Dr. Lewis Pulsipher
Career summary: I have an unusual combination of very extensive
teaching experience on the one hand, and computer industry experience on the
other. I have taught more than 17,000 classroom hours, from Continuing Ed
through two- and four-year college to over 2,000 classroom hours of graduate
school. I devised/designed the entire computer curriculum for several years for
FTCC Ft Bragg, and design my graduate courses at Webster University. I worked
more than nine years as a government "computer specialist-programmer/analyst" at
a major Medical Center, where I established, deployed, and supported the local
area network, Internet and Intranet, hired and managed several employees, and
initially worked as a programmer and systems analyst. I teach as an expert
practitioner, but am able to teach according to needs and objectives appropriate
to the students’ level.
Professional Experience:
Combined teaching experience, more than 17,000 classroom hours.
Simulation and Game Development Instructor, Wake Technical Community
College (Raleigh NC), August 2007-present
I teach game design and related topics (nine month contract).
Networking, Web Development, Game Design Instructor, Central Carolina
Community College (Sanford NC), January 2000-June 2007.
As a full-time (10 month contract) instructor I teach a variety of network
and Web-related classes for those pursuing a two-year degree in CIT. We offer
non-proprietary classes plus many classes in Windows, Cisco routing, and
Linux/UNIX. I have taught 17 different courses in the past two years owing to my
broad background. We have three computer labs that are separate from the school,
and that are provisioned by us; I organize and provision the one on main campus.
I also install/maintain/repair the Oracle and (two) Web servers for the
department, distribute MSDN software, plan and run the all-student meeting at
the beginning of each year, maintain and post to the department listserv, create
podcasts for the department, etc. I receive the highest evaluation in the
department from my supervisors (information current June 15, 2007).
We were probably the first community college in the state to offer game
classes (Fall, ‘04). I taught the game design course. When we consolidated the
department we dropped the game certificate because, it appears, students are
much more interested in a full two-year degree, which we could not support.
Adjunct Faculty, Webster University Graduate School (Pope AFB), March
1988-present.
I teach a variety of graduate courses, mostly for the Computers and
Information Resource Management masters degree, most recently teaching
"Telecommunications and Networking", "Systems Analysis", and "Project
Management". Most students are military officers. I have taught 6 or 7 (depends
on how you count them) different courses, about 65 sessions altogether.
Based on a one paragraph course description set by the university, I devise
the entire course and select the textbook(s).
Full-time instructor, Fayetteville Technical Institute/Community College Ft
Bragg, November 1985-August 1990.
I taught eight hours of Continuing Ed classes each weekday, plus some
evenings. The civil service, military, and military dependent population
provided most of the students, sometimes via contract.
I transformed a small, backward (Apple II oriented) computer education
program into a large forward-looking enterprise of several full-time instructors
and assistants at any one time. I established the curriculum, selected the
software to be taught, designed the classes/syllabus, and wrote printed material
(students cannot be required to purchase books) and special computer programs
for the entire IBM-oriented curriculum at FTCC Ft. Bragg including more than a
dozen courses. I recruited and trained all other assistants
and instructors.
I established evening classes oriented toward practical program development
(primarily dBase and advanced DOS batch files, also Pascal).
Computer Programmer/Analyst/Specialist, Information Management Division (IMD),
Womack Army Medical Center (WAMC), Ft Bragg, NC August 1990-January 2000.
Womack is the largest army hospital, in terms of patients served each year,
and had over 2.500 employees when I left. Over the years I worked initially as a
programmer/analyst, later as project manager and supervisor of the PC &
Networking Support Branch, and later as Webmaster, systems analyst, and Y2K
project manager.
I came into a situation in which IMD wrote custom programs giving users no
flexibility and making them entirely dependent on IMD programmers. While I
maintained and extended the existing programs as necessary (mostly in
uncommented Clipper), I achieved recognition of the principle that custom
line-by-line programming did not make good business sense, given the penchant of
higher echelons to provide "stovepipe" systems, and that users should take
advantage of spreadsheets, MS Access, and other "user-programmable"
applications.
I also found that communication between IMD and computer users was almost
non-existent, nor did knowledgeable users have any respect for the expertise of
IMD employees. I established, wrote, and edited an extensive monthly newsletter
for users that immensely improved communication by making users partners in the
effort to use automation to improve conduct of the hospital’s business.
Womack used a 3+Share thin ethernet network that was available to less than
30 employees, and only usable for e-mail (it crashed when transferring or even
erasing groups of files). I established small Lantastic networks at first, then
deployed Novell Netware with ccMail to provide a true production network. I
hired the people who helped me install cable, deploy network cards, set up
servers, administer Netware and ccMail, etc. Within three years of starting,
more than 600 people used the network regularly, and others were being added.
I was also system admin for several Unix systems, including the WAN e-mail
system for the medical center.
