By Debbie Justice, Director of IT Planning, Office of the CIO
Since September 2010 we have had new staff join the IT division (DoIT) and other staff members take on new roles.
New DoIT Staff
Nathan Barker (near right) joined the desktop and hardware services team as an IT support technician in January. In May, he will finish up an Associate of Applied Science degree in Computer Information Technology and Networking Technology from Southwestern Community College. Prior to joining us, Nathan worked for Drake Software in Franklin, NC.
In March, Angela Smith (far right) joined the operations team as an operations and systems analyst. She works with our Windows Server and Active Directory environment, as well as the enterprise backup system. Prior to this, Angela was the systems administrator for the City of Asheville Housing Authority. You may remember Angela worked for us as a technology support analyst for 2 1/2 years before taking the position with the City of Asheville Housing Authority in 2008. Angela holds two Associate of Applied Science degrees in Information Systems Technology and Chemical Technology and several Microsoft certifications. She is currently working on a B.S. in Management Information Systems at East Carolina University.
Also starting in March was Neil Calvert (near right), a Tier 1 IT support technician with the IT Help Desk. He will also help with on-site support of remote WCU programs. Before relocating to North Carolina, Neil was a Level 2 analyst for Override Inc., a subsidiary of Irving Oil, where he provided on-site and remote network support to commercial customers. Neil is ITIL V3 certified along with various other networking and technology certifications. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Glasgow University, and has more than 14 years of systems and network support experience, from Fortune 500 to startup companies.
Sarah Speed (above, far right) is a new employee in the applications development and data management department as of April. She is an IT business analyst who will function as both a senior business analyst and senior technologist and provide project management leadership. Before coming to WCU, Sarah was a senior developer for four years with GeoDecisions, a division of the engineering firm Gannett Fleming, headquartered in Camp Hill, PA. Her primary responsibilities included architecting enterprise mapping applications and managing development teams assigned to deliver client solutions. Prior to private industry, she worked as an application developer for seven years with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She holds a M.S. in Management of Information Systems from Shippensburg University and a B.A. in Criminal Justice and Criminology and Spanish from East Tennessee State University.
DoIT Staff with New Jobs
There have been three job changes in the instructional and student computing team, part of the Department of Academic Engagement and IT Governance.
In December 2010, Colby Deitz (near right) was hired as manager of the Technology Commons and instructional computing team, overseeing the operations, services, and staff in the Technology Commons and IT instructional facilities (general student computer labs, classrooms, carts, and ITV center). Colby has been with the IT division since June 2000 and was the acting manager for his team following the reorganizations of the former client services department in March 2010. He holds two Associate of Applied Science degrees in Computer Engineering Technology and Electronic Engineering Technology from Southwestern Community College and various Apple and Microsoft certifications.
In January 2011, Zach Phillips (above, far right) was promoted to an IT support analyst position on the Technology Commons and instructional computing team. In his new role, he has primary responsibility for the support of all the technologies used in instructional spaces across campus. Zach started working for us as a student computer lab assistant while he worked on his B.S.B.A. in Computer Information Systems from WCU, which he completed in May 2010. Since joining our staff full-time, he has completed a course in Extron’s Controller Configuration for Higher Education, a technology that is integral to the setup of our computer e-classrooms and demo rooms.
Brad Semma (near right) accepted a full-time technology support analyst position with the student computing team in March 2011. He is the lead Tier 2 support for students during the evening hours of operation in the Technology Commons, which includes overseeing computer intake and repairs for both the student computing and the desktop and hardware groups. Brad holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Professional Writing from WCU. While he was a student, Brad worked for IT and was also president of WCU’s Last Minute Productions for two years. After graduating, Brad joined our student computing team in a temporary position.
Jed Tate (above, far right) accepted the position of manager of the web services team, part of the applications development and data management department. Jed has been a web developer for WCU since 2000, and he has been instrumental in developing and supporting the university’s web presence and functionality. He wrote the proposal for the university website redesign and worked closely with the vendor mStoner and campus leaders and content providers to migrate to the RedDot content management system (CMS). He also developed a SharePoint-based web portal for WCU’s SACS accreditation review, among many more projects. Jed has a B.S.B.A. in Computer Information Systems and a B.A. in Philosophy from WCU and is currently working on a distance education certificate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
John Hawes (near right) joined the Coulter Faculty Commons LMS (Learning Management System) team in March 2011 as a LMS Support Specialist. John started working at WCU in November 2006 and joined the Coulter Faculty Commons (CFC) in April 2009. His CFC experience includes supporting instructional tools such as Wimba, WebCat, Blackboard, Qualtrics, and Cherwell. John holds an Associate of Applied Science degree in Electronic Technology from the Community College of the U.S. Air Force and plans to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College this spring.
On the operations team, Matt Bibens (above, far right) accepted a promotion to an operations and systems analyst position responsible for administration of enterprise servers and applications, and administration of enterprise appliances/peripherals. Matt has worked for us since March 2006 as the evening shift operations and systems analyst. He has extensive experience with the Sun Solaris server environment and our NetApp backup environment. He started his new duties in December 2010. Matt holds a B.S. in Business Education-IT from East Carolina University where he is currently working on a graduate computer network professional certificate.
