Colleague Connection: Driving IT Services and Support Excellence with Joe Paris
Joe Paris has recently been appointed Northwestern IT’s new Associate Vice President of IT Services and Support. He has spent nearly 20 years at the University—but, did you know he started his IT career journey as early as high school? We sat down with Joe to learn more about his vision for IT Services and Support, the industry’s challenges, and how he spends his time away from Northwestern.
How did you get started at Northwestern?
My route to Northwestern came through Argonne National Laboratory. I worked there for about 10 years, starting in high school as a part-time administrative assistant. I had a fantastic manager, and she was always willing to give me time to try new things, which led me to supporting research, initially, through programming and software development.
The project work and relationships I built at Argonne eventually led me to develop a network with connections to Northwestern, and I applied here for graduate school. Around the same time, Northwestern was looking to start a research support services program. Soon after I completed my master’s in computer engineering, I shifted from a student to a staff member in Northwestern IT.
My early work at Northwestern focused on academic projects, with one pertaining to developing methods for the digital preservation of real-world objects and places and another focused on large-format visualization tools for cultural, academic, and research data. From there, I became involved in helping lead the development of the University’s first central research support team and services. And the rest is history.
It’s essential we start to look at services as part of an ecosystem so that when we make changes, we understand how they will impact other aspects of that system and the community. It’s our job to help bridge these pieces together in a meaningful way.”
Associate Vice President
IT Services and Support
What is your overall vision for IT Services and Support?
We have an incredibly talented team that is well-connected to the community. Initially, I plan to understand how we can amplify their voices and strengthen collaborations with IT leadership and our distributed partners. At the same time, I plan to look for opportunities to advance our initiatives, drive exemplary service, and help knock down barriers preventing us from that.
How do you plan to align IT support with the broader organizational objectives?
The IT Services and Support team plays an exciting role within Northwestern IT. In many ways, our team sits on the frontlines of the Northwestern community. In this, we have an opportunity to understand how services provided by Northwestern IT impact the community and, alongside our colleagues, provide guidance and support to help maturation of these services.
It’s essential we start to look at services as part of an ecosystem so that when we make changes, we understand how they will impact other aspects of that system and the community. It’s our job to help bridge these pieces together in a meaningful way.
What are the most critical challenges you see in the IT Services and Support space over the next few years?
A few challenges will present themselves for IT Services and Support in the coming years. Some of them are already underway.
- Complexity of IT service delivery: IT services are consistently evolving in features and capabilities, which increasingly challenges what we think to be traditional services for teaching, research, and administration and how they operate. Underscoring these challenges is security, data use, copyright, ethics, and compliance. IT Services and Support has to work across other units of IT to understand service delivery and risk holistically. Generative AI is a direct example of how these various views on technology delivery must be brought together to keep our community safe and productive while maintaining support for innovation.
- Compliance requirements for universities: These continue to increase with ever-changing and growing information security threats. Aligned approaches for how we manage security and risk are critical to the University’s success.
What are the top three priorities you want to tackle in your first six months in this role?
- Fiscal Planning: Given the time of the year, we’re about to begin the fiscal planning cycle, so I’ll be working with IT Services and Support directors and managers to develop an aligned set of objectives and budgetary asks.
- (Re)Connecting IT Services and Support: In the past few years, we’ve hired many new staff members. Given we are located across several buildings, it is critical that we continue to bring the teams together frequently so that we can get to know and learn from each other. Services and Support has a history of cross-department collaboration, and we need to build on that.
- Strengthen Connections Within IT: Regular collaboration with other IT units is critical to better understanding broader institutional priorities. Cross-sharing perspectives with our colleagues in Administrative Systems, Cyberinfrastructure, and the Information Security Office, for example, will help us all improve our impact on our community.
What advice would you give to someone just starting their journey with Northwestern IT and hoping to have a successful tenure here?
Make the most of your time working with faculty and students. For example, if a faculty member approaches you with a technical issue around one of the services we support, dig in, and ask more questions. How are you currently using the service? Are there ways in which the service could better support your goals? What future improvements or capabilities would be effective for you? Asking questions can help you better understand their more significant challenges and help us all solve these at an organizational level.
Our service portfolio is broad and, at times, can be complex to navigate. The more we can understand about how what we provide is utilized by our community, the better support we can provide.
Take control of your career, network, and learn to manage up. You may start in a specific role within IT, but your interests may shift over time. By establishing a network, you’ll gain a broader perspective on the organization and what opportunities are available.
Managing up is critical. Finding time with your manager to set goals, discuss concerns, and agree on direction is a key part of having a successful career here and anywhere else.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to play the guitar. I mostly play electric guitar and focus on blues and rock. I’ve been playing for a long time, and it’s an opportunity to relax. I also try to do anything outdoors; I love hiking. I live near a wonderful forest preserve, and there are also so many beautiful day trips in the area. Michigan has many places to hike along the lakefront, and quaint towns are often nearby.
What is your favorite spot on campus?
There is a walkway south of the University Library that is heavily wooded, and it’s one of my favorite places to walk through in the fall because of the colorful canopies of trees.