Note: The accomplishments listed on this page are current as of Fall 2020.

Chester Andrews

Chester’s work with SIGUCCS began about halfway through his career at Oberlin College during opportunities to attend the SIGUCCS conference. At first, attending the conference every other year, started to volunteer when he could during each conference. Then opportunities to share through presentations, session chairs and committees presented themselves. Although, Chester was very involved in another conference for many years (The Resnet conference, later known as the Student Technology Conference) Chester worked to bring the two conferences together in creative ways by encouraging dialogue and cross conference advertising to bring attendees to both conferences; held at different times of the year. Chester’s 28-year career at Oberlin College and 5 years The College of Wooster included roles as Computer Store manager, Client Support Analyst and Director of Client Services. 

Chester’s Service to SIGUCCS included volunteering as Session Chair, Presenter, and Member of Executive Committee. Chester attended and volunteered as a member of Resnet Conference for many years. Like his work for SIGUCCS, he volunteered, presented, and eventually became Program Chair was elected a member of the Resnet Board of Directors and led as President of the Board of Directors in 2016-2017. 

Chester’s Comments: I appreciate the recognition by an organization that helped me and my coworkers in Higher Education Information Technology. In SIGUCCS, we teach and learn from each other. We gain opportunities to grow, learn, and develop.  I encourage everyone to keep learning, find ways to grow, and share your experiences openly with your SIGUCCS peers and colleagues. 

Mat Felthousen

Mat Felthousen is the Executive Director of Campus Auxiliary Services, where he recently became the chief executive for a non-profit organization that provides food, refuse & recycling, financial agent, and other services to SUNY Geneseo. Starting when he was a student he has worked in support of higher education for nearly thirty years, primarily in an IT role. He previously served as Vice President + CIO, Office of Support Service at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA). While at CIA he established a service & support organization that included responsibility for a café, building & grounds, events management, mail & packages, public safety, printing & copying, audio-visual support, and information technology. He previously was an Assistant Director for University Information Technology at the University of Rochester, a Classroom Support Specialist at Union College, and Manager of the CLARC computing facility and administrator of student staff at the University of Rochester. He earned a BA in Technical Writing and an MBA from the University of Rochester. 

Mat was one of the original members and presented at the first meeting of the New York Computing in Higher Education Symposium (NYCHES), formed in 1997, and has remained involved since. Mat later proposed that NYCHES become the first local chapter for SIGUCCS, during his tenure on the Executive Committee. He has participated in events and training offered by EDUCAUSE, EDUCOMM, Infocomm, NERCOMP, Extron, and Crestron. Some of his accomplishments include the implementation of learning and conference spaces from more than $200M of renovation/construction projects to date, including the unification of the CIA campus. 

Mat first attended the fall 1996 Service & Support conference in Chicago and has been to more than 20 SIGUCCS events since. He has authored 5 papers and served on four panels and posters. He was the NY state captain in 1997, the treasurer for the 2010 fall conference and the first annual conference in 2011. He served on the Executive Committee from 2011-2020 in the roles of Information Director, Chair, and Past Chair. While Information Director he created a new website to support mobile devices, and significantly expanded membership in social media. While Chair he oversaw the final transition to the fully combined annual conference.  

Mat’s comments: It is my honor to join the SIGUCCS Hall of Fame, as I would not be where I am today without the mentorship and support from many of the inductees. SIGUCCS was my first professional development opportunity. Although I am no longer in Information Technology, the lessons that I have learned about service remain vital to my career. Most importantly, I treasure the close friendships that have resulted.

Dan Herrick

Dan R. Herrick is currently the IT Asset Manager at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he leads IT asset management, computer life cycle, and software licensing activities.

Dan’s service to SIGUCCS began in 2005 when he attended his first SIGUCCS User Services Conference in Monterey, California, and connected with the incredible SIGUCCS community. He wasn’t able to attend again until 2009, where he presented two papers, and was nearly late for his very first presentation to a packed room. Dan has attended 10 conferences, authored 11 papers in the ACM Digital Library, and presented 17 times (at least once in every format, and appearing in costume for at least one.)  He has served in many supporting volunteer roles including registration desk helper, reader, and track chair. Dan contributed to developing formative SIGUCCS activities such as the Mentoring Program and the Lightning Talk presentation format, and was elected to the SIGUCCS Executive Committee from 2017-2020 as Vice Chair and Conference Liaison.

