Q. When did you begin working at ENMU?
October 31, 2016; Halloween. Interestingly, My last job start date prior to this was April 01, 2013 - April Fool's Day.
Q. What is the history of your positions at ENMU?
This is my first position at ENMU.
Q. What does your department do and what are the main duties of your job?
Institutional Research Office is responsible for reporting all sorts of data to State & Federal entities - as well as other external agencies and organizations. In addition to compiling the College Factbook, the coordination and processing of course evaluations and administrative evaluations, and providing data support to Academic Program Review processes, Contracts & Grants applications/reporting needs, and Accreditation reporting requirements, we are also responsible for serving a high volume of ad-hoc data requests in support of campus-wide decision making, Generally speaking, there is an equal balance between reporting that is essentially "compliance reporting" in nature -- and that which, in the ideal sense, is oriented more explicitly toward increased institutional effectiveness, enhanced student outcomes, etc; To reflect what's going on and to cause reflection.
Although often bogged down with technical definitions and quantifying stuff in isolation, IR work also involves a dynamic and rewarding creative process of dialogue, learning, and navigation with colleagues toward Defining the actual questions being asked, and determining which of multiple data sources would best serve the requestor's specific data needs.
Q. What have you enjoyed most about your job, and what have been the biggest challenges?
What I enjoy most about IR work is the constant & infinite variety that occurs within the structured & known routines. I derive deep pleasure from the slow incremental process of working with folks to understand their data needs, and then concurrently synthesizing those experiences toward development of coherent reporting structures & systems to holistically serve broader organizational needs.
Here at ENMU, I've found many of the things that one would expect to find known and structured are not quite so, and so...what would seem the greatest & most insurmountable challenge to someone else -- actually presents itself as something of a pleasure source to me.
Q. What were you doing before you came to ENMU, and what other jobs have you held outside of ENMU?
Immediately prior to ENMU, I was in a database analyst capacity at UC Davis from April 2013 until June 2016. I resigned from there concurrent with my daughter's high school graduation. Before UC Davis, I'd been with University of Hawaii at Hilo (a rural regional state university campus -not terribly unlike ENMU-- on Big Island Hawaii) serving in an Institutional Research Analyst/Director capacity from January 2006 until February 2013. Prior to U of Hawaii Hilo, I'd been at Pima Community College in Tucson AZ for eight years (August 1996-August 2004) split equal between curriculum analyst and institutional research analyst capacities for four years each.
Q. What are your degrees and majors, and what activities did you participate in college?
Pennsylvania State University...Anthropology; BA University of Arizona, Center for Study of Higher Education, MA
Q. Where were you born, raised, and what was your life like growing up?
Born in Philadelphia Penn.; raised in a Philadelphia suburb zone. Youngest of 5 children; 3 sisters, 1 brother - all of whom remain in the Philadelphia area.
Father operated a television repair business; He had himself a television in every room; I developed an aversion to television as a consequence.
Q. Tell us about your own family?
I have a daughter who is now a college freshman in Oregon, and a spouse whom I've been with now for 23 years.
Q. What are your hobbies?
I like listening to music...mainly jazz and East Indian classical forms and indigenous people's music from around the globe...but I also like to make music noise and I enjoy doing other random art stuff in 2 or 3 dimensions; adaptation and improvisation are at the root; expand a lot, shrink back a little, repeat.
I'm interested in community arts and engagement, train graffiti, and street arts stuff...
Q. What is your ultimate career goal?
Isn't this it?
Q. What gives your life meaning? Besides career goals, what else do you hope to accomplish?
I see no end goals...no bucket list I aspire toward; it's all just a perpetual process of beginnings. I'd hope to continue growing myself and others through simple observation and cultivation of respect and appreciation for the multiplicity of unspeakably simple complexities underlying the color, shape, and flavor of all the things we see and hear and feel. I get much joy from the articulating and navigating the meaning of things within myself and in my relation with others.
Q. What is your general impression of Portales, and ENMU?
I've gathered a very favorable impression on the whole; people have been very helpful, patient, and kind both in and around town as well as on campus.
