Q: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
A: I’m now the Computing Services Supervisor. I was born and raised in Michigan, originally from Flint, and graduated from UM-Flint. I was interested in technology in high school and college but never thought of it as a career path. I went into college majoring in History and eventually double-majored in Earth and Resource Science. When I graduated, I couldn’t find much work, but a temp position opened up in the Tech Shop (the Computer Showcase back then) in the Union, and I worked there for a few years, finally working up to full-time staff. I repaired computers for about seven years and then decided to try the private sector at Quicken Loans for a few years to try something new and got a lot of sales experience in the process. Then a job opened up on this side of things and I became part of the Service Desk as a senior member, which was a proud moment in my career, and I think I did pretty well in that role.
Then COVID-19 happened, and the manager at the time left, and I had the opportunity to be the Interim Manager for the Service Desk. That position helped me develop the experience needed to shift into a permanent supervisor role two months ago that was recently defined as part of some internal restructuring.
In terms of my personal life, my wife Morgan and I have two kids. My daughter, Diana, is 3, and my son, Grant, is 1. I have a dog and a cat, Pepper and Winston. We just built a playset, so we spend a lot of time in the backyard. In terms of hobbies, I like the outdoors: camping, fishing, hiking. It’s funny because it’s hard to remember some of my hobbies because with young kids, there’s so little time for anything else.
Q: What is one thing you wish people knew about your team?
A: Computing Services has evolved out of the LSA Service Desk. Support Services is going through a restructuring—the Service Desk has been a team of about eight to ten, but it's basically splitting in half, with one side being more front-end support, who will primarily support our phones and walk-in locations. My team, however, will be similar to the old Service Desk, just under a new model: less forward facing, but more acting as liaisons coordinating to find solutions to our clients’ needs. Part of the challenge of this restructuring is to see how it’s going to work, but we’re being dynamic about it. Another key part of the change is that my team is going to be the accounts and access managers for LSA. The restructure in our team’s responsibilities combined with our smaller size will allow the ability to focus more on the structure, management, and administration of LSA’s departmental network drives.
Q: What current project are you most excited about?
A: I’m really gearing this team to be the accounts experts and active directory experts, and that’s what we do and what defines our specialty outside of our day-to-day operations of troubleshooting software and hardware, and assisting wherever else we can, before moving things on to more specialized teams within the organization.
Q: Outside of work, what would we find you doing?
A: I spend a lot of time pushing my daughter on a swing and keeping my son safe as he tries to climb every stair that crosses his path. I’ve been trying to do a lot of gardening this year. I have a few raised beds with vegetables and lots of flower beds around the yard. This is the first year that I've tried to grow things in February from seeds indoors to plant them in the spring, but it hasn’t been very successful. This year, my wife and I are both trying to find time to enjoy our hobbies, which is a hard thing to do as parents. So I’m trying to play more golf. The Ann Arbor area has so many golf courses, so I’m always trying a new one I haven’t been to before. I’m finally trying to calculate my handicap this year so I can see where I stand and get a little more serious and consistent with the game. I find golf is a nice way to spend some time outside, and for me, it’s therapeutic because I have to find a relaxed headspace to be successful playing it.
Q: What is something people might be surprised to learn about you?
A: I call it a vacation but most people wouldn't. Since 2008, every February or March, my friends and I have taken hiking trips to Wilderness State Park or other parks in northern Michigan. We hike all of our supplies on sleds into the park to a rustic cabin. There’s usually multiple feet of snow on the ground, and we’re miles away from civilization. There’s no power, no plumbing. Just a well, an outhouse, and a wood stove. We hang out, play board games, and go hiking in the snow. It’s always an adventure and my own bit of fun since I love the winter.
