My name is Kara McFall and my formal education started in the field of Engineering. I earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. I completed a doctorate in Educational Leadership with a Postsecondary, Adult, and Continuing Education specialization at Portland State University.
The first chapter of my professional career was in Information Technology. I started out in the frantic-paced world of Andersen Consulting straight out of Purdue, working out of their San Francisco office. For the next several years I worked primarily in IT consulting assignments; my specialization was project management, where I enjoyed the challenge of delivering complex IT projects on time, on budget, and with happy customers. I concluded my IT consulting work as first the Vice President of Project Management for the Vail, CO and Portland, OR AGENCY.COM offices, then as the Program Operations Manager for an IT consulting company that focused on state and federal government clients.
In December 2002 I accepted a position with the Information Technology Group (ITG) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). In my first role in ITG I developed and delivered project management training, as well as developed and implemented project management processes, tools and techniques. I later managed several IT teams who supported OHSU's Payroll, Logistics, HR, Financial, and Research functions. In this role I led teams of Project Managers, Developers and Quality Assurance Analysts who develop and maintain OHSU's administrative applications.
I began teaching part-time for a variety of higher education institutions early in my career. My areas of expertise include project management, strategy, negotiation, and operations management. I have held leadership positions for various higher education institutions, include Lead Faculty and Area Chair. I love teaching and am passionate about education and the opportunities afforded with a college degree. For this reason, I returned to college many years after obtaining my master's degree to pursue my doctorate in Educational Leadership. My area of focus for my dissertation was the issue of limited college access for lower socioeconomic students.
I was able to combine my love of education with my extensive IT background in accepting a position as the Director of the University of Oregon Applied Information Management program. AIM is a 100% online master's program for people who manage people, teams, projects, or technologies and focuses on four disciplines: information management, information design, business management, and applied research. I am responsible for the curriculum, faculty, industry outreach, and administrative aspects of the program.
