UK ITS discusses unconventional career paths, AI and cybersecurity Educause in Nashville
From taking unconventional career paths to discussing the importance of cybersecurity strategy and AI’s role in automation tooling, University of Kentucky Information Technology Services (UK ITS) teams showcased their expertise during Educause 2025.
Educause, one of the largest higher education technology conferences in the U.S., explores the latest technology trends and brings together experts from universities around the world.
This year, Dr. Joy Buolamwini, an MIT researcher, artist, model, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League and author of Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, delivered the opening keynote session discussing her research on bias in artificial intelligence facial recognition. Buolamwini’s How I'm fighting bias in algorithms TED Talk has received more than 1.9 million views.
UK ITS Communications & Strategic Engagement Director Marci Adams, UK ITS Marketing and Production Coordinator Jessica McClure and Senior Director of UK Online Patsy Carruthers presented Uncharted Routes: Women Redefining IT Pathways along with Business Analyst at Indian University Sharlene Toney and Director of Digital Initiatives, Scholarship, and Collaboration at Hamilton College Lisa McFall.
The poster session showcased different career paths taken by women in IT and delved into challenges women often face in the workplace.
“Our poster told the story of our unconventional paths into IT. Turns out, that theme hit home for a lot of people,” McClure said. “Several people stopped by sharing their own winding journeys like starting families and going back to school, their detours and their ’I never thought I’d end up here’ moments. It was powerful and humbling to meet so many who found their passion in an IT career.”
Associate CIO & Enterprise CISO Stephen Burr shared insights during the Procuring Cybersecurity Insurance session for the University of Kentucky.
Burr’s talk, quoted in Government Technology, discussed the importance of partnering with enterprise risk management during before and after the cybersecurity insurance procurement process to effectively manage the risk and impact of a cybersecurity incident. “Insurance provides access to breach-response resources, legal counsel and crisis management, which are critical during an incident,” he said.
UK ITS Associate CIO, Enterprise Chief Technology Officer Adam Recktenwald led the Lunch and Learn session — Future Proofing Higher Education: Navigating Change in ana Uncertain Environment.
“With Universidad Panamericana and SAP we discussed the importance of proper change management practices, AI automation tooling and how systems that do the 'boring work' are actually a great thing to enhance innovation at an enterprise scale,” Recktenwald said.
Some of that work includes AI automation removing travel expenses that aren’t eligible for reimbursement.
“Our travel and expense management tools use AI to scan pictures of receipts for items that are outside of compliance — like alcoholic beverages — and automatically remove those from re-imbursement, Recktenwald said. “This way a staff person doesn't have to scan each receipt manually to check for compliance.”
The closing keynote speaker Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, --President Emeritus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County reminded the audience about the importance of remaining resilient and compassionate regardless of roles in higher education.
Ultimately, using moments as opportunities to teach while also showing emotional intelligence to be kind, are a few of the small things everyone has the power to do, he said.
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