Category Archives: SIGUCCS People

Laurie Fox Recognized as ACM Senior Member

SIGUCCS Commuity, SIGUCCS People

Laurie Fox was recently recognized by ACM as an ACM Senior Member. The Senior Members Grade recognizes those ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and at least 5 years of Professional Membership in the last 10 years, who have demonstrated performance through technical leadership, and technical or professional contributions.

Laurie is a frequent presenter at SIGUCCS Conferences, Past Chair of the SIGUCCS Executive Committee (EC), and New SIG Advisor on the ACM SIG Governing Board. She is currently serving as Past Chair on the EC, Chair of the Marketing Committee, and liaison to the Awards Committee.

Kathy Fletcher and Tom Gerace are also ACM Senior Members. We are proud of their contributions!

Picture This: SIGUCCS Photography

SIGUCCS Commuity, SIGUCCS People

If you have attended a SIGUCCS Annual Conference in person, chances are you have been “shot” by one of our talented photographers. These collections are a great way to capture our events – and revisit them each week in Throwback Thursday in our Facebook Group.

Yosemite. Half Dome Reflection by Allan Chen
Yosemite. Half Dome Reflection
by Allan Chen – February 2021

All of our photographers are volunteer, and many of them share their talents online on Facebook or Instagram. Here are some of my favorites. (If I missed your feed, let me know and I will update this article!

  • Parrish Nnambi (@sule2you) Parrish’s Instagram feed is a beautiful collection of wildlife and landscapes. I love the birds!
  • Allen Chen (@romosoho) Allan truly captures nature’s beauty, and has travelled to some fantastic locations. As a bonus, you may catch a glimpse of his beautiful family!
  • Kelly Wainwright (@kswainwright) lives in one of the most beautiful area of our country. She also frequently shares family pictures and cats.
  • Melissa Bauer (@mbauer1002) At SIGUCCS conferences, Melissa and I can frequently be found taking pictures of desserts. She is also a talented photographer of flowers.
  • Ella Tschopik (@ellatschopik) Ella finds beauty with her iPhone 12 Pro Max. Fortunately for us, she frequently turns the camera on herself and her daughters.
  • If you’re on Facebook, make sure you are friends with Terris Wolff. I always look forward to “No Tie Tuesday” (his retired version of the Bow Tie event) as he shares locations and history near his home in California.

I am grateful that so many of my SIGUCCS colleagues are also my social media friends, and I appreciate being able to glimpse their lives through photography! Thanks to all SIGUCCS photographers for sharing your talent at our conferences!

Communication Award Winner – Golf Cart Pedagogy

2019 Conference, Awards, SIGUCCS People

As instructional technologists and IT professionals, we often look for unique ways to capture our communities’ attention, competing with their ever-overloaded inboxes. We never expected that this oddball idea born from a lack of sleep and a lengthy car ride could take us from the narrow campus walkways to the bright lights of New Orleans, LA. Golf Cart Pedagogy, our higher-ed take on the popular hit Car Pool Karaoke, engages our College community.

Golf Cart on Campus

The core idea isn’t anything new: record and share interviews. We needed something different. At the time, it seemed like the strangest, silliest thing imaginable: take guests about campus on a humble, often-seen golf cart; drive around at super-slow, laughable speed; and converse about pedagogy, technology, and often humanity. Since its launch in April 2019, the ride-along has become an episodic campus cult classic, inviting guests from all walks of college life to share their experiences in higher education.

As we continued to see its popularity grow on campus, we were looking for a way to share the idea on a grander scale. On the encouragement of a colleague, we entered the first episode of Golf Cart Pedagogy for a SIGUCCS Communication Award. Honestly, the thought of others seeing our work from around the country was very exciting, yet scary. With a deep breath and a high-five, we decided to submit our work to SIGUCCS for consideration.

Then word came: we won a communications award for long format video. Imbued with the newfound pride and acceptance of our oddity, we really leaned full tilt into the silliness. And a little secret for those of you that know, one of the perks to winning this award is that you are given a poster session slot at the annual meeting to promote your work. Insert maniacal laugh… Our plan work for worldwide media domination began.

Golf Cart on Campus

As with most things we do, we find the most non-traditional way of going about it and commit fully. We turned our poster into the inside of a golf cart, and our session into a chance to interview our extended community of IT professionals. We even turned our session into an episode!