In November 2010, Brian Dickens (near right) and Jason Foster (far right) accepted positions as the new Tier 2 technology support analysts with the IT Help Desk. As part of the reconfiguration of the IT Help Desk team, in their new roles they handle any incidents escalated to them through the Tier 1 processes. They are also responsible for automated delivery of system and security patches and applications to clients’ computers using tools from Microsoft and Apple.
Brian, who has been part of the Help Desk team since May 2008, will be the lead Tier 2 analyst and will also continue as the MCD (Mobile Communication Device) coordinator. He holds a B.S.B.A. in Computer Information Systems from WCU.
Jason worked as a technology support technician in hardware services from December 2008 until accepting his new position. He holds a B.S. in Telecommunications Engineering Technology from WCU and is Dell and Apple support certified.
Adam Huggins (near right) accepted a technology support analyst position on the desktop and hardware services team in January 2011. He will have primary responsibility for creating and testing hard drive images for faculty and staff computers. He holds Associate of Applied Science degrees in Electronics Engineering Technology and Computer Engineering Technology from Southwestern Community College, and he is an Apple and Dell certified technician. Adam has worked with DoIT since April 2007 and prior to that with Drake Software Support in Franklin, NC.
Cameron Shelton (above, far right) accepted a full-time technology support technician position, with the desktop and hardware services team in January 2011. Prior to that, he worked for us as an hourly technician from June to December 2010. Cameron has Associate of Applied Science degrees in Computer Information Technology and Networking Technology from Southwestern Community College where he also worked as a student computer lab assistant. He is working on his CompTIA A+ certification and recently completed his Apple ACMT for Mac OS X 10.6 certification.
Kenny Chapman (right) accepted a full-time technology support technician position with the IT Help Desk as a Tier 1 Help Desk support analyst, providing telephone, email, remote and face-to-face troubleshooting and support services to university staff, faculty, and students. He worked for the Help Desk as a temporary employee from August 2010 until he started his full-time duties in March 2011. Kenny holds an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Electrical/Electronic Technology from Isothermal Community College and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology from WCU. After graduating from WCU, he worked as a youth and children’s minister at East Sylva Baptist Church while pursuing a Master of Divinity degree from Gardner-Webb University, which he completed in May 2010.
DoIT Staff Activities
National EDUCAUSE Conference
CIO Craig Fowler (near right) and Anna McFadden (far right), director of academic engagement and IT governance, presented a paper at the 2010 EDUCAUSE Conference held October 12-15, 2010 in Anaheim, CA. Their session, “It’s About the Relationship: IT and Academic Affairs Partner to Support Faculty,” presented information on the successful strategic partnership between the WCU IT and academic affairs divisions in supporting faculty use of technology and student engagement through the Coulter Faculty Commons.
William Frady (near right) and Zach Phillips of instructional and student computing also presented a poster session on Making Teaching and Learning Technology Transparent for Faculty and Advantageous for IT Staff.
Scott Koger (far right), security analyst in the networking and communications department, participated in a “Lightning Round” panel discussion on mobile devices. He presented “Mobile Devices in University Networks, Now What?”
IT Security Presentations
In September 2010, Scott Koger attended the Association of College and University Auditors annual conference where he presented two sessions: “Cloud Based Computing, Are we Ready?” and “Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, not If but When.” In March 2011, he was a guest lecturer for an MBA 607 class, speaking about the technical, regulatory/compliance and cultural challenges in a “.edu” environment. Scott also continues to teach CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) boot camp classes online.
MABUG (Mid-Atlantic Banner Users Group) Conference
WCU staff attended the October 2010 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Banner Users Group (MABUG), hosted by UNC-Wilmington, and shared developed processes and resolved issues related to the implementation of Banner payroll and identity management (ID management). IT staff presented the sessions detailed below.
“Coordinating Identity Management – a partnership between HR and IT”
Presented by Patti Johnson (near right), applications analyst in applications development and data management, and Diana Catley of WCU human resources (HR), this session outlined the evolution of the partnership between HR and IT over the past couple of years as WCU worked on the Banner HR/Payroll implementation with a “go live” date of April 2010. It was clear that data maintained by HR could also be utilized by IT to maintain identity management across campus. An efficient audit trail was maintained using Banner forms for the development of IT reports to create Active Directory, e-mail, and INB (Banner) accounts for employees throughout the campus.
“Work Study Employment Process: Fill the Gap”
Presented by Daniel Huss (above, far right), applications analyst in applications development and data management, and Sara Goodman of WCU systems accounting, this session focused on the WCU-specific interface created to reduce data entry by automating human resources, timesheet and payroll information upon the initial entry of financial aid assigned jobs.
Read more about WCU’s involvement with this conference.
