About
An Illinois consulting firm for public-sector technology
Geek Magnet, Inc. is an Illinois-based, BEP-certified woman-owned (WBE) information technology consulting firm. Founded in 2014 and led by a technologist with 20+ years of experience.
The firm
Kristin Boster is president and a practicing senior consultant. Since 2014, Geek Magnet has provided technology consulting to Illinois government agencies and to private entities in several states.
The work is concentrated in Illinois government education agencies, including the Illinois State Board of Education and the Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois. Consultants have been team members and system leads on mission-critical rewrites and on data conversions from legacy systems. They have taken new systems through the software development lifecycle and continue to serve agencies in maintenance and continuous integration.
At the Illinois State Board of Education, consultants have served as web developers, business analysts, subject matter experts, project leads, system architects, and database administrators.
Leadership
Kristin Boster’s public-sector information technology work dates to 2000. From 2000 to 2014 she consulted independently, including with Ashbaugh & Associates. She founded Geek Magnet, Inc. in Girard, Illinois in July 2014.
Her Illinois State Board of Education role, listed from January 2006, is web developer for the Nutrition Services Division application that administers federally funded programs for schools, day care, and other providers. She was the key architect of the SQL relational database for that system and of the conversion of legacy data. She has also advised MTW Solutions, as a subject matter expert and system architect, on Harvest, a SaaS child-nutrition system for the Vermont Agency of Education.
Before that technology career she was a forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police and a Senior Public Service Administrator for the Forensic Science Command. She holds a B.A. in biological sciences from Blackburn University (1991) and has completed graduate coursework in computer science at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Certification
Illinois BEP-certified, woman-owned business (WBE).
- Business Enterprise Program (BEP), State of Illinois
- Woman-owned (WBE)
Location
Girard, Illinois.