Radana: Kendra, congratulation on being part of our inaugural Doctor of Information Technology (DIT) cohort and also one of our new faculty members, and thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the STC Thursday Byte. 

Let’s start off by telling us about your career path that brought you to where you are today. 

Kendra: Hi Radana, thank you so much for having me!  I would say my love for Information Technology started when I was a pre-teen and, with age, I became much more passionate about the subject.  I wanted to be involved in a field where my work was challenging and made a difference.  I started my educational career at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and graduated in 2005 with a B.S. in Business Administration with a Concentration in Computer Information Systems.  Upon graduation I worked for 4-years at Bank of America as a Developer/Project Manager/Business Analyst – let’s just say I wore a lot of hats.   

While I was working at BOA, I decided to go back to school for my MBA and I chose CityU.  I graduated with my MBA with a Concentration in Project Management in 2012.  During the latter part of my education at CityU, I became Ms. Wheelchair Washington 2011 and I worked as a Project Manager Analyst at the SanMar Corporation in Issaquah.  In 2014, I decided to move out of the Seattle area and ended up taking a job at a small company, Monoprice, in Southern California.  I finally ended up settled in 2015 when my husband and I moved to San Antonio, Texas.  During my time in San Antonio, I’ve worked for United Healthcare, Harland Clarke Holdings, and USAA.  I love my current role as Technical Project Manager, Senior at USAA.  I feel that I not only have the freedom to make decisions, but I also feel that the work I do helps our members of the armed forces and their families.  

Radana: Thank you, you sound very passionate about what you do, great to see.  Why did you decide to pursue a DIT and why did you choose CityU? 

Kendra: I decided to pursue a DIT because I felt like I still had more to learn.  In the world of IT, things are constantly changing and you must stay on top of those changes to be successful.  The DIT program at CityU looked very appealing to me because I had done my MBA at CityU and I absolutely loved the way the classes were structured.  Online classes can be hard if they don’t have structure and I’ve always felt that CityU provides great structure to their classes and lays out in detail the expectations for the students.  I also really liked that CityU had the option to have a customized emphasis.  My current role at USAA deals extensively with compliance as well as project management of those compliance efforts.  I really felt that a customized emphasis in cybersecurity and project management would be ideal for me.  It would give me the opportunity to learn more about a field that I’m interested in while still ensuring it aligned with my career objectives. 

Radana: The DIT is indeed designed to support candidates to ‘sculpture’ a path that best aligns with their career plans – a real strength of the program. Thank you for highlighting it. What’s one thing you wish you had known when you began your career? 

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