 My higher education career was really an accident and one of the interesting things for me is so I'm the first in my family to go to college and neither of my parents actually even finished high school and so My dad died when I was 13 and he had had this dream that I'd go to college. I Ended up The only one in my neighborhood who went to college all my friends went to jobs at General Motors or Bethlehem Steve Or other places And so in going to college. I had no idea what to expect None of my neighbors had gone to college. And so it's one of those things that I had no anticipation of what an even a career after college would be like and so as I got to college I was kind of Offal my own and one of the things that really made a difference for me was landing a job At UMBC. I had worked all my life even in high school I worked and then I worked while I was at college But I was working I was a commuter student and I was working near home and I got this opportunity to get a job on campus I was a grader for one of the programming classes and then after that I got hired in the computer center and Getting that job and getting a chance to see What it was like to work with technology was very different than what it was like to be a math major Taking computer science courses. I never thought I wanted to be a programmer until I got to be working doing programming And I found that the work was very different than the academic side of this and I love the work I love interacting with people creating programs that did things useful for them And so that really was sort of the first thing that got me hooked Into working in higher-ed technology One of the things that I think is important for leaders is To learn to also be good followers One of the pieces, you know, yes, I'm the leader inside the division of IT but I'm also a follower of Other leaders on the campus the presidents the provost the CFO I have to be working with all of these People and we have to be sharing sometimes. I'm leading sometimes they're following sometimes They're leading and I'm following and I think learning how to be a good follower and be just someone who's prepared to roll up their sleeves and do what's necessary to help is one of the things that All leaders need to learn when to put leadership aside and emphasize Followship and just being a good Worker in this situation that's needed I've gotten to watch doctor Robowski for the last 32 years and When you have a leader like him at UNBC You begin to Understand some things and so some of the the words that Freeman talks about all the time are Successes never final and what that really means at UNBC is you can't just sort of say well I've reached the pinnacle I can lay down I don't have to do more you always have to continue to be a leader the other thing that he really highlights is that You can never not lead and I know that sounds odd in the answer I gave you on followership, but what never not lead means is when you're a leader People are always watching you even when you're not leaving. They're watching you and others are taking their cues from you and so This is an important element in being a leader That you are always sort of under the eye the watchful eye so to speak and so that's a part that I've taken to heart and Really try to model the behaviors. I want my team to be delivering With people and it's one thing and you know, all of us have bad days, but you have to really remember as a leader that You have to be watching your actions because your actions really do take more weight What I've seen time and time again is the organizations that do the best job of Using technology to help them teach and learn and do research Are the ones where there's some strong IT leadership in the organization on campus? And that's organization that is not just Focus just on keeping the bits flowing but understanding how we can help the school leverage things This award ceremony opened up to us. Oh, maybe I'm eight nine years ago or so and we grabbed it right away because I'm big. I'm a big fan of role models and Have people kind of say well How did they get the award and take a look and they gets them to have the conversation to think through who's getting the award and why and There's always a great story behind many of these recipients I just think it's critically important to reach out and and help organizations like this help the industry And this is the but this organization we can work here and have the biggest impact on the industry anywhere We're on board. We're supporting why because it's getting the award winners out there getting that to happen and And you know, I've been around a long time I'm sure I'll be around 30 years from now, but I'll stick around a few more years But I'm more worried about the longer-term picture of the industry healthy So things that promote that are always good for the industry They're good for the industry as a small boutique firm like ours. They're good for us, too