Reflecting back on our experience with SIGUCCS, we are left with fond memories, new friendships, and a wider view of higher ed. The real strength of a conference like the SIGUCCS annual conference is in the conversations and connections with a welcoming community of fellow professionals. We’re all able to come together, let our hair down (figuratively for some of us), and really dive deep into our institutional successes and opportunities. Furthermore, being an award winner allowed us to show off our inner rockstars for at least a few hours. This award now hangs with pride in our office and serves as a reminder that creativity and silliness do have a place in IT.

Anthony Dalton and Thomas Sciarrino
Muhlenberg College

What to Expect When You’re Proposing (a Conference Session)

Conference, SIGUCCS People

After attending my first SIGUCCS I realized I wanted more, and getting more from my next conference meant putting more in. I needed to present! I had only recently started in higher education computing support and had no idea what to present or how to get started. I felt that a poster was a reasonable start to my professional presentation career and picked a project I worked on with a colleague to be sure I had a support network while preparing the poster. 

Eric Handler, 2020 Conference Program Co-chair
Continue reading What to Expect When You’re Proposing (a Conference Session) →

SIGUCCS 2020 Conference Introductions – Dan Herrick

2020 Conference, SIGUCCS People

This article is part of a series introducing the SIGUCS 2020 Conference Committee. Each Committee member submitted answers to questions created by the SIGUCCS Marketing Committee.

Dan Herrick, IT Asset Manager at University of Colorado – Boulder, is the Executive Committee / SIGUCCS 2020 Conference Liaison.

Dan Herrick

How many SIGUCCS conferences have you attended?
10

Which previous SIGUCCS conference was your favorite, and why?
I have too many favorites! Some highlights: My first SIGUCCS conference (fall 2005), because I was introduced to this fabulous community and couldn’t wait to get back; my first SIGUCCS presentation at a conference (fall 2009), because it inspired me to challenge myself and share my experiences with my peers; my first conference as a conference committee member (fall 2017), because it gratified me to give back to the conference and elevated my level of participation. And, of course, the last one I attended (fall 2019), because it’s fresh in my mind and the experience just seems to get better each time!

How did you get involved as a volunteer in SIGUCCS?
I recognized that becoming part of the volunteer team helped me expand my networking reach, improve my organizational and planning skills, and gave me greater insight into what the SIGUCCS community values. Plus, I loved giving back a little something to the community that helps me grow!

What’s an accomplishment that you are especially proud of (personal or work-related)?
I’ll never forget the first major presentation I gave, which was at SIGUCCS 2009. It felt like I’d reached the next level to be accepted as a presenter. Before my presentation, I worried that I wouldn’t do it right, that no one would come, that it wouldn’t be interesting. As I walked into the room (late!), I saw that the room was full and even overflowing into the hallway. They’d all come to listen to ME. That was when I felt the flash of pride and humility at the same time: I was proud that they were there for my presentation, and humbled because I knew I was just one of them, doing my best to teach what I had learned.

You can always stop and talk to me about …
Personal productivity topics of all sorts, life hacks, science (especially cognition and eusocial superorganisms), and coffee.

For fun, I like to …
I love to explore new places, learn new things, and discover the depths in people. At conferences, you’ll find me doing all these things. I love tabletop gaming (all kinds, but not Monopoly). The art of coffee enjoyment. (I’ll happily demo a pourover coffee technique!)

SIGUCCS 2020 San Diego… what kind of hot sauce do you put on your tacos?
Depends on the taco; I go for complementary seasoning, not heat. Cholula and sriracha are among my faves.

SIGUCCS 2020 Conference Committee Introductions – Tom Wilk

2020 Conference, SIGUCCS People

This article is part of a series introducing the SIGUCS 2020 Conference Committee. Each Committee member submitted answers to questions created by the SIGUCCS Marketing Committee.

Tom Wilk

Tom Wilk, PC Engineering Manager for Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, is a SIGUCCS 2020 Program Co-Chair.

