I wear many hats at Miami University. The most important of these hats are:

Director of the ILRC (Interactive Language Resource Center)

As Director of the ILRC, I provide assistance to students, instructors, and staff in the Foreign Language Departments at Miami Univeristy (Spanish/Portuguese, GREAL, French/Italian, and Classics) by (a) Coordinating new support technology within the Foreign Language Departments (b) Maintaining and upgrading computer technology in the ILRC (c) Providing secondary technological support to the Foreign Language Departments (d) Seeking out Grant Opportunities to incorporate technology in foreign language education (e) Present and assist in regular combinations of workshops, conferences, video conferences, public relations and promotional activites involving the ILRC, I also head daily operations of the ILRC and supervise a staff of graduate assistants and undergraduate student assistants in the ILRC and maintain yearly budgets, annual reports, advisory committee meeting reports, etc. of the ILRC. The overall purpose of my mission is to lead the ILRC and the Foreign Language Departments into an age where self-supporting, computer-trained faculty will provide the university community with an academically hospitable environment for the promotion of foreign language learning, teaching, and integration of Computer Aided Language Learning into the evolving curriculum.

Director of the Austrian Summer Scholars Program

For the Austrian Summer Scholars Program, visiting Austrian university students come as guests of Miami University to participate in a “leisure learning” program. In addition to informally attending classes at Miami, students participate in several field trips to area and regional businesses. I ensure that the program runs smoothly, that the visiting Austrians stay alive during their visit to the USA, that the bills get paid, field trips coordinated, well... you get the idea.

Assistant to First-Year Summer Orientation

During the summer, I work with the Advising Office of the College of Arts and Science as an assistant to the annual first-year summer orientation. Incoming freshman students enrolled in the College take Foreign Language Placement Tests and talk to advisors before registering for their first classes. It is my responsibility to administer the foreign language tests, pull placement results for students and the staff in the Advising Office, and to assist sophomore- through senior-level students in taking or re-taking placement tests during the academic year.

Technical Liaison to CALICO (the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium)

At annual CALICO conferences, I represent Miami University as the chief technical support coordinator and liaison to participants attending CALICO conferences and academic institution staff that host the conferences each year. I coordinate the needs and wants of up to 200 presenters with the host institution staff to ensure that CALICO flows smoothly every year. I don't officially get paid for this position, but I get to go to the conference for free, get my airfare and hotel paid for, and get a thank-you gift each year for the effort.

Test Proctor for SPEAK Testing

Four times a year I assist the Department of Speech Pathology in administering SPEAK tests. This oral test format, created by ETS (Educational Testing Services) is geared for graduate students who do not speak English as their native language. The tests are done via computers in the ILRC and are scored by a committee of three people from various departments at Miami University. It is my job to administer these tests throughout the year and ensure that each student taking the test has a valid test before they leave the testing area. I then compress each audio recording into MP3 format and send the tests for archive to the Department of Speech Pathology.

Computer Technical Support Volunteer

Sometimes a job turns into a chore, especially when it's 10:00pm and university folks want you to work on their personal computers when they can't get their Windows or Macintosh machines to work. Of course, they never have things backed up and they call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and want help even when I'm at Death's door. But I do selective technical support of university machines and SOMETIMES personal machines when time allows. My rule of thumb is when I can troubleshoot it or fix it in five minutes, I have to pass the problem on to the people supposed to be referred to.