Southwest Baptist University’s 2016 Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) Department
Advisory Board met Friday, Feb.19, in conjunction with the Robert W. Plaster College
of Business and Computer Science Spring Career Fair attended by Accenture, American
National Insurance, Digital Monitoring Products, Inter-State Studios, the U.S. Federal
Reserve Bank, Bass Pro, O’Reilly Automotive, Intrinsiq Software, Classy Llama, AG
Financial, Citizens Memorial Hospital, Health Medx, Jack Henry & Associates, CSG Solutions
and Leggett & Platt.
The complete 2016 Advisory Board consists of:
- Accenture, a global company of over 362,000 employees and the largest employer of SBU CIS graduates, sent Michael Dwyer, director of research and development at Accenture’s Bolivar site, to advise the department.
- American National employs more than 900 team members at the home office in Springfield, Missouri. Representing American National 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.
- Based in Kansas City, Mo., Cerner Corporation is the largest provider of electronic medical systems in the United States. Cerner employs more than 8,000 employees worldwide and is the second largest employer of SBU CIS graduates. Representing Cerner was Owen Straub, vice president for software engineering.
- Cornerstone Group Solutions was represented by Mark Peterman, vice president of operations. CSG Solutions has been creating custom software solutions for customers in the St. Louis area for three decades.
- Healthcare First, located in Springfield, Mo., is a rapidly growing software company targeting the home healthcare market. Healthcare First was represented by Tom Brock, the company’s chief operations officer.
- Jack Henry & Associates, Inc., with headquarters near Springfield, Mo., is an S&P 400 company and is the 18th largest provider of financial software services in the world. JHA products are used to manage mission-critical information for more than 11,200 financial institutions and corporate entities. Representing JHA was Scott Whisman, general manager of corporate services.
- O’Reilly Automotive was represented by Karla Williams, vice president of software development. Headquartered in Springfield, Mo., O’Reilly Automotive is the third-largest auto supply company in the United States and has more than 67,000 employees.
- Tezza Business Solutions, a North Carolina-based software testing company, was represented by CEO Roland Omorosemi, who graduated from SBU in 1993. Tezza Business Solutions maintains testing facilities in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.
SBU’s CIS department is the second-largest computing program in the Missouri Ozarks,
housing five full-time faculty members and more 115 students majoring in computer
science, information science or web systems and design. The department is the recipient
of multiple national awards each year and is accredited by the Accreditation Board
for Engineering and Technology (ABET), making SBU one of only six evangelical Christian
colleges in the United States with an ABET-accredited computing program. For more
information, contact Dr. Tim DeClue, professor and chair of the CIS department, at
(417) 328-1704 or tdeclue@SBUniv.edu.
Photo caption: Dr. Tim DeClue, SBU CIS department chair (far left), and Meilani Conley, SBU CIS faculty member (far right), with 2016 Advisory Board members (left to right, starting with second from left) Owen Straub, Cerner Corporation; Scott Whisman, Jack Henry & Associates; Roland Omoresemi, Tezza Business Solutions; June White, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (meeting guest), Michael Dwyer, Accenture; Mark Peterman, CSG Solutions; Shirley Cron, American National Insurance; and Tom Brock, Healthcare First.