UNC-CAUSE Conference
UNC-CAUSE is an organization of information technology (IT) management and staff from across the UNC System campuses that focuses on cooperation, sharing and leveraging technology in all areas related to IT. This year, WCU was fortunate to be able to send a cadre of representatives to their annual conference held in Wilmington, NC, November 8-10, 2010. Presenters at the 2010 conference included the staff members listed below.
Sue Grider (near right) of Coulter Faculty Commons and Dixie Lawson (far right) of IT governance gave a presentation entitled “Proactive, Process, Prevention: Defining IT Services through Data,” which focused on WCU’s adoption of best practices for managing IT resources.
Jason Ottie (near right) of Coulter Faculty Commons and former Class TIPS Analyst Zaneta Summers presented “What’s in Your Briefcase?,” an overview of the process and progress of our eBriefcase initiative.
Neil Torda (far right) of systems and operations participated in a roundtable discussion that considered a variety of options for capturing classroom lectures.
William Frady and Colby Deitz of instructional and student computing participated in a roundtable discussion that looked comparatively at the expansion of classroom technology across the UNC system.
Lynn Franz (right) of applications development and data management participated in a roundtable discussion concerning identity and access management issues for UNC institutions.
Other attendees included Scott Koger of networking and communications and CIO Craig Fowler. Scott attended a UNC Security Council meeting held at the conference and participated in the conference security BOF (Birds of a Feather) session on Mobile Device Security; Craig attended the UNC CIO Council meeting.
Coulter Faculty Commons (CFC) Presentations & Publications
In September 2010, Laura Cruz (near right) and Robert Crow (far right) presented “The Many Facets of Boyer” at Integrating Boyer into Institutional Culture: An Executive Retreat held in Asheville, NC. This is a national program offered by WCU for exploring and developing the Boyer model of scholarship.
Laura Cruz and Robert Crow also presented at the November 2010 POD (Professional and Organizational Development) Annual Conference held in St. Louis, MO. Their session, “Brave New World: Models for Integrating Technology and Pedagogy,” explored cultural and sociological barriers to the effective integration of pedagogy and technology in faculty development organizations.
In March 2011, Laura Cruz and Sue Grider presented “The Seventh Dimension: Dynamic Frameworks for Thinking about the Future of Faculty Development” at the annual SRFIDC conference (Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium) held at Auburn University.
Laura Cruz was invited to present “An Editor’s Perspective on SoTL” to Kingsborough Community College, NY in January 2011. In February, she presented “How Do You Do SOTL: A Practical Guide” to the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators.
Leading the way in conceptualizing institutional approaches toward professional development, Laura Cruz and Robert Crow were invited to present in a March 2011 national webinar, Friday Live!, sponsored by the Teaching, Learning and Technology Group (TLTG). The TLTG is a non-profit organization nationally recognized for enabling collaboration, support and communication among key stakeholders in more than one hundred institutions and agencies. Using WCU’s Coulter Faculty Commons as an illustrative model that blends pedagogy and technology for enhancing instructional quality, “When Worlds Collide: Blending Pedagogy and Technology in Faculty Development” asked participants to consider their own institutional approach for faculty development and next steps for working toward this type of integration. The archived session can be found at http://www.tltgroup.org/tlt-swg/FL!/FL!past.htm
Robert Crow, Laura Cruz, and others published “Wiki-U: One State University’s Experience in Integrating Wikis Across the Disciplines,” in the fall 2010 issue of MountainRise, an open, peer-reviewed, international electronic journal published by the Coulter Faculty Commons. The article used case studies to detail the ways wikis are being used to support the mission of the institution and enhance student learning.
DoIT Staff Awards & Accolades
Two IT colleagues received awards at the Spring Awards Convocation April 12. The Judy H. Dowell Outstanding Support Staff Award was presented to Jenny Owen (near right), executive assistant to the CIO, and the Paul A. Reid Distinguished Service Award was presented to William Frady (far right), manager of instructional and student computing. Jenny and William each received a plaque and an award of $1,000. Congratulations to Jenny and William!
DoIT Staff Certifications
- Jason Foster, desktop and hardware services, received his Apple Certified Support Professional for Mac OS X 10.6 and renewed his Apple Certified Macintosh Technician certifications.
- Adam Huggins, desktop and hardware services, received his Apple Certified Support Professional for Mac OS X 10.6 and renewed his Apple Certified Macintosh Technician certifications.
- Scott Koger, networking and communications, renewed his CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certification in November after meeting all of the continuing education requirements, and in January was awarded a CRISC certification (Certified in Risk and Information System Control) by ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association).
- Cameron Shelton, desktop and hardware services – received his Apple Certified Macintosh Technician certification.
- Stephen Wilson (right), networking and communications, received certification as a Juniper Networks Certified Associate in enterprise switching.
Staff Service
- William Frady, manager of instructional and student computing, was selected chair of the WCU Staff Senate for 2010-11. In his new role, he served as a member of the Chancellor’s Search Committee.
- Jason LaVigne (near right) of systems and operations was selected as vice chair of the WCU Staff Senate.
- William Frady, Jason LaVigne, and Jeff Tatham (far right) of applications development and data management, are three of the four WCU representatives on the UNC System Staff Assembly.
