefully prevent future problems. More than that, I can see both the forests (systems thinking) and the trees (detail-oriented).
You can refer to the Current Projects section and the About Getting Back to Nature™ section on the About EcoC²S page for the various agricultural techniques that we have applied over the past 10 years while we have been healing the leased 2 acres of land.
My goal is to help you become a healthier You. Please refer to the Read the Labels Campaign Resources Web page to learn more about this campaign.
I have been doing public speaking in various avenues since high school. I have shared my knowledge gleaned from my own experiences and/or research that I have conducted on a wide range of topics in public settings. In addition, I was an Adjunct Professor in the Tennessee State University (TSU) College of Engineering for a number of years.
In addition to my role as an environmental engineer, I performed various IT tasks (software and/or hardware troubleshooting) on most of my jobs.
I have been an advocate and user of FLOSS since the early 2000s. For example, you can use LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office. FLOSS is an alternative to proprietary, closed-source, freedom-limiting software. In addition, I’ve been around a computer for many decades.
I began writing R scripts and/or functions in 2012 or 2013. Prior to using R, I had written scripts and/or functions in GNU Octave/MATLAB and BASIC. You can view the vignettes for CRAN - Package iemisc, CRAN - Package iemiscdata, CRAN - Package ie2miscdata, & Irucka Embry’s R Examples for various forms of data visualization and the results of custom R functions created by Irucka Embry.
This portal is for the other business ventures that Irucka is involved in.
I have been planning events as a part of organizations, with my family, and/or through my business for many years.
An example of research that I conducted for the greater good for the residents of Tennessee is my scientific inquiry letter which I wrote in July 2007 while the Rutherford County Landfill Project Engineer. The various links will not be updated in that letter, but they will be updated in my future book on nuclear issues.
You can view examples of drawings that I have created in the Past Projects section.
In early 2014, I published my book, Balancing the Rift: ReCONNECTualizing the Pasenture, through Questioning the Universe Publishing (QUP), which is my publishing arm. I was solely responsible for the cover design & typesetting, book design, manuscript typesetting & layout, and editing. I used the the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), Inkscape, LibreOffice Writer/OpenOffice.org Writer (now Apache OpenOffice), Scribus, and Tellico on the Trisquel, fully free GNU/Linux based operating system to accomplish those tasks in addition to the actual storage of the electronic texts and images. I can teach you how to use Scribus for your manuscript typesetting & layout.
I have been taking photographs since I was a child. You can view various photographs that I have taken in the Getting Back to Nature™ calendars that Obiora designs.
In addition to working with my father in his general contractor business as a youngster, I have developed other skills over the years.
I have created 3 self-hosted surveys using LimeSurvey.
I began helping students better understand the subject matter in Chemistry, Math, and Spanish courses at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) while an undergraduate student.
Current Projects
- Creating an edible food ecosystem with Obiora Embry of EConsulting™ on formerly fallow land on our maternal family farm. We use an eclectic mixture of biologically-based techniques (agroecology/agroforestry, agrohomeopathy/biodynamic and organic agriculture, companion planting, native vegetation, permaculture, and soil food web dynamics) to restore the health and vitality of the land.
- Providing Technical Assistance as a Food Grower Consultant for a few people.
- Helping some people become healthier through my Healthy Living Coach services.
- Creating Public Domain digital artwork. The images are being uploaded to Irucka Embry — Artist @ Openclipart
- I am the Web site maintainer for my friend, Paula Peace’s Peacescapes (Qi Mag Feng Shui, Geomancy, Sacred Geometry, Dowsing, Energy Healing, Garden Design).
- Performing IT services (hardware/software troubleshooting & software selection) for both businesses and individuals on a MacBook and Microsoft Windows computers.
- Performing R programming tasks, including the creation and maintenance of R packages for CRAN (iemisc, iemiscdata, ie2misc, ie2miscdata, USA.state.boundaries {formerly states2k}, and install.load). Writing unit test code for functions within the iemisc package.
- Performing data mining, data cleaning and munging & explored data visualization techniques on a variety of data stored in Microsoft Excel/Libre Office Calc spreadsheets, MariaDB/MySQL databases, and text files using R.
Past Projects
- Provided Consulting Services [Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs), Budget Creation, Grant Writing, Survey Development & Water Quality] for Cherokee Historical State Resort Park of Aurora through the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Foundation-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Historically Underserved Farmers Grant.
- Organized and wrote most of the Grant Application for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Foundation-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Historically Underserved Farmers Grant for the Cherokee Historical State Resort Park of Aurora, which we received. Created the project budget using R.
- Organized and wrote most of the Grant Pre-Application for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Foundation-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Historically Underserved Farmers Grant for the Cherokee Historical State Resort Park of Aurora. Created the project budget using R.
- Was the main author of the Cherokee Historical State Resort Park of Aurora Trails Committee’s nomination of Lester Mimms (the first Superintendent for Cherokee State Park) for the naming of the new trail.
- Created R scripts and functions to download and harmonize data from the United Nations (UN) Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) [Bitbucket repository]. Also, enhanced the existing globallivingconditions R package. EcoC²S was awarded this project by an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Performed general maintenance/handyman services for my friend, who is a landlord. Designed 2-D CAD drawings, using LibreCAD, for the placement of a solar shade on an interior door and window for the landlord too. — [Requires PDF Software]
- Designed an Evacuation Plan for my friend’s business using Inkscape. — [Requires PDF Software]
- Provided general handyman services during the renovation process for my friend Martha Stamps’ Bergamot Market Cafe.
- Worked in conjunction with Obiora of EConsulting™ to create unique and rustic wedding items for one of our first cousins in 2016.
- Co-Conversation Facilitator with Paula Peace of Peacescapes and one of our mutual friends for a Discussion on: “Are You Ready to Wake Up to Happiness, Love, and Peace (the Good Life)?”. The discussion was based on Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting: The Astonishing Power of Feelings By Lynn Grabhorn. Irucka created a Good Life Resource List. — [Requires PDF Software]
- Wrote R scripts and functions to visualize the ecological interactions between viruses and bats based on their location.
- Enhanced the resumes for 2 of my friends to enable them to obtain better employment opportunities.
- Created and maintained the Nashville Urban Herb Co-op Web page, which is located on Peacescapes’ Web site.
- Created and maintained a Web site for a friend’s non-profit.
- Created an R package to perform fuzzy matching on two large data sets to be merged together.
- Tutored students in Mathematics, Statistics, and Chemistry.
- Revised and Maintained the EWRI [Environmental & Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)] Sustainability Task Committee’s Web site.
- Restored a backyard with edible plants.
- Assisted with planting in the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center rain garden in March 2011.
- In 2011, created a partial rain garden design for my former middle school.
- Helped to enhance the Shelby Park Discovery Garden.
- Designed a Hoop House Interior for a proposed Hoop House in Lexington, Kentucky using QCAD, — [Requires PDF Software]
For that project, I created 3 2-D CAD drawings: Plan View, Full Detailed View, and Cross Section using QCAD. — [Requires PDF Software]
Laid out both the 2011 Garden Guide & the 2012 Garden Guide for the Shelby Park Discovery Garden using QCAD. — [Requires PDF Software]