BOLIVAR, Mo. — Southwest Baptist University’s 2017 Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) Department Advisory Board met early in the spring semester in the newly renovated Taylor Free Enterprise Center on the Bolivar campus, in conjunction with the Robert W. Plaster College of Business and Computer Science Spring Career Fair.
The advisory board meeting is held in conjunction with the fair, and was attended
by Duck Creek/Accenture, American National Insurance, Digital Monitoring Products,
Inter-State Studios, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, Bass Pro Shops, O’Reilly Automotive,
Citizens Memorial Hospital, Health Medx, Jack Henry & Associates, Megaphone Designs,
JMark, and Leggett & Platt.
The complete 2017 Advisory Board consists of:
- American National Insurance, which employs more than 900 team members at its home office located in the American National Corporate Centre in Springfield. Representing ANPAC was Shirley Cron, assistant vice president of software development and support, who oversees the software development teams that support the personal lines policy administration systems (both home office and agent facing), as well as the personal lines and commercial lines claims system that supports the Springfield home office.
- Bass Pro Shops, one of the largest outdoor retailers with more than 22,000 employees, has a highly developed software development arm. Bass Pro is represented on the board by Rob Harris, senior software architect.
- Duck Creek/Accenture, a global company of more than 362,000 employees and the largest employer of SBU CIS graduates, is represented by Michael Dwyer, director of research and development at the company’s Bolivar site. Dwyer will also advise SBU’s CIS department in 2017.
- Leggett & Platt is a 130-year-old company consisting of 19 business units, 20,000 employee-partners and more than 140 manufacturing facilities located in 18 countries, and will be represented on the board by Kevin Chittenden, director of information technology.
- O’Reilly Automotive is the third-largest auto supply company in the United States, with more than 67,000 employees, and is headquartered in Springfield. O’Reilly will be represented by Nicholas Jaross, software development manager.
“We do not advertise our career fair, but rather only invite those companies with whom we have great relationships and who have proven to be great places for our graduates to land when they launch their professional career,” said Dr. Tim DeClue, professor and chair of the CIS department.
SBU’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences houses five full-time faculty members and more than 100 students majoring in computer science, information science or web systems and design. The SBU CIS Department is the second-largest computing program in the Missouri Ozarks, the recipient of multiple national awards each year and one of only six evangelical Christian colleges in the United States with an ABET-accredited computing program.
For more information, contact DeClue, professor and chair of the CIS department, at (417) 328-1704 or tdeclue@SBUniv.edu.
Cutline: (Left to right): Dr. Jeff Kimball (faculty), Rob Harris (Bass Pro Shops), Dr. James Cain (faculty), Rick Jaross (O’Reilly Automotive), Kevin Chittendon (Leggett & Platt), Michael Dwyer (Duck Creek Technologies), Shirley Cron (American National Insurance), Dr. Tim DeClue (faculty), Eric Pahl (Office of Administration, State of Missouri) and Meilani Conley (faculty).