Need to find MySQL/PHP builder for Alumni Website...

I'm working on a website for a client who wants to have a searchable database of alumni for thier high school website, including pictures, email/web links etc.

I've done a few websites (basic HTML and a small amount of CSS), but have no clue how to build or integrate a database with these results.

Anyone have any references for good builders? How would I even check if someone was good at this type of thing before engaging them in the project? How do we deal with a client that has definite ideas regarding the layouts of the search results? Are we able to accommodate the client's ideas - in terms of layout - within the scope of searching and the database?

I'd love any help/direction here. I'm too busy to learn all about MySQL or PHP to do this all myself.

thanks