How many SIGUCCS conferences have you attended?
2

Continue reading SIGUCCS 2020 Conference Committee Introductions – Tom Wilk →

SIGUCCS 2020 Conference Introductions – Eric Handler

2020 Conference, SIGUCCS People

This article is part of a series introducing the SIGUCS 2020 Conference Committee. Each Committee member submitted answers to questions created by the SIGUCCS Marketing Committee.

Eric Handler

Eric Handler, Academic Information Associate at Macalester College, is a SIGUCCS 2020 Program Co-Chair.

How many SIGUCCS conferences have you attended?
5

Which previous SIGUCCS conference was your favorite, and why?
How can I choose? There have been so many great conferences in recent years. I presented (a poster) for the first time in Seattle, I got to have an amazing meal with Laurie Fox and others overlooking the bay and it was my second trip to Seattle that calendar year so it reminds me of all the different opportunities and experiences SIGUCCS has in store for me and everyone else. Similar experiences in Denver (let’s not talk about the Wednesday morning though) and New Orleans are also highlights.

How did you get involved as a volunteer in SIGUCCS?
At my first SIGUCCS I took advantage of the hospitality suite to meet new people and made enough suggestions of new games that I was asked if I’d like to be the suite host the next year.

What’s an accomplishment that you are especially proud of (personal or work-related)?
I’ve lost over one hundred pounds since October 2018. Now the hard part is being able to say I’ve kept it off for a year, 3 years, etc.

You can always stop and talk to me about …
Board and Card games. One of my favorite memories regarding games is when a fellow SIGUCCS attendee asked if I knew what game started with T and has hexagonal tiles. It only took a few extra clarifications before I identified Terra Mystica (and check out Gaia Project if you’d like to play the same game but IN SPACE!).

For fun, I like to …
Play board games, card games and tennis. I’ve been on a bit of an exercise kick the last year and a half so if I’m forced to sit still on an airplane I’ll read through a good sci-fi book in a flash!

SIGUCCS 2020 San Diego… what kind of hot sauce do you put on your tacos?
Something with citrus and vinegar, with a nice kick, but not overwhelming. I’m currently a big fan of Tia Lupita out of San Fransisco.

SIGUCCS 2020 Conference Introductions – Melissa Doernte

2020 Conference, SIGUCCS People

This article is part of a series introducing the SIGUCS 2020 Conference Committee. Each Committee member submitted answers to questions created by the SIGUCCS Marketing Committee.

Melissa Doernte

Melissa Doernte, Service Desk Manager of Learning Environments at Standford University, is the SIGUCCS 2020 Conference Treasurer.

How many SIGUCCS conferences have you attended?
8

Which previous SIGUCCS conference was your favorite, and why?
Salt Lake City – I still remember the plenary speakers and use some of the lessons learned from them today.

How did you get involved as a volunteer in SIGUCCS?
Since I lived in Chicago at the time and SIGUCCS was going to be there in 2013, I was roped in by Allan and Lisa to be the local arrangements chair.

What’s an accomplishment that you are especially proud of (personal or work-related)?
Proud of where I am in life, happy with a good job, friends around the country and family.

You can always stop and talk to me about …
Chicken wings and football. I love eating some good chicken wings and I grew up watching University of Michigan football – I could talk about it allllll day.

For fun, I like to …
I love traveling but if I can’t get away, hanging out with friends and going wine tasting is always high on my list.

SIGUCCS 2020 San Diego… what kind of hot sauce do you put on your tacos?
Tapatio

SIGUCCS 2019 Conference Committee Introductions – Mo Nishiyama

2019 Conference, SIGUCCS People

This article is part of a series introducing the SIGUCS 2019 Conference Conference Committee. Each Committee member submitted answers to questions created by the SIGUCCS Marketing Committee.

Mo Nishiyama

What is your volunteer position for 2019 and how would you explain it to someone new to SIGUCCS?
Webmaster. Keep our community informed and apprised year-round about the conference-related events.

How many SIGUCCS conferences have you attended?
13

How did you get involved as a volunteer in SIGUCCS?
I was voluntold (it was a good thing).

What’s an accomplishment that you are especially proud of?
I was indicted into the ACM SIGUCCS Hall of Fame in 2018.

What do you do for fun?
Cook, bicycle, read, taste wines, and attend conferences

SIGUCCS 2019 New Orleans … what is your favorite french food?
Brie de Meaux

SIGUCCS 2019 Logo