Rebecca Negron

One of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on was the redesign and development of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) website while I was part of the team at ThinkShout. CSIS is a leading policy research organization, and its digital presence needed to match the credibility and depth of its work — serving a global audience with clear, accessible, and well-organized information.

A True Team Effort

At ThinkShout, we take on complex web builds as a collaborative team. For the CSIS project, I contributed as a developer, focusing on building flexible, sustainable structures that would empower the CSIS team to share research, publications, and events easily and beautifully.

My Role

1. Building Content Types & Paragraphs
I created custom content types and paragraph types to give editors the power to build rich, modular pages without needing a developer’s help every time they wanted to adjust layouts. From reports and events to landing pages and multi-column layouts, these components made it simple for the CSIS team to keep their vast content library organized and engaging.

2. Integrating Twig Templates
I implemented Twig templates to bring the designer’s vision to life. Twig’s flexibility made it possible to build clean, maintainable markup and keep the site’s presentation layer consistent and reusable.

3. Front-End Development & Styling
In addition to back-end configuration, I handled front-end styling to ensure the site reflected CSIS’s brand and design system. This included crafting responsive layouts and styling reusable components to maintain consistency across all pages.

4. Modern JavaScript & Accessibility
I integrated ES6 JavaScript to enhance interactivity and usability where needed — from dynamic menus to interactive content blocks. Throughout development, I prioritized 508 compliance and accessibility best practices, ensuring the site is usable by everyone, regardless of device or ability.

The Impact

Today, the CSIS website serves as an authoritative, accessible resource for policymakers, researchers, journalists, and the general public around the world. It’s flexible, responsive, and easy for the CSIS team to maintain — exactly what we set out to achieve.

Working on this project deepened my experience with Drupal, modern theming, accessibility, and collaborative development — and it’s a great example of what thoughtful, mission-driven digital work can look like.

Tech Stack: Drupal, Twig, ES6 JavaScript, SCSS, Accessibility (Section 508 Compliance)

Agency: ThinkShout