Q: You work with LSA Technology Services as the Engineering and Design Manager. What is a typical day like for you?
A: Like many of us, my days are typically spent in meetings. What is rather particular for me is that the many details covered in those meetings are relentlessly taking a 30,000 foot view covering stuff like major initiatives, college-wide room updates, and new building construction projects, to whiplash zooming in the other direction to microscopic details like controller touchpanel’s UX interface behaviors, or questions like “Can we reduce the total ADA compliant height of an adjustable height podium by using smaller wheels and if so, what would those wheels need to be rated to support the weight of the system?” I am pretty much a circus clown juggling radically different sized fruit and vegetables — like pumpkins and grapes.
Q: What was your career path to get here?
A: I grew up as a theater kid in Kalamazoo, mainly backstage (which should explain a lot to everyone) before I studied Film here at U-M, wrapping up my bachelors in 1987. The peculiar combination of being passionate about all things Audio Visual (AV) and an early adapter in multimedia editing, authoring software, and computers (bought a dual boot CPM/DOS box in 1982, bought a Mac in the summer of 1984) all resulted in me enrolling in the university’s School of Information to receive my terminal professional MLS degree in Information Technology (1991). That degree essentially prepared me to run higher education media and instructional technology service groups. I did my first supervisory gig working at the School of Education’s IRIS resource center, and then started my tour of duty through the southeast United States (Clayton State University; Kennesaw State University; University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa) and then back here. I made the AV industry angry at me in 1997 by initiating internal AV design/build services at Kennesaw State, becoming one of the first Higher Ed institutions in North America to provide them (and which years later, I’m still pleased to say, embarrassed the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech). In addition to AV installation work, I’ve managed groups in instructional design consulting, special event and streaming services, cable TV services, video, multimedia, and graphic design production, LMS functional administration, web services, campus-wide digital signage, digital accessibility, and multimedia computer and DIY labs, amongst other things. I wanted to get back to the midwest (Michigan in particular) and LSA had this position to manage the AV in their 240 general purpose classrooms, so here I am.
Q: What’s a project you’ve worked on that was particularly interesting or rewarding?
A: I’ve worked on lots of fun things over the years, from dedicated ISDN line video conferencing to the classroom-in-the-round in our CCCB, but I’ve got to say the most comprehensively rewarding thing that I have worked on is the iterative development of LSA’s Team-Based Learning classroom system along with Moni Dressler and our team of AV Project Engineers. The base AV transmission technology throughout the classroom, the instructor podium interface, the custom design student group pod technical furniture, all have been painstakingly developed and refined into one of the best in higher education.
Q: What’s something you wish people knew about your engineering team?
A: How the AV Engineers are jacks-of-all-trades due to the range of things that they have to figure out, design, install, and fix. Beyond the obvious and various AV knowledge, part of what we do is DIY construction and part is furniture and ergonomics. All while being super detailed, as every system is a self-designed puzzle with over 100 distinct pieces that all have to fit together exactly.
Q: How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
A: I collect and enjoy movies and music, read literature, play TTRPGs, woodworking and installing hardwood floors, and cooking. My partner, Sanam, and I also collect cookbooks, of which we have 342 currently cataloged (don’t laugh, we are both librarians by training).
