Samuel S. Conn, Ph.D. was appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU) in March 2012. Prior to his current position at SPSU, Dr. Conn served as Vice President for Information Technology and Director of Online Learning at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, GA, Director of the Institute for Distance & Distributed Learning at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, VA, and Chair of the Computer Information Systems Department at Regis University in Denver, Colorado.

Along with leadership positions in higher education, Dr. Conn has extensive experience in the corporate world of information technology (IT). His work and business affiliations include executive level IT positions with prominent organizations and corporations including a major public pharmaceutical company, international software development company, and the parent company of the largest NASCAR™ franchise.

Dr. Conn is a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, a distinguished member of Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society in the Computing Sciences, member of the Association of Information Technology Professionals, and member of the United States Distance Learning Association. Academically, Dr. Conn holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems, and a Doctorate in Information Systems. Moreover, he is widely published on the topics information systems, educational technology, e-learning networks, system development methodologies and epistemic belief research.

Jenny assists the Chief Information Officer, Group Directors, and staff of University Information Technology Services with all aspects of administrative support.  Jenny also works to keep an effective flow of communications open between the University Information Technology Services staff and the university community. Jenny's previous work experience includes teaching and serving as a paraprofessional within the Cobb County School System and working in various Information Technology roles involving sales, service and support.  Jenny is a graduate of Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama and holds a BA degree in Psychology.  Her hobbies include spending time with her two teenage sons, playing the piano and enjoying outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking, golf, and tennis.

Ron's work for University Information Technology Services focuses on enterprise application architecture, project management, resource allocation, and vendor relationship management.  Ron has worked at Southern Polytechnic State University as a University Information Technology Services staff member since 1994, and before that time as a student assistant beginning in 1992.  He holds a BS degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Real Time and Embedded Systems from Southern Polytechnic State University.  In his free time he enjoys playing the drums, home theater and audio, and working on various home improvement and remodeling projects.

Ken works collaboratively with many members of the University Information Technology Services Groups to resolve departmental level application requests and needs, assess the departmental level software needs of the campus, assist with the implementation of software solutions and provide on-going maintenance for all departmental campus-wide software systems.  He administers Qualtrics, the enterprise survey solution available for campus-wide data collection needs. Ken began working at Southern Polytechnic State University in 1990 after working for three years as a programmer at Kennesaw State University.  Ken attended St. Petersburg Junior College and Kennesaw State University and later continued his studies where he received a BS in Computer Science from Southern College of Technology in 1992.  Mr. Hill also holds certification as a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Bob serves as senior database administrator supporting the Ellucian Banner student information system as well as the University's move to an operational data store and data warehouse. Mr. Tilton has worked in the University System of Georgia as a database administrator for the Banner system since 1995, primarily at North Georgia College and State University (soon to be the University of North Georgia), but including 3+ years at SPSU between 1998 and 2001. Mr. Tilton holds a BA in languages.

Bob’s personal interests have included ballroom and swing dancing and more recently he has developed an interest in hiking. He is a member of both the Atlanta Swing Dancers Club and the Atlanta Outdoor Club.

Hien assists University Information Technology Services' Senior Database Administrator with maintenance and development of the Ellucian Banner student information system and related services such as developing Banner reports and data extractions.  Hien previously worked as an Information Analyst for Georgia Perimeter College.  She earned her BS degree in Computer Information Systems at Georgia State University in 1998.   Her personal interests include swimming, cooking and walking in local parks.

Kelly's role includes Tier 2 support for the Ellucian Banner system applications, data integration, and schema maintenance. He also plays a lead role in the University's move to an operational data store (ODS) and associated business intelligence tools involving IBM Cognos. Kelly sits at the forefront of innovation in student data reporting as Southern Polytechnic State University moves rapidly to Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) technologies, learning analytics, and business intelligence models that allow for advanced desktop data analysis. He graduated from Southern Polytechnic State University in 2002 with a BS degree in Computer Science. His personal interests include mountain biking, winning at poker, playing piano and guitar, and mobile application development. Kelly can often be seen on campus playing racquetball at the Southern Polytechnic State University Wellness Center.

Terry works to support enterprise applications and manage projects that require an interface with University Information Technology Services infrastructure. You will see Terry on campus installing and customizing discipline specific software to produce effective teaching tools in classrooms and labs. Terry graduated from Southern Polytechnic State University in 2004 with a BS in Information Technology.

Job description to be posted.

Jim serves as a chief architect for Southern Polytechnic State University technical infrastructure. His work for University Information Technology Services focuses on systems engineering and integration, network engineering, software engineering, and information security.  Jim has worked at Southern Polytechnic State University as a University Information Technology Services staff member since 1996, starting as a student assistant.  He earned a BS degree in Computer Science from Southern Polytechnic State University.  In his free time, Jim enjoys playing the piano and guitar, watching movies, mountain biking, and software development for mobile devices.

