Kindra Locklear, IT Project Portfolio Manager and Don Bryant, Chief Information Security Officer for the Department of Information Technology at UNC Pembroke participated in the 2019 EDUCAUSE annual conference in Chicago.
The premier higher ed IT event brings together professionals and technology providers from around the world to share ideas, grow professionally, and discover solutions to today’s challenges.
The conference, held October 14-17, brings together professionals and technology providers from around the world gather to network, share ideas, grow professionally, and discover solutions to today's challenges.
Locklear is currently the co-lead of the Educause Project Managers Community group (PMCG). The PMCG focuses on issues faced by project managers of technical projects within higher education and has over 1,600 members. Discussions include best practices and tools, promotion of project management culture in IT organizations, managing cross–functional groups, the introduction of new technologies, and meeting client expectations. This group meets at the EDUCAUSE annual conference.
Locklear along with John Prette, senior IT Portfolio and Project Manager at George Mason University and PMCG co-lead, facilitated a breakout session for the PMCG, “Projects, portfolios, resources, governance, PMOs, tools, and more–spend time with your peers and share expertise and proven methods leading to projects and PMOs becoming effective value-added partners in education.”
Locklear also hosted a group braindate session, “Project Management–Effective Governance and Process Improvement.” Braindates are about sharing knowledge. They are one-on-one or group conversations that you book with other participants while attending a conference.
While attending the conference she was invited to participate in a Google Focus Group Session, and she was able to meet Girls Who Code Founder and CEO, Reshma Saujani. Earlier this year, Kindra Locklear and Mary Beth Locklear, director of Office for Regional Initiatives, in collaboration with the Lumbee Tribe, established a Girls Who Code club designed to support and increase the number of women in computer science. Mary Beth was able to join the conversation via FaceTime.
Bryant’s presentation, “Small Team, Big Impact: How UNCP Built a Security Culture,” provided an overview of the two-person cybersecurity team at UNCP. In just three years, they implemented an integrated, automated security portfolio, amplified with threat intelligence, to safeguard campus, slashing the number of serious incidents from 20 a day to just one or two a week.
