Andrew J. (Andy) Oppel is a proud graduate of The Boys' Latin School of Maryland and of Transylvania University (Lexington, KY) where he earned a BA in computer science in 1974. Since then he has been continuously employed in a wide variety of information technology positions, including programmer, programmer/analyst, systems architect, project manager, senior database administrator, database group manager, consultant, database designer, and data architect. In addition, he has been a part-time instructor with the University of California (Berkeley) Extension for over 20 years, and received the Honored Instructor Award for the year 2000. His teaching work included developing three courses for UC Extension, "Concepts of Database Management Systems", "Introduction to Relational Database Management Systems", and "Data Modeling and Database Design." He also earned his Oracle 9i Database Associate certification in 2003. He is currently employed as a senior data modeler for Blue Shield of California. Aside from computer systems, Andy enjoys music (guitar and vocals), amateur radio (Pacific Division Vice Director, American Radio Relay League) and soccer (Referee Instructor, U.S. Soccer). Andy has designed and implemented hundreds of databases for a wide range of applications, including medical research, banking, insurance, apparel manufacturing, telecommunications, wireless communications, and human resources. He is the author of Databases Demystified (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004) and SQL Demystified (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005). His database product experience includes IMS, DB2, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, MySQL, and Oracle (versions 7, 8, 8i, 9i, and 10g).