Richard’s role in University Information Technology Services involves support for the local and metropolitan area network configurations and implementations. Often seen around campus performing work on network infrastructure, Richard also works behind the scene to ensure network capacity and reliability. Richard’s interests include network engineering and network security, developing new networking best practices and network security. Before joining Southern Polytechnic State University, Richard worked for Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) as a Network Engineer and Security Assistant.  In this position, Richard assisted with the reconstruction of the campus network after the September 11 tragedy, which affected BMCC. Richard is Cisco Certified and has over 12 years of networking experience.

Ernie’s work focuses on the design, deployment and maintenance of the Southern Polytechnic State University Cloud computing, Data Center and storage infrastructure.This critical core infrastructure includes a variety of hardware server platforms, storage area network appliances and software such as VMware, enterprise backup applications, Linux, Windows and environmental monitoring applications.  Ernie worked at Hewlett-Packard (Atlanta) in various roles for over twenty years before joining University Information Technology Services. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania Technical Institute and his interests include hiking, carpentry and welding.

Job description to be posted.

Andrew’s primary role involves deployment, configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting of servers, software services, and support infrastructure hosted by University Information Technology Services. He is responsible for the uptime, quality of service, and security of major systems. His previous work experience includes technology positions during the past fifteen years in the USA and South Korea. He holds a BS and MS in Computer Science from Inha University in South Korea. His interests include helping others, audio/video editing, and tennis.

The Information Security Officer (ISC) is charged with protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the University's information assets. This position works to ensure the continuing operation of university information systems and coordinates their timely recovery during uncertain conditions or events. The ISC must meet strategic information security objectives through the development of security policies, procedures, plans, training, and compliance initiatives. The Information Security Officer is also in charge of risk assessments, user awareness training, incident management, and business continuity and disaster recovery exercises. This position also oversees physical and logical access control, encryption, logging, data retention, intrusion detection, and intrusion prevention.

Isaias serves to support the design, implementation, and performance of the University’s wireless (wifi) network. His expertise in radio-frequency (RF) networks, combined with experience in Ethernet networks, provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to maintain 802.11 configurations in support of BYOD design. Isaias holds a BS in Electronic Engineering from Simón Bolívar University as well as CCNA and MCP technical certifications. He is trained on vendor specific technology used in the construction of the University’s wifi network. His personal interests include the intersection of music and technology. He is also a professional percussionist formed under Venezuela's "El Sistema".

Dave spends the bulk of his time creating and updating sustainable and reproducible workflows and processes to help solve computing problems on campus.  He also strives to develop and deliver solutions that are reasonable, effective and efficient to address the computing needs of the campus community.  Dave came to Southern Polytechnic State University by way of Apple Computers Inc., now Apple Inc., where he managed multiple technical support teams and delivered training locally and at Apple's Cupertino Campus.  Dave holds a BFA degree in Video and Film from the Savannah College of Art and Design and spends his off hours in Kennesaw with his lovely wife Stefanie and his two brilliant daughters Ainsley and Morgan.  He reads furiously and also enjoys scuba diving when possible.

Lee coordinates design and directs and supervises construction and support for all physical and virtual classroom implementations and learning space projects for Southern Polytechnic State University. His team has primary concern for support of the University’s online learning initiatives, including instructional design, faculty development initiatives, and distance learning technologies and support services. He oversees the installation, support and implementation of advanced classroom audio/video lecture capture and conferencing configurations. Lee has worked for Southern Polytechnic State University since 2005. He graduated with a BS degree in Information Technology from Southern Polytechnic State University in 2009. His personal interests include cycling, brewing beer, entrepreneurship, traveling, hiking and camping.

Patrick began his employment at Southern Polytechnic State University in July 2012 as the new Echo360 Coordinator. Aside from several years of experience in the field of information technology and instructional design, Patrick is currently working toward award of a MS degree in Instructional Design. He received a BS degree in Information Technology from the University of South Alabama. In Patrick's current position, he works closely with faculty support in the design and maintenance of classroom technology. When Patrick isn't working, he enjoys biking, blogging about IT or hanging out with his Dragoncon friends.

Devin's primary role as an Instructional Technology Specialist involves Tier 1 and 2 support for departmental laboratories, learning spaces, auditoriums, meeting rooms, and other spaces that have audio-visual equipment or computing platforms. His responsibilities also include planning, implementation, and maintenance of current and future physical and virtual classroom technologies. He earned his BS and MS degrees in Information Technology with graduate certificates in Healthcare and Security from Southern Polytechnic State University. He has worked with University Information Technology Services since 2008, initially responsible for lab, classroom, faculty, staff and student support. Devin is also responsible for many Southern Polytechnic State University film projects on campus. In his free time, Devin builds his own multi-monitor computer systems to play cutting edge games to their maximum potential. His favorite game series is The Elder Scrolls.

Derrick joined Southern Polytechnic State University in 2000 and has previously served the University by working as a Student Support Specialist, Computer Services Specialist III, and Academic Support Technology Specialist. His resume of professional achievements includes recently graduating from the Audio Institute as an audio engineer and music producer. Derrick enjoys writing, performing and producing his own music. Additionally, many of Derrick's works have been published worldwide.

