Celebrating a Milestone

I hope that your summer is continuing to provide you with opportunities to unplug from work and spend time with family and friends.

I just returned from my final week of summer vacation for this year. I spent a week at a cottage with family and friends on Georgian Bay. It was wonderful weather and we ticked off all of the cottage boxes, from S’mores to fishing, with an emphasis on dock sitting and swimming.

While I was away, I hit a milestone: Monday, August 14 was the official date when I started at McMaster University as the AVP and CTO a full 5 years ago!

Being at a cottage provided me with time to reflect on these last 5 years. When I started at McMaster University in 2017, I had limited knowledge about the campus. I had spent hardly any time in Hamilton, and I had only been on campus once before, for the CanHEIT conference in 2011. Since then, I had met a few colleagues from McMaster however I really didn’t have much information about the campus IT environment or the people who delivered it. All of that changed on August 14, 2017 when I walked into my office in BSB for the first time. My first few weeks on campus were spent meeting with people and trying not to get lost while trying to figure out how to get started on my mission as CTO. My fondest memories from that time were the big introduction sessions I had with the IT personnel on campus – everyone made me feel so welcome. It wasn’t long after those early days that I began to learn what an amazing environment McMaster was for collaboration and cooperation.

The energy and excitement of those early days gave me the encouragement to believe anything was possible – and together we have proven that is true! I can say with emphasis that being part of this amazing institution has exceeded even my most optimistic expectations. I am proud to tell people I work here and am uplifted daily by the amazing research and accomplishments in teaching and learning, and by the dedication that our faculty, instructors, researchers, staff and students bring to their work. Most of all, I find myself feeling humbled and excited by your successes. The work that the McMaster IT community has undertaken and achieved together over the past 5 years is remarkable. You have accomplished so much, and it has changed McMaster for the better. You are all fantastic and I feel fortunate and grateful that I get to be part of this transformational journey with you. The past 5 years have been phenomenal, and we have accomplished even more than I could ever have imagined. I am excited to see what we will do next, and I look forward to our future together.

I am a big proponent of celebrating milestones, so we have planned an event on campus so we can celebrate together: Join me on Wednesday, August 24 from 3:00 – 4:30 PM on the BSB Lawn. I hope to see you there so we can ‘high five’ my five years!

Sincerely,

Gayleen