IT Professionals Board welcomes two new members

The IT Professionals Forum elected two new board members in April - Heather Bennett and Angel Warkentin.

The board consists of six elected members. Elections are held each April, and board terms are two years. Bennett and Warkentin fill spots previously held by Natalia Murdock, who left the University, and Rob White, who is stepping down after serving two terms.

Doug Ressler was re-elected board president. Ressler presented White with a handmade award at the May 3, 2017 IT Professionals Forum, thanking him for his service to the IT Pro community.

“I really had fun doing this,” White said. “It’s that little slice of time that’s not about the mission-critical ‘fix the thing that broke’ or whatever, and I like you guys.”

Bennett and Warkentin are both enthusiastic about their new roles.

Heather Bennett — Utah Poison Control Center and College of Pharmacy

"Thank you for this opportunity. I’m really looking forward to getting to know all of you," Bennett said at the May 2017 IT Professionals Forum meeting. "I know I have big shoes to fill following Rob. I’ll do my best.”

Bennett has worked at the University for 15 years, during which she has provided IT management and support for a variety of technologies used at the Utah Poison Control Center. Founded in 1954, it is the second oldest poison control center in the state. Before arriving at the U, Bennett managed a Citrix server farm for customers of a local software company.

Nationally, she works towards location-based routing of contacts (voice, text, web chat, etc.) for all poison control centers.

"I love working for the Utah Poison Control Center and in the College of Pharmacy," she said. "I am constantly learning new things and getting to know new people. I love being surrounded by the expertise of the academic community and collaborating on joint projects."

When not working or playing with her two small children, Bennett loves to read, play games, hike in the mountains and recently learned amateur radio "for disaster preparedness and for fun."

Angel Warkentin — Marriott Library

Warkentin has been employed at the University since 2010, starting in Marriott Library's Special Collections Multimedia Archives department. In 2011, she moved into an IT role in the User Support and Computing Services department (USCS). As technical support analyst, she administers Windows and Linux computers, as well as the network for the library, Student Union and some residence halls. Before working at the U, she worked at a small computer shop, CT Computers. She studied Computer Science at Westminster College and the U of U.

Warkentin strives to foster new and continuing relationships within the IT community. She feels that being a part of the IT Professionals Board will help connect the Marriott Library more closely with other campus IT departments.

"I've been coming to these meetings for four or five years now, and I think it will be fun to take a bigger role in bringing everyone together," she said at the IT Professionals Forum.

In her free time, Warkentin enjoys tinkering with computers, electronics and doing anything that challenges her to learn new things. She also enjoys snowboarding, long boarding, video games, organizing Ingress events, photography and outdoor adventure.

 

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