UNIVERISTY PARK, Pa. — In 2012, Tamara Peyton discovered the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) through a chance encounter with an IST graduate student. Now an alumna of IST’s doctoral program, she’s serving as dean of the School of Media and Information Technology (SMIT) at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).
Peyton decided to pursue her doctorate after a 10-year career in information technology and internet systems management and consulting. She worked with IBM, Bell Canada and Sanofi-Aventis, where she honed her digital design and leadership expertise and focused on web systems management and user experience (UX) analysis.
Peyton initially enrolled in a doctoral program at a different school that she described as too theoretical and not quite the right fit for her. She sought an interdisciplinary experience that blended information technology with social science.
“My undergrad and graduate work was in sociology rather than computer science because I’d struggled with trying to design appropriate software for business applications — a problem that came mainly from a corporate lack of understanding or caring about the way people needed to use technology to collaborate and coordinate work activities,” she said. “Social science pays attention to group dynamics, and there weren’t any programs like IST in my province.”
Peyton changed course thanks to that encounter with an IST graduate student at an industry conference.
“She encouraged me to visit Penn State and meet her adviser and mentor Andrea Tapia, a fellow sociologist and technologist,” Peyton said. “Upon meeting IST faculty and students, I was instantly struck by how awesome the culture of IST was and how well it fit me.”
Peyton transferred from her previous doctoral program to IST in 2012, and Tapia — who now serves as dean of the College of IST — became one of her advisers. Peyton’s research focused on health and wellness informatics, particularly around how technology can support people going through all kinds of life transitions.
When she completed her doctorate in 2016, Peyton choose a career in academia instead of industry. Her first position was with a small, private university in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she played a key role in the design and development of the school’s UX and interdisciplinary human sciences programs. Peyton was then recruited by Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) to recreate her success in human-centered design and computing for a new professionalized online graduate program in UX design.
“I designed it, got it accredited, recruited an industry advisory board and accepted the first new students within my first year there,” she said.
A proud Canadian, Peyton found herself ready to return home here she could spend more time with family. She accepted a position at NAIT as the dean of its SMIT in February.
“The offerings in IST and in SMIT are complementary,” Peyton said. “IST is focused on computing and its impacts on people and businesses — a merger of technology, business and human sciences. SMIT does this too, through programs in software and hardware management, cybersecurity, data analytics, business analysis, UX/HCI and game and web development.”
Peyton offered advice to students who want to pursue an academic career, specifically, that there are different ways of taking that path.
“My advice is to be open to new ways to working and to new opportunities they may not involve the traditional research tenure path,” she said. “I have always prioritized a work-life balance, and I have made choices for my career that support that balance. I chose to focus on working at institutions that value highly applied education. And rather than research, I’ve chosen teaching and service and now academic leadership.”