MIS Advisory Board meets

Photo of COB MIS advisory board standing outside

MIS Advisory Board members include first row from left to right: Angelena Brack, Dr. Thomas Graham, and Kathy Kiraly; middle row, from left to right: Chelsi Cole, Michael Taylor, and Dr. Ravi Paul; and back row, from left to right: Jonathan Nissao, Sean Wise, Maurice Moody, and Wes Strom.

The Management Information Systems (MIS) advisory board met on campus in April ’22. MIS students and faculty joined the board as they listened to department updates from Dr. Ravi Paul, MIS Chair.

Though the board meets every Spring and Fall term, they will provide guidance and support throughout the year concerning branding and outreach, student engagement and faculty engagement.

Ten members sit on the board, and they represent familiar industry brands. Current members include:

  1. Angelena Brack, vice president, JP Morgan Asset Management
  2. Chelsi Cole, assistant vice president, global messaging engineering, Credit Suisse
  3. Thomas Graham, (chair of the board): VP, CISO, CynergisTek, Inc.
  4. Kathy Kiraly, principal technical training consultant, SAS Education Division
  5. Maurice Moody, SVP-head of transaction migration & virtual customer experience, Citizens Banking
  6. Jonathan Nissao, project/program management, customer experience, CiscoECU COB MIS board sits in room, listenting to chair Ravi Paul, who's standing
  7. Wes Strom, technical sales specialist business analytics, public sector, IBM
  8. Michael Taylor, deputy county manager and chief information officer, Pitt County NC
  9. Tim Willis, senior business analyst, TriNetX
  10. Sean Wise, manager, Deloitte

Dr. Thomas Graham is the current chair of the advisory board. He says the MIS board plans to target four initiatives for the coming year: finance and partnerships, MIS branding, student outreach and curriculum.

“The advisory board identified these items as areas where it can provide the department with assistance,” said Graham.

Guiding the board with members who volunteer their time, talent, treasure and influence could appear to be a job of its own. However, Graham says the reason he’s taking on the responsibility is very simple.

“Being a Pirate, one of the tenets taught to every student is ‘To serve,’” said Graham. “As a member of the advisory board for a few years, having experience in various industry areas, and owing a lot to ECU, I felt that we can, and should, do better as a board.”

“With the support of the other advisory board members and the MIS faculty, I believe we can make the MIS program a truly standout department within the COB. By giving back to the MIS program and the College of Business … this helps to ensure the continued success of not only the department but also the students.”