Note: The accomplishments listed on this page are current as of Fall 2011.

Timothy Foley

Dr. Foley is Director of Client Computing & Library Services at Lehigh University. He holds BS and MS degrees in Mathematics and a doctorate in Educational Technology.  His 1988 dissertation covered the design, implementation, and satisfaction of a campus-wide information system (CWIS) which was so popular that remnants of it still exists today in Lehigh’s campus portal.

Service to higher education and the computing profession:

Tim has been at Lehigh for thirty years holding various educational, technical and administrative positions including technical consultant, user services manager and associate director of computing. He has taught graduate courses in instructional programming as well as undergraduate courses in mathematics and computer science. His current position provides oversight responsibility for client services encompassing help desk, media services, security, desktop & scientific computing, instructional technology, residential networking, and database consulting in a merged library, computing, and telecommunications environment.  He has published and presented over forty papers at national and international conferences on the problems and issues of developing, implementing and managing university information systems.

Service to SIGUCCS:
Tim’s SIGUCCS activities have included nine papers presented at the fall SIGUCCS conference starting in 1988, ten talks at the spring management symposium (SMS) starting in 1993, two SIGUCCS peer review committees, SMS 2006 track chair, SMS 2007 program chair, SMS 2008 symposium chair, and SIGUCCS Executive Board member 2008-2011.

Alex Nagorski

Alex Nagorski has been the Team Leader of a Client Services area at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is in the process of retiring from the University at the end of 2011.

Service to higher education and the computing profession:
As someone who has worked in IT for 46 years, Alex has seen a lot of change in technology from punched cards to Smartphones, from delivery services to the Internet and from dedicated rooms full of geeks to client oriented computing. After working in private industry for several companies, Alex joined the University of Alberta 36 years ago in the application development area.  With the advent of personal computers and the Internet he moved into planning and research, implemented the IBM PROFS email system on campus, and then in 1991 was part of the team that set up the central campus help desk within the Academic Information and Communication Technologies department.

After a number of years on the help desk, Alex undertook several projects which involved setting up a campus technology training centre, implementing a knowledge common facility for students and heading up the departmental communications group. In 2001 his responsibilities expanded to include the campus technology help desk, large format printing service, software site licensing and product sales teams.

He has always enjoyed working with end users and found it very rewarding to see them learn and adopt technology in their daily work.

Service to SIGUCCS:
Alex went to his first SIGUCCS conference in 2001, after he became responsible for the campus Helpdesk. He quickly saw the benefits of hearing how other institutions implemented client services, overcame various obstacles and provided effective services to clients. Although he did not attend for the next couple of years he sent a number of his staff to the conferences and encouraged them to present papers. During that time he promoted SIGUCCS conferences within the department and within the province. Finally he figured that the best way to get more Canadians interested was to host the fall SIGUCCS conference in Canada and particularly Edmonton, Alberta.

With assistance from his staff Alex put together a proposal to host the 2006 fall conference in Edmonton. It was accepted by the SIGUCCS Board and as Conference Chair he formed a committee to make it happen. The committee had a few years lead time and was able to learn from previous conference committees and shadow them.

Some people may remember the conference held entirely in the mall and its adjacent hotel as one that enjoyed an indoor beach party at the West Edmonton Mall waterpark while a blizzard hit the city.

Elected to the SIGUCCS Board in 2008 he took on the role of Treasurer for three years. Even then he found time to encourage SIGUCCS to bring the Management Symposium to Victoria, British Colombia, Canada as well as being involved in several panels and presentations.

Alex’s Comments:
Although several people from the University of Alberta attended SIGUCCS conference for a number of years, the key is not just to go there but to be active in all aspects of the organization to get the most benefits. Papers and presentations are a great start and an excellent way of developing those skills. Better still they allow you to meet more people and exchange ideas about common issues and solutions. It becomes a way of communicating and working with other institutions to solve higher education problems many IT organizations continue to encounter.

As you meet more people one becomes involved in the conference organizations as a volunteer committee member. Being part of a continent wide team that eventually comes together at their conference, allows individuals to develop excellent communications, organizational and leadership skills in a practical environment. Self-confidence will then take them forward to take on ever more responsibilities and leadership roles within SIGUCCS. It is an excellent and fun environment in which to develop individual skill which I highly recommend.

I have been very fortunate and honored to meet and work with some excellent client services individuals in institutions across North America, and in fact from other corners of the world. Personally SIGUCCS has helped me with my professional development and I encourage IT staff to become “actively” involved in SIGUCCS at all levels. It was a great organization to be part of.

Richard Nelson

Richard Nelson has been involved with SIGUCCS since the Fall conference in 1978 and is not only a member but also an active volunteer.

Service to SIGUCCS:

According to the digital library and SIGUCCS website, Richard managed the 2002 Management Symposium, published two fall papers (1981 and 1986) and served as a facilitator for several years. Since 2007, Richard has taken on the role of management symposium publicity chair in addition to all of the work that he has done on the Marketing and Membership Committee including work on conference logo design, running ads to promote upcoming conferences and thinking outside of the box to tireless promote SIGUCCS.

Service to higher education and the computing profession:

Richard is a leader in higher education IT and a mentor to others as they look to their future career in higher education. He has seen a lot of transition in IT and has served in three institutions (Clemson University, Furman University and The Citadel) during his career, with an eight year respite from Higher Education IT as a consultant for Digital Equipment Corporation.

In addition to his ability to adapt to change, one cannot help but be impressed by his drive to promote our organization and conferences as well as the support and leadership he has given to his staff. Just hearing him talk about how he has encouraged women in his organization to develop and take on leadership roles is empowering for others.