Although there were 250 PCs at Womack when I arrived, there was virtually no
PC support in the UNIX-oriented IMD. As my job evolved I set up a PC support
organization with Help Line, hired and supervised the employees, and managed the
PC and Networking Support Branch that I established. I spent more than three
million dollars, allocated and deployed more than 700 PCs, and converted Womack
from DOS to Windows orientation. If someone needed a PC-related item or needed a
task accomplished with PCs, they came to me first.
Coming into a situation where there was no user training, I established and
co-taught internal classes in Windows 3.1 and Windows applications, and later in
Windows NT (ultimately contracted to Fayetteville Tech).
I established Internet links at WAMC and, on my own initiative, set up both
an Internet site and an intranet server and site. I trained sub-Webmasters for
the Intranet and maintained (and registered) the smaller Internet site.
In conjunction with my position as Y2K preparation representative I took a
major part in security activities including creation of a continuity of
operations (coop) plan for the Medical Center.
Education:
Ph.D. 1981 Duke University, Durham, NC. Subject areas: military and
diplomatic history; political science.
M.A. 1976 Duke University, James B. Duke Fellow.
I believe I have the equivalent, by virtue of teaching in the curriculum for
19+ years, of more than 18 graduate hours in Computer and Information Resources
Management (the name changes over the years), Webster University, Pope AFB, NC
campus.
ITEC 693, "Information Assurance", graduate class at Radford U., May 2005, 2
credit hours.
A.B. 1973, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Albion College, Albion,
Michigan.
Additional Training:
Intergraph Corporation UNIX Administrator course (five days), 1994.
The following Microsoft Certified System Engineer Courses. 1998.
Supporting MS Windows NT 4.0-- Core Technologies (5 days)
Microsoft Exchange 5.5 Concepts and Administrations (3 days)
Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Core Technologies (5 days)
Microsoft Access Development (5 days)
The following Certified Netware Engineer courses (total of 18 days of
classes):
Networking Technologies
TCP/IP Transport
Netware Dial-In/Dial-Out Connectivity
Netware Service and Support
Netware 3.11 System Manager
Netware 3.11 Advanced System Manager
Network General "Sniffer University " courses (total five days), 1996:
Ethernet and Token Ring Network Analysis and Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting with the Expert Sniffer Network Analyzer
Internet/Web Developer Certification course (five days), 1997:
Perl and Javascript
Web databases
Java
Cisco Networking Academy instructors’ courses:
Semester 1 and Semester 2, June 2000 (two weeks)
Semesters 3 and Semester 4, May 2001 (two weeks)
Microsoft Official Curriculum Updating Support Skills from Windows NT 4.0 to
Windows Server 2003, June 2003 at Microsoft-sponsored Carolina Working
Connections conference, Charlotte.
Certifications:
Network+ 2001
A+ 2002
iNet+ 2002
Security+ and MCP Windows 2000 Server, 2004.
While I believe that certification is a gigantic money-making racket and does
not reflect actual ability–among other things, they are memory rather than
performance based, and it is too easy to cheat--I took them to encourage my
community college students, who sometimes need them to be selected for job
interviews.
Professional Awards:
Teacher of the Year, Fayetteville Tech Ft Bragg, 1985.
$1,000 cash award, Womack Army Medical Center, 1993.
Credited professional peer reviewer for the following college textbooks
published by McGraw-Hill:
Internet Technologies at Work, 1st Edition Fred T. Hofstetter ©2005, ISBN
0072229993
Survey of Operating Systems, 1st Edition Charles Holcombe, Jane Holcombe
©2003, ISBN 0072225114
Presentations:
"Getting Started in Game Design" twice at Origins (Columbus Ohio) early July
'07
"The Process of Designing a Game", Origins ‘07 (Columbus Ohio)
"How to Design Games", 30th annual Origins Convention July ‘06
"How to Design Games" and "We Collectively Design an Educational Game", NCCIA,
March ‘06
"How to Design Games", NCCIA (North Carolina Computer Instructors’
Association), March ‘06
"Teaching Game Design in Community Colleges," Digital Game Expo, Raleigh NC,
Summer ‘05
"Game Design and CCCC Game Certificate, Our Experience Thus Far" NCCIA March
‘05
"CCCC Game Certificate", Digital Game Expo, Raleigh NC, Summer ‘05
"Turning One Computer into Many", NCCIA March ‘04,
Slides available at http://www.pulsipher.net/teaching1.htm
Publications:
Six adult strategic board games (most well-known is Britannia,
published on two continents) and one rules booklet. Approximately 150 articles
about gaming in a variety of professional magazines in United States and
Britain. Three articles about computing (and several about other subjects),
Fayetteville Observer-Times newspaper. Roughly a dozen articles about
computing for Ft Bragg Paraglide newspaper.
Software Expertise:
Too numerous to exhaustively list, going back to CP/M, dBase II, WordStar,
Perfect Calc, Lotus 123 version 1, and UNIX; more recently latest WordPerfect,
Office, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Coreldraw, Cold Fusion, Visio, Info
Select, Windows XP and Server 2003, IIS, Cisco IOS, Linux.
US Citizen, very good health. Hobbies computers, team sports, history, games.
References available on request. List of courses taught available on
request.
