Great team within IT; great partners across campus. The CIO position is the best job on campus given the constant stream of new challenges calling for purposeful IT design, creative problem solving, and solid project execution. Accomplishments include: implementing a data analytics strategy with in-memory computing (HANA) and visual reporting (Tableau); establishing tools to support student success including automated attendance tracking and early alerts; boosting cell service while maintaining the beauty of the campus through a distributed antenna system (DAS); deploying mobile apps for news and safety; developing numerous software solutions to improve business processes and enhance organizational efficiency; developing a responsive and accessible campus website that promotes community; performing major upgrades to the campus wired and wireless networks; participating in the establishment of the MissiON research network; deploying compute clusters and storage solutions to support research; and hosting a presidential debate.While CIO, I was active in EDUCAUSE, Internet2, and SAP user and advisory groups. I served as a faculty member for the EDUCAUSE Leadership Institute from 2015-2017 and as director in 2017. I served on numerous EDUCAUSE and Internet2 committees.

Following the SLcM (student system) go live, the administrative computing division of IT was moved under me so that I had responsibility for both academic and administrative computing. I began to merge functions where it made sense. For example, the student system contains the course schedule and instructor assignments. Classroom technology can make use of this information. We put a high priority on Web-based services for students and faculty as well as using technology to make the university more efficient.

Through the leadership of the Academic Computing Task Force, we were able to put in place a number of projects that still persist -- TACIT for the cyclical replacement of faculty technology, the Galtney Center for Academic Computing, which brought together all of UM's instructional technology efforts, and a centralized classroom technology group. The Faculty Technology Development Center had been operating independently of IT prior to this time. We were able to bring it under the umbrella of IT for better sustainability over time. In 2001, I began serving as the project manager for UM's student system implementation, now known as SAP Student Lifecycle Management. UM had already implemented SAP HR, Financials, Procurement, Plant Maintenance, and more. Being part of the SLcM project was really exciting given that UM was one the first of four universities world-wide to go live. Most satisfying were the relationships with universities around the world pursuing the same goals. Many of these relationships continue today.

While my children were small, I worked as a consultant with the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research. I worked 50-75% for about eight years and then went full time. I am forever appreciative of the flexibility that MCSR gave, allowing me to stay active professionally while having good work-life balance. I supported scientists and engineers who coded in Fortran and used mathematical and statistical software applications. During this time, the World Wide Web emerged. I learned Java and HTML and built the first Web to database applications used by MCSR and UM.

This was the first position I held making use of my Computer Science MS degree. At the time, AT&T Bell Labs was a premier research facility in the US. I worked as a software developer on a project called Netstar coding in C on UNIX systems to deliver advanced 800 services to British Telecom. I spent a month in Oswestry England working with others to deploy the project. It was fascinating to see how a large software project consisting of more than 40 developers could be managed and deployed. Overall it was a great experience, and I am appreciative of the great mentoring I received at Bell Labs.