Thoughts on technology, leadership, security, infrastructure, automation, and the systems between them.
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Technology
Early in my career in IT, I believed technical skill was everything. The more you knew, the more valuable you were. If you could solve complex problems, troubleshoot systems, and understand the technical details better than others, success would follow. And to a degree, that was true. Technical skill builds...
Infrastructure
One of the easiest traps for leaders, especially in IT, is confusing activity with progress. A day can disappear quickly. Emails need responses. Meetings fill the calendar. Phones ring. Teams messages arrive every few minutes. Unexpected issues demand immediate attention. By the end of the day, you may feel exhausted...
Leadership
I was listening to a leadership discussion recently that used a simple analogy that stuck with me. Imagine you're riding down the highway at 70 mph. If you're the driver, the experience feels very different than if you're the passenger. As the driver, you control the speed. You know when you're about to brake. You know...
Technology
You can teach anybody to be a technician. You can teach somebody how to reset passwords, replace hardware, troubleshoot networks, manage systems, follow documentation, or learn a new platform. Technology changes every few years anyway. If somebody is willing to learn, the technical side can be developed over time. What...
Leadership
That line has been sitting with me lately, and it reflects the reality of IT leadership more than people realize. As an IT Director, the day doesn’t stay in one lane. It’s budgets, policies, vendor conversations, onboarding new hires, planning a help desk space, refreshing systems, and keeping the environment stable...
Leadership
Spend enough time in technology and you start to notice something interesting. The people who make the biggest impact in IT are not always the ones who know the most commands, the most programming languages, or the deepest architecture diagrams. Technical skill matters, but it is not the skill that ultimately defines...
Leadership
There is a mindset that quietly follows many of us from K 12 into higher education IT. Block it. Filter it. Shut it down. Social media gets restricted. Gaming is immediately labeled a distraction. Streaming is allowed only if it fits a narrow definition of “educational.” But here is the question we need to ask...
Leadership
Early in our careers, most of us are rewarded for being responsible. We build the system. We fix the outage. We make it work. That competence gets noticed and often becomes the reason we are promoted. At some point, though, responsibility turns into accountability, and that transition is rarely discussed out loud...
Leadership
Most IT leaders recognize this moment instantly. A challenge surfaces somewhere in the organization. It matters. It carries risk. It needs to be solved. And instead of landing with the group that owns the function, a figurative sticky note gets placed on IT’s desk that simply says, “Make it happen.” IT is often chosen...
Technology
During a high stress systems issue, a comment was made to me that stuck. “It’s your baby.” I was being associated with a particular platform or system, and while I do not believe it was meant negatively, it landed in a moment when tension was high and answers were needed. After things settled, I reflected on it with my...
Technology
With ice storms and winter weather impacting power and connectivity across large parts of the country, this is a good reminder that business continuity planning is not just a compliance exercise. It is a real world capability that gets tested when conditions are less than ideal. When power is lost, can your systems and...
Leadership
Lately I have been focused on something that does not get enough attention in higher education information technology: data governance agreements with third party vendors. We invest heavily in cybersecurity tools, multi factor authentication (MFA), endpoint protection, security information and event management (SIEM)...
Technology
This is a touchy topic for me, because I am deeply rooted in customer service and the value of human connection. I do not want students or employees to ever feel like they are being pushed off to a robot instead of being helped by a real person. But I am also realistic about how help desks actually operate. Most of us...
Leadership
One of the most common myths I still see in IT, especially in higher education and K 12 environments, is the belief that leadership only starts once you reach the top of the org chart. It sounds logical on the surface, but in practice, it quietly limits growth, influence, and trust long before anyone realizes it...
Technology
Windows 11 accessibility is one of those areas where quiet innovation is creating real impact, yet it often flies under the radar in higher education and workforce conversations. One feature I keep coming back to is Live Captions. Windows 11 can generate real time captions in the lower third of the screen for any audio...
Leadership
We often describe portals, forms, and workflows as self service. The assumption is that technology makes things faster, easier, and more efficient. In reality, many of these systems simply move the friction from the institution to the person trying to get help. I recently watched a simple request turn into a multi week...
Leadership
One of the most misunderstood parts of modern IT leadership is that every meaningful technology project depends on the people outside of IT just as much as the people inside it. The challenge is that many non technical leaders unintentionally pull back from the early planning because they assume their job title exempts...
Leadership
For years, we’ve talked about automation like it was the finish line. You build the workflow, write the script, and let it repeat. But now we’re entering something new: Agentic AI, where systems can plan, decide, and act with minimal human direction. Imagine an AI that doesn’t just send you alerts, but actually detects...
Leadership
As IT leaders, we are used to working within constraints. We identify needs, set goals, build plans, and then do the hard work of aligning priorities, approvals, and budgets to turn ideas into reality. That process forces discipline. It sharpens focus. It demands that we justify value at every step. Then, sometimes...
Leadership
Have we really designed our systems for the people we serve, or just for the people who have always been here? Higher education is now serving five generations of students at once, and each brings a different expectation of what “great service” looks like. There’s the traditional student who grew up online and expects...
