Category: Personnel

On behalf of the entire ICIT organization, we would like to welcome Jeffrey (Jeff) Thomas as the new Assistant Director for Learning Technology with the LTC.

Jeff’s primary responsibilities will include:

• Consult with Deans’ Offices and various other academic and non-academic campus leaders to identify and meet their unit needs regarding campus technology.
• Relate their feedback to ICIT Service owners and leadership so ICIT can plan and align instructional and non-instructional technology and service delivery with the identified needs.
• Provide guidance and support, and facilitate the professional growth of the LTC team.
• Provide support and training for instructors and administrative staff in coordination with members of the LTC.

Jeff comes to us from UW-Madison where he worked as an Instructional Design and Technology Consultant. Jeff’s professional background is in French Language & Literature and Second Language Acquisition. He also has a wide variety of experience in instructional design, curricular development, and technology training in administrative and instructional settings.

During his time at UW-Madison, his responsibilities included designing and delivering professional development sessions in technology-driven pedagogy and academic technology, facilitating faculty development through the Blended Learning Fellowship Program, and acting as the curricular liaison for the COVID-19 Continuity of Instruction response team.

Jeff is originally from Atlanta, GA, and recalls fondly his first “true winter” after moving to Wisconsin (he currently resides in Madison).

Jeff and his partner enjoy outdoor sports as avid cyclists and snowshoeing enthusiasts. Jeff also loves spending time in the kitchen working his way around the world when it comes to new and exciting recipes (I think Jeff will enjoy the LTC food events)!

We are thrilled to have Jeff join our team, please take some time to welcome him when you can!

We are happy to announce that the LTC’s Shane Degen has accepted a new position within ICIT!

On Monday, December 14th, Shane officially transitioned to his new role as Teaching, Learning, and Technology Consultant for the LTC.

In this new role, Shane will assist in the development of training for faculty with regard to teaching in online and hybrid formats. He will also be supporting the LTC with faculty consultations and continue his duties as LMS Administrator.

It is always exciting to share this kind of news which serves as a great example of the caliber of people that we have the privilege of working alongside. Please take some time to congratulate Shane the next time you see or speak with him, this is well earned!

On behalf of the entire ICIT organization, we would like to welcome Steve Kilcoyne as the new Systems Engineer with the NOC Team.

Steve’s primary responsibilities will include:

• Install, maintain, manage and support campus Linux server infrastructure and related functions such as campus file services, print services, Linux web hosting, and related services (Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc) running on the Linux platform.
  
• Develop scripts and utilities to automate routine processes in support of administering the campus Linux environments. Research automated deployment tools and toolkits and utilize them where possible.
  
• Manage enterprise storage.

Steve comes to us with more than 25 years of experience managing Unix/Linux infrastructures. He previously worked for Connexus Credit Union where his duties included implementation, configuration, security management, disaster recovery, and data backup for all aspects of Unix, Linux, and the Windows server infrastructure.

Steve and his wife Kris have three children, Devlin(17) and Robert(23), and Makaela(25). His family is also joined by 2 rescue dogs; Walter, a 13-year-old Australian Shepherd, and a German Shepherd/Collie mix named Marie. To round it out, they also have a cat named Leeroy.

In his free time, Steve enjoys kayaking, hiking, and snowshoeing with his family. He also dabbles as a musician playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar. When additional time permits, Steve enjoys playing video games with his sons.

Last but certainly not least, Steve is a US Army Veteran who served from 1988-1992 (thank you for your service Steve!).

We are thrilled to have Steve join our team, please take some time to welcome him when you can!

Kyle Windsor’s final day with ICIT will be Friday, December 11th. On behalf of the entire ICIT organization, we would like to wish Kyle the very best in his next opportunity.

Kyle started at UW-Whitewater in September of 2016 as an IS Specialist. He quickly jumped in with his PeopleCode, mobile APIs, and PeopleSoft integration experience, and eventually worked his way up to become ICIT’s PeopleSoft Developer.

During his time at ICIT, Kyle worked on several large, high-impact projects for the AIS team. One of the most impactful was the Fluid Upgrade. Kyle’s contributions included the “Apply for Graduation” workflow and the “Term Withdrawal” process which allowed students to complete these requirements online vs a paper submission.

An additional high-impact project was the Canvas Migration. As the developer, Kyle coordinated with the LTC and the UW System Project Manager to implement changes and test connections in order to get the new LMS setup working.  UW-Whitewater was an early adopter for several steps during this transition which provided a template for other UW-System Universities to follow.

Kyle has also been providing ongoing support for several UW-W Mobile Applications including WINS Mobile (prior to decommission), WINS Pay, and the UW-W App.

Kyle’s new opportunity will be with Kohl’s Corporate as a Saas Developer.  His work will focus on REST/SOAP requests and integrations to interconnect and improve the communications between Kohl’s departments and 3rd party applications.

Once again, we could not be happier for Kyle and his new opportunity. He will be missed by ICIT as well as the campus business leaders whom he worked so closely with.

Please take some time to wish Kyle the best of luck!

Nicole Weber’s final day with ICIT will be Thursday, October 22nd. On behalf of the entire ICIT organization, we wish Nicole nothing but the best in her next opportunity. We will miss her, and are thankful for the positive impact she made during her time at UW-Whitewater. 

Nicole came to UW-W in October of 2015 as the Director of Learning Technology.  

One of her most notable accomplishments was leading the transition from D2L to Canvas (nearly a three-year project).  Thanks to her leadership, UW-W led the UW-System in the speed of migration of courses to Canvas as well as innovative practices that would be adopted by other UW System universities. 

Nicole also spearheaded many creative initiatives such as the Emerging Technology Exploration Program. This program helped bring important technologies (e.g., Webex Teams, PollEverywhere) to campus and roll them out effectively to our instructional community.

Nicole’s influence and expertise were not just limited to our campus. She was asked to be an expert panelist for three years on Educause’s Horizon Report. 

During the Summer of 2020, under Nicole’s leadership, the LTC in collaboration with LEARN and the Provost’s Office secured over $100,000 in funding for programming to support instructors in preparing to teach in a variety of modalities (e.g., hybrid, online). Funding was used to stipend UW-W instructors to complete TEACH (a self-paced, asynchronous professional development opportunity that supported instructors in learning about key design, inclusion, management, and interaction strategies across modalities), complete the Summer Institute for Online and Blended Teaching, and complete the new Fall Asynchronous Online Teaching Institute.

Nicole’s new position will be Assistant Vice President of Learning for the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). In her role, Nicole will be managing aspects of the organization’s research, professional development, grants, consulting, and online engagement initiatives.

Please take some time to wish Nicole the best of luck!

via GIPHY