Adam Althoff
Adam joined ITSS in an End User Support role at the end of April. Adam is a former ITSS student employee who has been working as a technology assistant in the K-12 environment since his graduation. His experience includes working with JAMF to manage MacBooks and iPads, managing Chromebook carts, and managing user accounts in Active Directory and Google.
With ITSS, Adam will be focusing on the Help Desk and all of the account issues we see, and providing desktop support across campus. He will also be working with our classroom team to support live event technology.
In his free time, Adam enjoys playing guitar, working on his home theater, and reading good books. He also loves going up the shore to a quiet place, or swinging by the OMC Smokehouse!
Adam is located in KPlz 166F and can be reached at 726-6307 or [email protected].
Becky Kavajecz
Becky began to work with ITSS on August 20th as a Developer 3. She will be working with the Enterprise team, along with other team members, on designing and developing applications to meet the business needs of various campus academic and administrative units. In addition to actively participating in application agile development, she will also provide services in other areas such as data and reporting.
Having been an IT professional on campus for many years, Becky joined ITSS not only with her extensive application development experience, but also brings with her an abundant institutional knowledge, broad networking, and leadership. Please join me in welcoming Becky as a great addition to ITSS.
Becky graduated from UMD with a degree in Computer Science. She lives in Port Wing, Wisconsin. In her spare time, Becky enjoys reading, running, spending time with family, watching tv, and is a member of the South Shore Board of Education.
Becky is located in KPlz 339 and can be reached at 726-8884 or [email protected].
Brett Taylor
Brett joined our Computer Maintenance staff at the end of April. Brett comes to us most recently from a local Duluth technology company where he was a PC and Apple-certified Mac technician for many years. Brett provided extensive troubleshooting support for devices and networking.
He will be assuming many of the computer maintenance and repair duties in the TechCenter, including managing our warranty repair services and our student technicians.
Brett has lived in Duluth for many years but has also lived and worked in Texas and Oklahoma. He and his wife Sharon have a son (Maxwell) and shnauzer-terrier mix named Monroe. His hobbies include movies, reading, video gaming, and spending time with his family at the cabin.
Brett is located in KPlz 165B and can be reached at 726-6975 or [email protected].
Claire Martin
Claire graduated from UMD in May with a B.S. in Computer Information Systems and a minor in Business Administration. Originally from Washington, D.C., Claire moved to Duluth to attend UMD and loves the area.
She started with ITSS and joined our PhoneNet team on June 25th. Her primary area is networking, but also serves as secondary support for our voice systems, and she's broadening her scope to include surveillance support.
Claire is spearheading our UPS fleet upgrade project, and will soon be leading a project to improve WiFi services in Voss Kovach Hall. She'll also play an integral part in the Next Generation Network project in the months ahead.
Her knowledge of Linux and Python, in addition to her energy and enthusiasm, have made her a valuable team member in short order.
Claire is located in KPlz 347 and can be reached at 726-8843 or [email protected].
Kara Hanson
ITSS is excited to share the outcome of the search for our Manager of Academic Technology: Kara Hanson has accepted the position and began during the first week of June.
Kara has extensive experience and expertise in academic technology, at the system and UMD campus levels, and also at other institutions. She has broad experience with technology including application development, web services, and too many educational technology tools to list. Kara has taken a leadership role and been active in several UMN "communities of practice" and change management efforts. She has management experience in higher education, having been a unit director at St. Scholastica, and also has served as an adjunct faculty member there and here at UMD.
Kara holds a Masters Degree in Information Technology Leadership from the College of St. Scholastica, a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Computer Programming from the University of Denver, and a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Nebraska.
Kara has already been a great asset to ITSS and UMD in her role as an Educational Technologist for the past several years. We are very excited to have her expertise in technology, pedagogy, and leadership as a part of our management team.
Kara is located in KPlz 370 and can be reached at 726-8903 or [email protected].