Dan has contributed to the computing profession and higher education for over 20 years, starting in higher education as a non-traditional student employee for IT and developing through client computing support and service management roles. While directly managing student computer labs, he hired, trained, and mentored student employees, many of whom went on to have tech careers. Leveraging his student government involvement, Dan ultimately guided the college’s student technology governance group as a professional, shaping his respect for the student technology experience. He has supported the instructional teaching mission with hands-on support and faculty computing programs, the research mission with high performance computing support and planning, and university administration with budget, asset, and life cycle planning activities and service development. Dan regularly engages with collaborative cross-organization activities such as information sharing, presentations, and content development for use by higher education IT practitioners. He has participated as a mentor, mentee, and peer mentor in SIGUCCS and other mentoring programs.

Dan’s comments: I am humbled and grateful to be nominated for this award. I am vastly privileged to be a part of this community. I wouldn’t be where I am without SIGUCCS, and so many of you have contributed to my professional growth. Within this remarkable community, I have to thank all of the fantastic people of SIGUCCS: Colleagues, friends, mentors, and co-creators. You are all incredible individuals. My success is your success.

Becky Johnson

Becky Johnson is half of the IT Service Management Office at Washington University in St. Louis, where she is the ITIL practice owner for knowledge management, problem management, and reporting and metrics. 

Becky started her career in higher education IT in 2015 after 13 years in healthcare, where she worked in both process improvement and digital marketing. She brought that experience to her first IT role as a technical trainer for the university’s data warehouse team, and randomly entered her first training video into the 2016 Communications Awards for SIGUCCS, an organization she’d never heard of before but which seemed like a good way to earn herself a free trip to the conference in Denver that year.

“The thing that stood out to me about SIGUCCS, even before I went to my first conference, was that they recognized the importance of communications in IT,” Becky says. “It’s not something that technical people are historically very good at, so the Communication Awards really brought my attention to SIGUCCS and how it’s set apart from other organizations in the higher ed IT sphere – focusing not just on technology and the scientific side of our industry, but on the people and processes.” 

After the 2016 conference, Becky joined the SIGUCCS marketing team and supported the annual conference in a variety of roles. She was publications co-chair for Seattle (2017), publications chair for Orlando (2018), and conference program co-chair for New Orleans (2019). She has also delivered lightning talks and full-length presentations, and has sat on several presentation panels.

Of her induction into the SIGUCCS Hall of Fame, Becky says “it’s an honor and a surprise, honestly, because I felt like I was just doing my job in the roles I took on for the organization. But I put a lot of heart and soul into it, and I’m grateful to know how much it was all appreciated.”

Although some major projects curtailed her volunteer availability in the last year, Becky is excited to share some of those projects, such as problem management education (complete with Smokey the Bear promotional materials) and her work overhauling IT Service delivery reporting, at future SIGUCCS events.

Chris King

Chris King was the Director of Help Desk and Service Management with the Office of Information Technology at North Carolina State University.

Chris attended his first SIGUCCS conference in the fall of 2004. As an English major who got drawn into IT work, the idea of having an IT paper published ticked off all the right boxes, and he presented his first paper with SIGUCCS in 2008. Since then, he has had many roles in the organization (while still writing papers), including reviewing papers, participating on various conference committees (Social Media in 2015, Program co-chair in 2016, and Track Chair in 2017), participating in the Mentoring program (his true love), and even a brief stint as a Board member. 

Chris had a 20-year career in higher education, all at NC State University. During his time there, he filled various roles in the central IT group from student worker to short-course designer and trainer to help desk supervisor to his last role as director of the groups managing the campus help desk and the IT service management suite (ServiceNow). Chris also participated in many local, state, and national initiatives and was invited to present at conferences (including UNC CAUSE, SIGUCCS, and ServiceNow’s Knowledge conference) on a variety of topics.

Chris owes so much to SIGUCCS. It nurtured his love of technology, honed his skills at speaking, writing, and reviewing, and showed him a view of how technology can promote higher education across the world. The relationships formed through SIGUCCS were lifetime friendships, and he will always cherish them.