Jamie’s team serves as the primary contact for technical support needs and technology solutions campus wide. He manages the Dial-in, Live Chat and Walk-up Help Desk daily operations. His responsibilities also include the Virtual (Web-based) Help Desk trouble ticket system. Jamie’s team also administers the University’sVOIP Phone system. Jamie's professional work history includes support positions for Apple, Inc. from 2007-2011 where he was appointed a Lead Mac Genius. He also served at the Oconee Center Community Service Board as a Microsystems Tech.Jamie holds a BBA degree in Management Information Systems from Georgia College and State University.  His personal interests include traveling, music, photography and cooking.  Other hobbies include learning how to play the ukulele, bass, guitar, mandolin, banjo and other instruments. 

Leah's primary role as Logistics/Purchasing Coordinator, involves overseeing the purchasing life cycle of all campus technology, starting from the initial purchasing approval process, to technology upgrades, product replenishment and finally to retirement and surplus. As well as assisting the campus community when making technology purchases, Leah works to ensure all products purchased fall under UITS, Procurement and USG standards and guidelines. Ms. Coppola's other responsibilities include managing all logistics related to stakeholder consumable and capital IT hardware and software, as well as providing materials management and inventory control support for the campus community. Leah previously worked for five years as a Genius Admin for Apple retail, overseeing inventory control and managing repairs. In her free time, Leah enjoys rock climbing, antiquing, listening to music, and any activity which involves being outdoors.

Stephen’s primary role as a Help Desk Operator involves friendly and expedient phone support for call-in and live chat technical support requests. As a former Desktop Support Technician II, Stephen is well versed inTier 1 support for campus laboratories.  His role includes creation and maintenance of required/requested software and management of hardware. Stephen is currently completing his BS degree in Information Technology at Southern Polytechnic State University. Stephen is a sports fanatic and in his free time enjoys playing and coaching basketball.

Mr. Johnson received his Bachelor of Arts in Audio Engineering from the Art Institute of Atlanta in December 2010 . Brian worked as both a student worker and Desktop Tech I at the Art Institute beginning in January of 2007. In these positions, Brian assisted in resolving issues related to network printers, IP phone systems, PC and Mac computer labs, smart classrooms, and helped to maintain the campus's large recording studios. In July of 2011, Mr. Johnson began working at Georgia Perimeter College as a Digital Media Assistant, helping students with creating digital media projects in Logic, Final Cut, iMovie, and Photoshop, and teaching workshops on basic pro audio concepts. Brian’s hobbies include listening to and recording music, going to shows, watching movies, and reading.

Cory’s team is responsible for administrative and academic desktop and computer laboratory support and maintenance. As a former Desktop Support Technician II, Cory served in Tier 1 support for departmental academic laboratories and Tier 2 administrative support for faculty and staff.  Cory’s role includes supervising the creation and maintenance of all software environments and hardware configurations to meet the University’s academic and administrative desktop computing needs.  Cory earned a BS degree in Information Technology from Southern Polytechnic State University in 2009.  Cory has an extensive technical background, which includes Higher Education and corporate sector experience.  Cory’s personal interests include professional and college sports and hobbies include outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing.

As a member of the Desktop Support team, Marcel's primary role as a Desktop Support Technician II involves Tier 1 support for departmental laboratories to include creation and deployment of ghosted images configured to support required software on laboratory. Marcel has been working in the Information Technology field for nine years. In his free time, Marcel enjoys football, video games and various outdoor activities.

As a member of the Desktop Support team, Brian works with Southern Polytechnic State University departments to implement, support, and upgrade computing laboratory and classroom learning spaces. He previously worked as a Help Desk Manager, Knowledge Editor, and Web Designer at Salisbury University, and at Virginia Tech where he studied Electrical Engineering. His outside interests include volleyball, hiking, and camping.

Job description to be posted.

Kenneth first joined Southern Polytechnic State University in 2011 as a student assistant. In 2013, Kenneth assumed his role as a Desktop Support Technician I and currently enjoys working to serve the campus by supporting the faculty and staff's technical needs. Kenneth works daily to improve each user's computing experience. In his spare time, Kenneth enjoys tinkering with hardware/software and gaming.

Nathan graduated from Southern Polytechnic State University with a BS degree in Information Technology. Previously, he worked as a Student Assistant for the University Help Desk. After graduating, Nathan was hired by University Information Technology Services as a Desktop Support Technician I where he works primarily to provide quality technical support service to University faculty and staff. In his free time, Nathan enjoys being outdoors and gaming.

Allen works to maintain, repair, and create innovative solutions to enhance end-user computing experiences.  His previous work experience includes various Information Technology positions during the past 7 years.  Allen has also worked in appliance repair and technical support for a structural engineering firm.  He is currently working to complete a BS degree in Information Technology from Southern Polytechnic State University.  His personal interests include working with computer hardware and software, programming, and computer games.

Chris first joined Southern Polytechnic State University in 2005 as a student assistant. In 2009, Chris assumed his role as a Desktop Support Technician I and currently enjoys working to serve the campus by supporting faculty and staff technical needs. Chris works daily to improve each user's computing. In his spare time Chris enjoys outdoor recreational activities and gaming.